Hotbird 8: Proton rocket to resume commercial launches today

Zaphod

Commercial satellite launches aboard Russia's Proton rocket will resume later today, five months after a failure grounded all flights. International Launch Services plans a 5:48 p.m. EDT (2148 GMT) liftoff for the European Hot Bird 8 broadcasting satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome. It will take over 9 hours for the Proton and its Breeze M upper stage to propel the Eutelsat spacecraft into the targeted orbit.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/

Live Broadcast in Europe & Middle East: HOT BIRD 3, 13 degrees East, Transponder 70, Channel 701, Ku-band, digital PAL, downlink 12,111 MHz (vertical), symbol rate 27.5 Ms, fec: 3/4 Test signals start at 21:00 GMT
http://www.ilslaunch.com/newsarchives/newsreleases/rec344/

Web stream:
http://streamvox.streamos.com/vyvx/ils080406/

Zaphod

Lift-off and Stage 1,2,3 OK so far. Pity they didn't strap that gimp of an anchor to the rocket while they were at it.

Screengrabs of launch:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2414&mid=53849

DMC

Senor Beeblebrox... good stuff. Is this Hotbird earmarked for anyone in particular or replacing an older satellite at 13E?

Also, are there going to be anymore launches for 19E and 28.2E?

Zaphod

This launch supposedly frees up HB3, wherever it's off to.

"HB3, when relocated, will go to one of three possible locations. One option is “near 13 deg East in such a way that a [double LNB] could receive broadcasts from both locations. Other options are being studied and a decision will be made in the next month or so, although nothing will be moved much before June or July this year. Our preferred option is not to be too far from 13 deg East"

L1011

'not too far from 13E' and Eutelsat means... 16E or 10E, I would guess. though 7E would mean monoblocs could be used, and thats also Eutelsat.