Russia launched a fourth military communication satellite aboard a Proton-M rocket yesterday

Russia has launched a fourth communication satellite yesterday aboard the Proton rocket. It lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00:56 Moscow Time. The Blagovest is a series of four communication satellites for the Russian military. It will link communications between Russia’s military bases and is capable of providing civilian communications. This launch carried the last of the satellites, the Blagovest No.14L, to space. The previous three satellites were deployed on August 2017, December 2018, and April 2019. [caption id=“attachment_7117541” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] File photo of a previous Proton launch. Image credit: NASA/Roscosmos[/caption] This satellite weighs 3,227 kgs and has a mission life of 15 years. It will also be given a name under the Kosmos series that Russia assigns to all its military satellites. It was designed by the Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev, a satellite manufacturing company that was previously known as NPO PM.

Работает боевой расчёт Байконура.
Ночной пуск "Протона". pic.twitter.com/dc9JMRGe94

— ROGOZIN (@Rogozin) August 6, 2019

The Proton-M/ Briz-M rocket is made up of a three-stage Proton-M booster and a Briz-M upper stage. This is the same type of rocket that took the previous three satellites into geostationary orbit. So far, the rocket has carried the satellite into space on a suborbital trajectory and will then begin a series of burns that will carry it into geostationary orbit. The name Blagovest translates to “Good News” in English.