A Russian Proton-M rocket launched today, July 9th 2012 at 18:38 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket carried the SES-5 communications satellite into orbit. SES-5 will provide Ku, Ka and C band communications to Europe and Africa.

This was the 378th Proton launch, the 74th ILS Proton launch and the 5th Proton launch of 2012.

This was also the first launch SpaceVids encoded from the satellite broadcast, improving quality. When Baikonur upgrade to HD later this year we will bring you launches in HD.