Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket will blast off on Tuesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to put a French telecommunications satellite into orbit, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

"The launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with W3D satellite is scheduled for 20:02 [4:02 p.m. GMT] on Tuesday," the spokesman said.

He added that the separation of the satellite from the Russian spacecraft is scheduled for 5:15 (1:15 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday.

The W3D satellite was built upon order from the Paris-based Eutelsat on the Spacebus 4000 C3 platform by Thales Alenia Space. It weighs 5,400 kg (11,900 lbs) and has a service life of 15 years.

The satellite is planned to provide extensive Ku-band coverage across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for video links and data networks as well as Direct-to-Home (DTH) reception and Internet services.

Source: RIA Novosti