We have had a successful mission with the Proton M Breeze M rocket, carrying the Intelsat 16 satellite built by Orbital Sciences Corporation. We have had confirmation that the satellite separated from the vehicle on schedule at 5:14 a.m. EST, or 10:14 GMT, 9 hours and 34 minutes after liftoff. Everything occurred as planned with ignition, shutdown and separation of the Proton’s first three stages. Then the Breeze M upper stage with the satellite continued the mission, igniting four times, and then releasing the satellite into near-stationary orbit.

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We have confirmed that the Breeze M upper stage has successfully completed its 3rd burn, as well as jettisoning its auxiliary propellant tank. The vehicle is now in a 5-hour coast period, during which we will have nothing to report. The 4th burn is scheduled to start around 4:50 a.m. EST, or 09:50 GMT. Separation of the Intelsat 16 spacecraft is scheduled to follow the 4th burn completion by about 14 minutes.

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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 had a successful liftoff about 15 minutes ago of our Proton M Breeze M rocket, which is carrying the Intelsat 16 satellite. The three stages of the Proton vehicle have performed as planned, and it is up to the Breeze M upper stage to complete the mission. The upper stage has begun its first burn, which is scheduled to last around 4 minutes.

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We have liftoff! of the Proton M Breeze M rocket and the Intelsat 16 satellite.

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As the Breeze M upper stage of our Proton M rocket continues its climb into space with the Intelsat 16 satellite, we have received confirmation that the 2nd burn of the upper stage occurred and shut down as scheduled. The next events are scheduled for about 2 hours from now. The Breeze M upper stage will ignite for a 3rd time and burn for approximately 20 minutes; after that the auxiliary propellant tank will be jettisoned. All this will happen while the vehicle is again out of range of a ground station. We should reacquire the vehicle shortly after the APT is jettisoned.

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Now that SC stand-alone testing is complete, we are starting the phase known as Joint Operations. This is when the SC is mechanically and electrically mated to the Launch Vehicle hardware. To put it simply, this is when we start making the little pieces into one big piece! The first step was to mate the SC to the payload adapter system (PLA) – a conical structure that attaches to the bottom of the SC. Next, we took the SC-PLA combo and mated it to the top of the Breeze M upper stage. We successfully completed these steps today after about 17 hours of work, taking into account all the testing and mechanical and electrical checks that had to occur. Next, the SC-PLA-Breeze M stack will be rotated from vertical to horizontal and the payload fairing installed. The combination of all these pieces into a single unit is known as the Orbital Unit (OU). The SC and launch vehicle will remain in a horizontal orientation until we move the whole integrated launch vehicle to launch pad on L-5 days. This differs from U.S. launch vehicle processing, in that the majority of assembly in those systems occurs horizontally. Quite a difference if you are not used to it!

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