Amos 2 launch 27th December 2003.
December 27th 2003, 2130 UTC. The new Israeli satellite Amos 2 is launched from Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz ST12.
Amos 2 will be slotted at 4°W and co-located with its sister craft Amos 1. On 27th December 2003, the launch coverage of the Soyuz ST12 rocket was played out on Eutelsat W3 at 7°E, on 11283V sr 27500 FEC 3/4. Here are some pictures of the launch grabbed during the coverage:
7 minutes 33 seconds to launch, and the Soyuz ST 12 sits on the Baikonur launch pad.
This nice picture shows a close up of the nose cone containing Amos 2.
T +1 second and lift off!! This rather dramatic and very colourful picture shows the Soyuz lighting up the night sky with all motors running at full power :-) The 4 arms clamping the rocket to the launch pad are just starting to retract at this point.
T +3 seconds, the Soyuz and its precious cargo clears the tower and heads for a successful launch. By the following morning, Amos 2 had been successfully placed into geostationary transfer orbit. It should be testing on the geostationary arc by the end of January 2004.
Pictures are © ArianeSpace.
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