We have had a successful mission with the ILS Proton M Breeze M rocket, carrying the EUTELSAT 3D satellite built by Thales Alenia Space for Eutelsat Communications. We have had confirmation that the satellite separated from the vehicle on schedule at 9:15 PM Eastern Time, or 1:15 AM GMT, 9 hours and 13 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 Eutelsat 3D satellite aboard continued the mission, igniting five times, and finally releasing the satellite into transfer orbit.

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As the Breeze M upper stage of our ILS Proton M rocket continues its climb into space with the EUTELSAT 3D 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 about 15 minutes; after that the additional propellant tank will be jettisoned, and the 4th burn will start. All this will happen in a span of about 20 minutes while the vehicle is again out of range of a ground station. We should reacquire the vehicle shortly after the 4th burn ends.

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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 9 minutes ago of our ILS Proton M Breeze M rocket, which is carrying the EUTELSAT 3D 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 and a half minutes.

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We have liftoff! of the ILS Proton M Breeze M rocket and the EUTELSAT 3D satellite.

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We’ve started our second day of Breeze M fueling, squeaking it in right before the big Russian holiday, Victory Day.  It’s less than a week until our launch, and the excitement is building.  Hall 111 operations went quickly and smoothly.  The Eutelsat 3D Team had a very enjoyable evening last night courtesy of Thales – bowling and then a delicious dinner in town.  We had some pretty good scores, but nothing that would make it onto the wall!  Most of the team is off to the Kurkut mausoleum today, and tomorrow we are having a small little BBQ with 150 of our closest friends in Baikonur!

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It’s been a busy few days as we wrap up Ascent Unit (AU) operations in Hall 101.  The team signed the payload fairing, and many wrote personal messages to their friends and families at home.  We had to say good-bye to many of the Thales and Eutelsat teams after the PLF signing. The night before we had to say our adieus, we had a May Day BBQ – which was a great send-off for them and a nice welcoming for the incoming teams. Summer is on its way to Baikonur, and we had great weather for the BBQ.  Now we’re just waiting our move to Hall 111.

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Joint operations have started!  What a day it was yesterday.  All of the teams brought their “A” game, and worked very well together.  What was expected to be a late night turned into a late evening.  It was a great job by all.  The orbital unit is sitting in the tilter, and today it will be tilted into the horizontal position.  There are many activities going on in the next few days, but Wednesday will be a contingency day in observance of a Russian holiday.  To celebrate, we will be hosting a big barbecue and inviting all of the teams on campaign!

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The Eutelsat 3D campaign is off and running.  The team has settled into the Cosmodrome nicely, even though the weather has been a bit blustery.  It seems like we’ve breezed through spacecraft standalone operations.  Thales has finished fueling the spacecraft, and we had a nice celebration afterwards with lots of singing and good times had by all.  Next up is joint ops.

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