Inmarsat launches second Global Xpress satellite

The UK satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat has launched the second of its I5 series of spacecraft. The 7m-long, 6.1-tonne platform went into orbit on a Proton M rocket, despatched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The I5s - there will be four in total - make up Inmarsat's next-generation constellation called Global Xpress. And with an investment of £1bn ($1.5bn), they represent the single biggest commercial space project in Britain right now. The I5-F2 was released into its super-synchronous transfer orbit at 04:02 GMT on Monday, following a mammoth 15-and-a-half-hour journey aboard the Proton and its Breeze upper-stage. Currently, this orbit takes the satellite out to a distance of 65,000km from the Earth. More

(Source: BBC News - Feb 3)