ALMATY, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Proton-M carrier rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, sending the Elektro-L No. 5 weather satellite into geostationary orbit, the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said.
The spacecraft lifted off at 1:52 p.m. Astana time from Baikonur's Launch Pad 81. The insertion of the satellite into geostationary orbit at an altitude of more than 35,000 kilometers took 6 hours and 37 minutes.
The mission marked the 430th launch in the history of the heavy-lift Proton rocket family and the first Proton launch in the past three years, the Kazinform news agency reported. ■