• 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 Inmarsat-4 satellite (click here for wide image ) (click here for tall image )

Sea Launch carried live coverage of this mission by satellite, as well as streaming video on this website. Click here to view the archived webcast, or click here to see our other available archived launch videos.

The 5,958 kg (13,108 lb.) Inmarsat-4 satellite is a Eurostar 3000 model spacecraft, built by EADS Astrium, with an expected life of more than 13 years. It is one in a series of Inmarsat's fourth generation of satellites designed to support the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) for delivery of Internet and intranet content and solutions, video-on-demand, videoconferencing, fax, e-mail, phone and LAN access at speeds up to half a megabit per second to easily-used terminals the size of laptops. Inmarsat-4 carries a single global beam that covers up to one-third of the Earth's surface, 19 wide spot beams and 228 narrow spot beams. It has a total end-of-life power of 13kW. This is Sea Launch's first mission for Inmarsat and its first mission with a European spacecraft.

Inmarsat Ltd, based in London, is the world's leading mobile satellite communications company. It operates a constellation of geostationary satellites providing reliable voice and high-speed data services that extend phone, fax and data communications around the world.

EADS Astrium is a world leader in the design and manufacture of satellite systems. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, together with avionics and a wide range of space equipment and associated ground infrastructure.

From its equatorial launch site at 154 degrees West Longitude, a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle lifted the Inmarsat-4 spacecraft to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), on its way to a final orbital position of 53 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 Block DM executed two burns during this mission, with a coast period between these burns. The first burn lasted about 4-and-a-half minutes. The Block DM engine then shutdown and coasted on an equatorial path for a period of 55 minutes. The Block DM then ignited for its second burn, lasting 7 minutes. Following another 10-minute coast, the Block DM separated from the spacecraft an hour-and-25 minutes after liftoff. A ground station at Lake Cowichan in British Columbia acquired the first signal from the satellite about 25 minutes after spacecraft separation.