• Satellite Delivery to the Payload Processing Facility, Sea Launch Home Port
• Payload Rollout from the Payload Processing Facility to the Sea Launch Commander
• Rocket Transfer from the Ship to the Odyssey Launch Platform
• Rocket Rollout and Erection on launch pad for the final tests
• Departure of the Odyssey Launch Platform
• Departure of the Sea Launch Commander
• Arrival at Equatorial Launch Site, countdown begins
• Launch of Intelsat Americas™-8 satellite - WIDE photo - TALL photo

Sea Launch carried live webcast coverage of this mission. Click here to view the archived webcast. Click here to see our other available archived launch videos.

Designed to provide expanded coverage of the Americas, Intelsat Americas™-8 carries 28 C-band and 36 Ku-band transponders, as well as 24 Ka-band spot beams. Built on Space Systems/Loral's (SS/L)1300 bus, the spacecraft has a total end-of-life power of 16 Kw. This is Sea Launch's fifth mission for Loral and the first with Intelsat.

In its 41st year of operations, Intelsat is a global satellite communications leader. Through a customer base of more than 700 broadcasters and communications service providers, Intelsat delivers connectivity solutions that enable people, businesses and governments to communicate and transmit information to every corner of the globe.

From its equatorial launch site at 154 degrees West Longitude, a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle lifted the 5500 kg (12,125 lb.) Intelsat Americas™-8 satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), on its way to a final geostationary position at 89 degrees West Longitude. Two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, the first stage of the Zenit-3SL vehicle separated and then the protective payload fairing was jettisoned. Five minutes later, the second stage separated from the Block DM upper stage. The upper stage burned for nearly eleven minutes, coasted for about ten minutes, and then separated from the spacecraft over Brazil, just 29 minutes after liftoff. A ground station in Fucino, Italy, acquired the first signal from the satellite about 15 minutes after spacecraft separation.