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The ILS Proton rocket successfully lifted off from Pad 24 at Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 15th at 12:53 am local time. This was the 6th ILS Proton launch of 2010 and the 5th SIRIUS XM Satellite launched on ILS Proton. After a 9 hour 12 minute mission, the proton M launch vehicle, successfully released the SIRIUS XM-5, weighing over 5.9 metric tons, into geosynchronous transfer orbit. XM-5 is located at 80 degrees West, but will be situated at 85.2 degrees West after 30 days of in-orbit testing.

The XM-5 satellite was built on the flight proven Space Systems/Loral 1300. XM-5 is a high power satellite and is intended to serve as an in-orbit spare for the existing fleet of SIRIUS and XM satellites. The satellite will help enable the uninterrupted delivery of more than 130 channels of commercial-free music, and premier sports, news, talk and entertainment programming and traffic, weather, and data services to close to 20 million SIRIUS and XM subscribers.

Don’t miss history in the making – view the launch today!