Russia sends Intelsat telecom satellite into space

Russia launched a U.S. Intelsat telecom satellite into space early Thursday, aboard a Zenit carrier rocket from a space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Space Agency Roskosmos said. The satellite, produced by Orbital Services, separated from the rocket at around 0330 GMT Thursday and started taking up its geostationary orbit, the Interfax news agency quoted a Roskosmos official as saying. The Intelsat-18 satellite is equipped with 32 transponders and will provide telecommunications services to customers in East Asia, the U.S. West Coast and the Pacific Region for an expected life-span of 15 years. The Zenit-2SB, a medium-lift two-stage rocket, is produced by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Ukraine. Intelsat, originally formed as the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, is an intergovernmental consortium which operates the world's most extensive satellite network, comprising more than 50 satellites.