With its six-engine first stage providing a powerful punch, a Russian Proton rocket roared off the planet Monday night carrying an advanced satellite that will relay telecommunications services across Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Proton rocket lifts off with W3A. Photo: ILS

The 200-foot tall booster departed its launch pad at 2306 GMT (6:06 p.m. EST), streaking into the predawn sky at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

After a nine-hour flight that featured five firings by the Breeze M upper stage, the W3A satellite cargo was successfully deployed into the intended orbit for Paris-headquartered operator Eutelsat.

"W3A is the heaviest and most complex satellite yet launched for our company," said Giuliano Berretta, CEO of Eutelsat. "Its ride into geostationary transfer orbit on the Proton/Breeze M will enable us to optimize the operational lifetime of W3A and take us to new levels of efficiency."

The orbit achived has an apogee altitude of 22,213 miles, a perigee of 2,474 miles and inclination of 12.99 degrees.

In the coming days, the W3A satellite will propel itself into a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the planet -- an altitude where the spacecraft matches Earth's rotation to appear parked over one spot of the globe. W3A is destined to be positioned along the equator at 7 degrees East longitude, a vantage point to cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Built by EADS Astrium with an expected 15-year life span, the 9,370-pound W3A spacecraft is the first to fly using the Eurostar E3000 satellite design. It is equipped with a sophisticated payload of 58 Ku- and Ka-band transponders, an onboard signal packaging system called SKYPLEX and steerable transmission beams.

An artist's concept of W3A. Credit: EADS Astrium

The W3A satellite dedicates 35 Ku-band transponders to fulfill the telecommunications services presently carried by the W3 spacecraft, launched in 1999. Eutelsat plans to re-locate the older W3.

"W3A has been designed to optimize the business potential at one of our longstanding orbital locations that already serves blue chip clients," Berretta said.

Users include the European Broadcasting Union, Reuters, Hughes Network Systems, Volkswagen business network, the Digiturk pay-TV platform that has 700,000 subscribers in Turkey and broadband services through the OPENSKY DVB/IP platform.

As many as 12 additional Ku-band transponders will be employed over the coverage zone to increase capacity for broadband services.

Eutelsat plans to use up to 8 transponders for two-way communications between Europe and Africa. With Ku-band communications over Africa and Ka-band over Europe, the links will offer broadband Internet access, distance-learning and videoconferencing services for businesses, government and aid agencies.

In addition, regional telecommunications in sub-Saharan Africa will be available via as many as three Ku-band transponders.

W3A is expected to be checked out and ready for use in May.

EADS Astrium says many of its facilities across Europe helped build the W3A spacecraft. The solar arrays and repeater equipment came from Germany, communications payload, antennas and structure came from the UK, electrical harness from Spain and the avionics and final assembly and testing were completed in France.

The Proton rocket lifts off with W3A. Photo: ILS

This was the year's first commercial Proton mission for the joint U.S./Russian venture International Launch Services. ILS was formed in 1995 between Lockheed Martin, Khrunichev and Energia to market Atlas and Proton rockets worldwide.

"We celebrate another success for Proton, and thank our customer, Eutelsat, for again placing its confidence in us," said ILS President Mark Albrecht.

"Our congratulations to ILS for another flawless launch for Eutelsat, which follows six successful launches on the Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral," Berretta added.

For the ILS Proton team, the next launch is scheduled for June when the Intelsat 10-02 communications satellite will be carried aloft. Several more launches are expected throughout 2004.