OREANDA-NEWS. On Nov 5, at 23:44 Moscow time, Proton-M launcher with Luxembourg`s Astra-1M satellite aboard lifted off from the Baikonur space port. Astra-1M will enter the orbital constellation of the SES ASTRA (Luxembourg) operator. Both lift-off and separation of the orbital unit were nominal.

This morning, at 8:56 Moscow time, Astra-1M successfully separated from the Breeze-M upper stage. Now the satellite is under control of the foreign customer.

Proton has made 8 launches since the beginning of this year. 5 launches were performed for the foreign customers, and 3 launches were carried out under the Russian Federal Space Program and for the Ministry of Defence.