Russia launches satellite into space

MOSCOW - Russia launched a communications satellite on a proton-M rocket late Tuesday, the federal space agency Roscosmos said.

Live webcast showed that the carrier rocket, with an EchoStar-16 direct broadcast satellite onboard, was blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 22:31 Moscow time (1831 GMT) .

The satellite was separated from the carrier rocket some 10 minutes after the takeoff. The booster would deliver the satellite into its target orbit at 7:43 am Moscow time on Wednesday (0443 GMT), according to the space agency.

The direct broadcast service satellite, with a life span of 15 years, was designed and built by Space System/Loral company. It was equipped with 32 Ku-Band transponders which could provide coverage of the United States.