As the Breeze M upper stage of our Proton M rocket continues its climb into space with the SES-4 satellite on-board, 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 11 minutes; after that the additional propellant tank will be jettisoned and the the Breeze M will ignite and burn for a 4th time. All this will happen in a span of almost 20 minutes while the vehicle is again out of range of a ground station. We should reacquire the vehicle shortly after the 4th burn is complete.
14 Feb 2012