A Proton rocket and a Breeze M upper stage guided a fresh satellite into orbit Friday to begin a 15-year mission broadcasting hundreds of music, news and entertainment channels to Sirius XM Radio's 25 million subscribers in North America.

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International Launch Services confirms the completion of the Breeze M's third burn, a successful jettison of the stage's auxiliary propellant tank, and a good fourth burn.

The Breeze M and Sirius FM6 should now be in a transfer orbit with a low point of 267 miles, a high point of 22,247 miles, and an inclination of 49.1 degrees.

The upper stage will coast for nearly 5 hours before igniting a fifth and final time to inject Sirius FM6 into geostationary transfer orbit.

Separation of the Sirius FM6 satellite is scheduled for 0320 GMT (11:20 p.m. EDT).

The Breeze M upper stage has finished the second of five burns planned for today's mission, ILS says. The nearly 18-minute burn was supposed to place the stage and Sirius FM6 in an intermediate orbit with a low point of 167 miles, a high point of 3,106 miles and an inclination of 50.3 degrees.

After a two-hour coast, the Breeze M will ignite its main engine again at about 2137 GMT (5:37 p.m. EDT) for two back-to-back burns separated by a brief intermission to jettison the stage's auxiliary propellant tank.

T+plus 21 minutes. International Launch Services confirms the Breeze M upper stage has completed the first of five burns in this mission. The first burn was designed to accelerate the rocket and payload from a suborbital trajectory into a low-altitude parking orbit.

The Breeze M is now in a coast phase until ignition of the second upper stage burn at about 1916 GMT (3:16 p.m. EDT).

T+plus 13 minutes. Officials confirm successful shutdown of the Proton's third stage and separation of the Breeze M upper stage, which should be firing now for the first of five burns. But ILS has not been able to confirm the successful ignition yet.

This first burn should last about four-and-a-half minutes, placing the Breeze M and Sirius FM6 in a circular parking orbit 107 miles high with an inclination of 51.5 degrees.

T+plus 9 minutes, 45 seconds. Proton's second stage has been confirmed to have separated, and the third stage RD-0213 engine has begun its burn, producing 131,000 pounds of thrust. The rocket's payload fairing has also been released now that the launcher is in the upper atmosphere.

T+plus 3 minutes, 30 seconds. The second stage's RD-0211 main engine and RD-0210 vernier engines continue firing at full power of 540,000 pounds of thrust.

T+plus 2 minutes, 55 seconds. The Proton's first stage has shut down and jettisoned, and the second stage engines are firing with a half-million pounds of thrust.

T+plus 70 seconds. The Proton rocket has passed the speed of sound and the phase of maximum aerodynamic pressure as it heads northeast from Baikonur on an azimuth of 61.3 degrees.

Liftoff of the Proton rocket with Sirius FM6, a 6.6-ton satellite to transmit music and information to more than 25 million Sirius XM Radio subscribers in North America.

T-minus 60 seconds minutes. The ignition sequence for the six first stage RD-276 engines begins at T-minus 2.5 seconds, reaching a 40 percent thrust level at T-minus 1.75 seconds and 100 percent thrust at T-minus 0.9 seconds.

Temperature at the launch site is 44 degrees Fahrenheit with mostly cloudy skies and favorable winds.

T-minus 2 minutes. The countdown is being run by a master computer sequencer.

Sirius FM6 will become the 10th satellite in Sirius XM Radio's fleet. It will be positioned at 116 degrees west longitude for a 15-year mission.

T-minus 8 minutes. The readiness of the Proton core vehicle, the Breeze M upper stage and Sirius FM6 will be verified over the next few minutes.

T-minus 10 minutes. The Proton launcher on the pad weighs about 1.5 million pounds, and it will be powered into the sky by six first stage RD-276 engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust.

The Sirius FM6 satellite weighs 13,234 pounds at liftoff. Sirius FM6 was transitioned to internal power a few minutes ago.

T-minus 15 minutes. It is approaching midnight Saturday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome as the final launch pad workers evacuate to a safe distance away from the rocket.

With 20 minutes left in the countdown, everything remains on schedule for launch at 1808:54 GMT (2:08:54 p.m. EDT; 12:08:54 a.m. Baikonur time). It will take more than 9 hours to deploy Sirius FM6 in the proper orbit.

The Proton rocket's first stage will blast off powered by six RD-276 engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust. The 191-foot-tall launcher will ascend northeast from Baikonur, dropping its first stage 2 minutes after liftoff, giving way to the Proton's second stage RD-0211 main engine for a three-and-a-half minute burn.

The Proton's third stage, using a RD-0213 main engine with 131,000 pounds of thrust, next will fire for about four minutes. Separation of the 13.1-foot-diameter nose cone occurs during the third stage burn at T+plus 5 minutes, 47 seconds.

The Breeze M upper stage will assume control at T+plus 9 minutes, 42 seconds, when it separates from the Proton's third stage. Five Breeze M engine burns are planned over a 9-hour period to inject Sirius FM6 in the proper geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Liftoff of the Proton rocket is 30 minutes away. This will be the:

• 390th Proton rocket launch since 1965
• 83rd International Launch Services Proton since 1996
• 68th Proton M using a Breeze M upper stage since 2001
• 27th Space Systems/Loral satellite on ILS Proton
• 6th Sirius XM satellite on ILS Proton
• 7th Proton of 2013

The launch pad gantry has moved away from the Proton rocket at Baikonur, revealing the silver booster as the countdown is inside the final hour until liftoff.

The Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage are fully fueled with liquid hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants as dusk falls on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where it is currently 11:08 p.m. local time.

Final preparations are getting underway in Kazakhstan ahead of today's Proton rocket launch of a radio broadcasting satellite for Sirius XM Radio.

The 19-story launcher is set to take off at 1808:54 GMT (2:08:54 p.m. EDT) on a 9-hour flight to deliver the Sirius FM6 satellite to an egg-shaped geostationary transfer orbit.

The launch is scheduled for 12:08 a.m. local time at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Check out a launch timeline showing details of the Proton/Breeze M mission.

Sirius FM6 will finish the job of putting itself in an orbit 22,300 miles over the equator a few weeks after launch.

The launch was supposed to occur Sunday, but officials pushed back the flight to resolve a problem with a satellite ground station in South Africa.

Based on the 1300 series satellite bus built by Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, Calif., Sirius FM6 is designed for a 15-year lifetime broadcasting music, news, entertainment and variety programming to Sirius XM Radio's more than 25 million subscribers.

International Launch Services has rescheduled the launch of a Proton rocket with a fresh satellite for Sirius XM Radio for Friday to give engineers time to resolve an unspecified problem with a satellite ground station in South Africa.

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The launch of a Proton rocket with the Sirius FM6 radio broadcast satellite has slipped 24 hours, according to International Launch Services.

"It was determined by Space Systems/Loral and Sirius XM, as a precautionary measure, that additional time was needed to evaluate issues related to required remote satellite ground stations," ILS said in a statement. "The Proton launch vehicle and Sirius FM6 satellite remain in a safe configuration with no technical issues at the launch site."

Liftoff is from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is now set for Monday at 1812 GMT (2:12 p.m. EDT).

A Russian Proton rocket is set for launch Sunday with a 6.6-ton spacecraft to buttress Sirius XM Radio's fleet of satellites transmitting music, news and entertainment programming across North America.

The commercial launch, managed by U.S.-based International Launch Services, is set to take off at 1812:56 GMT (2:12:56 p.m. EDT) Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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