International Launch Services (ILS) is getting set to launch the Nimiq-4 satellite on Friday, September 19th. This comsat, based on the Eurostar E3000 bus, will be launched from Baikonur's Launch Pad 39 at 03:47 local time, 21:47 GMT, and 17:47 EDT (19th) aboard a Khrunichev Sate Research and Production Space Center's Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicle. The satellite is for Telesat in Ottawa, Canada, and Nimiq-4 was built by EADS Astrium, France. The satellite has two payloads for Canadian broadcast services, with the main payload set to provide specialty television and foreign language programming. The second payload has six beams covering Canada for advanced services as HDTV. Nimiq satellites are dedicated to the provision of direct-to-home services for Bell TV. Nimiq-4 will occupy the orbital slot at 82° W and has an anticipated life of 15 years. This will be ILS' 4th launch this year and is also the 47th Proton launch for the Company. There will be a live launch webcast offered at www.ilslaunch.com which will start approximately 20 minutes before liftoff.

Select this image for the ILS launch page...