The four-stage Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying the AMOS-2 satellite is due to lift off from the Baiknour cosmodrome at 2:30 am Sunday (2130 GMT Saturday).

Built by Israeli Aircraft Industries and operated by the privately-owned Spacecom company, the 1,370 kilogramme satellite will take up position at a longitude of four degrees West and enhance telecommunications capacity for the Middle East, Europe and the East coast of the United States.

The Russian-European consortium Starsem had originally planned to use an Ariane rocket provided by Arianespace, which holds a 15 percent share of Starsem, but transferred to a Russian Soyuz for technical reasons.

Israel's first telecoms satellite, AMOS-1, was launched by Arianespace in 1996. Both AMOS satellites have a useful working life of around 12 years.

The AMOS-2 mission will be the 12th flight by Starsem which has marketed and operated Soyuz launches since 1996.

Soyuz rockets are due to start launching from France's Kourou space centre in French Guyana in 2006.

Baikonur, leased from Kazakhstan under a 1994 agreement, is Russia's principal space centre, used mainly for commercial and satellite launches and for sending manned rockets and supply vessels to the International Space Station.

SPACE.WIRE