We have received confirmation of completion of the first burn. The vehicle is now scheduled to be out of range for about an hour, after which we will hear confirmation of the second burn.

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We have liftoff! of the Proton M Breeze M rocket and the XM-5 satellite.

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The last few days have been busy at Baikonur. The mating and testing of the Integrated Launch Vehicle (ILV) is complete. The Breeze M has been fueled and, at 06:30 sharp on Monday morning, the ILV was rolled out of the Breeze M Fueling Area to make its way to Pad 24.

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No, it is certainly not all work out here in Baikonur.  As you may have noticed, we are still taking advantage of the nice weather by BBQ’ing as often as we can.  But with the sun going down earlier every day, there are still a couple of hours for everyone to try and stay sharp at their favorite summertime sports.  Though there seems to be daily volleyball and basketball games interspersed with some football every now and again, we have also had a few other special events in the evenings.  The Loral wiffle ball world series was quite the spectacle.  For those more adept at accuracy, we have installed a horse shoe pit, not that anyone was THAT accurate.  And the evening breezes are perfect for kite flying, and there is also a two mile bike route for those seeking more strenuous activity.

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The SS/ Loral Propulsion Team completed their fuel and oxidizer loading operations over the weekend in a very efficient manner. They were all back at the hotel before the rest of us even had time to realize they were gone.

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The Sirius XM-5 spacecraft arrived on a beautiful Sunday morning. The offload was completed in near record time and the train carrying the spacecraft arrived to 92A-50 at 20:30. After a long day of Fitcheck on Monday and the beginning of standalone operations on Tuesday, the launch team had a barbeque to celebrate the start of the campaign and the arrival of the propulsion team.

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