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NATO satellite launched on Russian-Ukrainian rocket
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    • MOSCOW, April 20 (AFP) Apr 20, 2009
     A NATO communications satellite was launched into orbit Monday aboard a Russian-Ukrainian rocket from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, space officials said.

    "The SICRAL 1B satellite was launched at 0816 GMT and successfully placed into orbit," a spokeswoman for the Russian mission control centre outside Moscow, Irina Manshilina, told AFP.

    The satellite was launched aboard a Russian-Ukrainian Zenit 3SL rocket from the Odyssey platform in the Pacific Ocean, which is operated by Sea Launch, a US-Russia-Norwegian-Ukrainian joint venture 40 percent owned by Boeing.

    It "is designed to provide communications services for the Italian Ministry of Defence, NATO and allied nations," Sea Launch said in a statement.

    The satellite was built for the Italian defence ministry by the French-Italian firm Thales Aleni




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