Watch a video replay of Friday night’s blastoff of a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center with Hispasat 36W-1, a communications satellite developed by OHB in Germany for Spain’s Hispasat to test out new telecom technologies and provide data networking, video and broadband services over South America and Europe.
The Soyuz booster took off at 0103:34 GMT Saturday (8:03:34 p.m. EST; 10:03:34 p.m. local time) from the Guiana Space Center on the northeastern coast of South America.
After heading east over the Atlantic, the Soyuz rocket’s Fregat upper stage released the 7,100-pound (3,220-kilogram) spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit stretching more than 22,000 miles (35,700 kilometers) at its highest point.
The mission marked the 16th Soyuz flight from French Guiana since 2011, and Arianespace’s first launch of 2017.
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