Cannes, April 20, 2009 – The SICRAL 1B satellite, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Defense, has been successfully launched today at 10.16 am (CET) by a Zenit-3SL rocket operating from the Sea Launch platform, positioned at the equator in the Pacific Ocean. The SICRAL 1B program is under the joint responsibility of Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio, partners in the Space Alliance for their parent companies Finmeccanica and Thales. From today it is possible to proceed with the programme completion and development and realisation of the SICRAL 2 satellite, in partnership with France. Such a cooperation will be an international synergy for military telecommunication systems.
This was delayed by a few days apparently due to weather