A Russian rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, putting a telecommunications satellite into a designated orbit Saturday, officials said. The Proton K booster rocket carrying Express-AM3 communications satellite lifted off at 11:41 p.m. (1941 GMT) Friday, and the satellite successfully entered its planned orbit at 6:15 a.m. (0215 GMT) Saturday, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported, quoting the Russian space agency. The state-of-the art satellite, the fifth in the Express-AM series, is intended for digital television and radio broadcasting and data transmission. It was developed by the Krasnoyarsk-based Reshetnev scientific and production center with the French company Alcatel Space.
