A Soyuz/Fregat is on the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome ready for launch, and no one I know knew about it! Apparently it's having telemetry problems, but there is a live feed from Arianespace. It's supposedly launching the Galaxy 14 satellite, built by Orbital. That's all I have... I would really hate to find out that this really isn't a live feed, but I just got an e-mail from Arianespace notifiying me about its launch, so... who knows!
Well, apparently it's real, folks. It seems Starsem decided not to update its website about this launch until the very last minute. Here is more information:
http://www.starsem.com/news/g14_3.htm
Yeah, there is a bunch of news about it now that wasn't there when I looked for it the other night. They said something on Arianespace about another launch soon from Baikonur, but it was just a little headline, and not an article explaining anything. I discovered the launch five minutes from lift-off, so I scrambled to post, but then it delayed! All that work for nothing, I suppose?
Oh well, here's the latest... http://www.starsem.com/news/g14_4.htm
Mission success for Starsem and Arianespace: the Galaxy 14 satellite is in orbitBaikonur Cosmodrome, Saturday, August 13, 2005 – Starsem and Arianespace todaysuccessfully launched the Galaxy 14 telecommunications satellite for U.S.operator PanAmSat.The 1,699th launch of a Soyuz family launch vehicle took place from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz-Fregat launcher version lifted off asscheduled at 5:28 a.m. local time on August 13 (23:28 UTC on Friday August 12;01:28 a.m. Paris time on August 13).Starsem, Arianespace and their Russian partners confirmed that the launcher’sFregat upper stage accurately injected Galaxy 14 into the targeted geostationarytransfer orbit (GTO). To achieve the mission, two successive burns of the Fregatupper stage were performed, placing the Galaxy 14 spacecraft on its transferorbit 1 hour and 37 minutes after lift-off.To comply with PanAmSat’s requirements, Arianespace and Starsem decided that thelaunch of Galaxy 14 – initially planned on an Ariane 5 – would be performed by aSoyuz vehicle. This transfer was made possible with the launcher family conceptdeveloped by Arianespace and Starsem, which provides the maximum responsivenessto customers’ needs.With a liftoff mass of approximately 2,000 kg., Galaxy 14 is the second in aseries of new-generation satellites ordered by PanAmSat from Orbital SciencesCorporation to provide additional power, greater flexibility and serviceavailability to its customers. This all C-band spacecraft is designed to deliverdigital video programming, high-definition television (HDTV), VOD and IPTVservice throughout the continental U.S. Galaxy 14 is equipped with 24 C-bandtransponders, and will join the Galaxy 12 spacecraft at 125° West – one ofPanAmSat’s key orbital positions for the North American continent.Galaxy 14 is the 19th satellite orbited by the Arianespace family of launchersfor PanAmSat. PanAmSat began operations in the late 1980s with its firstspacecraft, PAS-1, which was orbited in June 1988 on the maiden flight ofArianespace’s Ariane 4 launcher.Today’s latest success for Soyuz with Galaxy 14 clearly reflects the industrialcapabilities of the Samara Space Center (prime contractor for the Soyuzlauncher), as well as the availability of the Russian teams in charge of Soyuzoperations, which are managed by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.Starsem is responsible for international marketing of the Soyuz launch vehicle,as well as for its operation. Starsem’s shareholders are Arianespace, EADS, theRussian Aviation and Space Agency and the Samara Space Center.
That I just received in my e-mail. I'm going to track down the launch video and post some nice screenshots if I can.
