A Russian Proton-M heavy-lift rocket put a government communications satellite into orbit on Thursday in the final launch of the year for the Russian space industry.

The rocket lifted off at 2:50 p.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur space center in a televised broadcast. Its payload, a 3.4-ton Express-AM5 communications satellite, was successfully placed into a parking orbit nine minutes later.

The satellite sits atop a Briz-M upper stage that will place the satellite in a geostationary orbit during a subsequent burn later Thursday night.

The Express-AM5 will provide communications services for the Russian government as well as digital television and radio signals and two-way VSAT transmissions.

It was designed by Krasnoyarsk-based Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, which also oversaw the production of Russia's GLONASS navigation satellites.

The satellite will be operated by a communications company owned by the Russian government and has an expected lifetime of 15 years.

A second satellite in the series, the Express-AM6, is scheduled for launch next year.

The future of Proton launches at Baikonur was thrown into doubt earlier this year after a Proton exploded in July raining hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals on the Kazakh countryside. Moscow and Astana signed a three-year roadmap earlier this week on the joint use of Baikonur, the only launch site for Proton.

Source: RIA Novosti