ILS Launches Malaysia’s MEASAT3 Communications Satellite

International Launch Services successfully lifted Malaysia’s third and most powerful communications satellite — MEASAT3 — via a Proton rocket from ILS’s launch facility at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday.

On hand to witness the launch in person were Tai Kai Xin, age 10, and Izza Azreenah binti Azizan, 17 — winners of a launch drawing contest (link opens in PDF) that MEASAT Satellite Systems held for schoolchildren across Malaysia.

New Straits Times provides the details from the chilly launch pad: 

Cheers, sighs of relief, and even tears of joy flowed freely among most of the over 50 officials and invited guests who braved icy conditions and temperatures of -17 degrees Celsius to witness the lift off at 5.28am Kazhak time (7.28am Malaysian time).

As the countdown hit zero, the 5.5- tonne rocket, propelling the Measat 3 to its orbit in outer space, tore off almost silently from the launch installation with a huge ball of fire from burning fuel below propelling its upward trajectory.

Only seconds later did the blast off register to witnesses on the ground with a major tremor that jolted the surrounding areas and a delayed, deafening thud to sound the lift off.

Measat 3, which carries a payload of 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band, is the biggest satellite launched so far by owners Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd which also has Measat 1 and Measat 2 already in operation.

The new satellite has a 15-year orbit mission life and will change the lives of Malaysians and alter the landscape of the regional satellite business.

The launch of Measat 3 was telecast live in Malaysia by sister firm and pay TV operator Astro, which will be a big user of the new satellite in future.

The event was also telecast live globally on the Internet by US-Russian joint venture firm International Launch Services (ILS) and top officials of ILS and Boeing, the makers of the satellite.

The ILS broadcast of the launch can be viewed (in its full 51-minute glory) here. Also be sure to check out ILS’s Launch Blog for additional details, as well as their photo gallery for some cool shots of the Proton rocket.