Russia"s space forces launched on Saturday...

The rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11:19 GMT to put a U.S. SES-1 satellite into space.

The satellite is due to separate from the carrier rocket at around 20:19 GMT.

The 2.6-ton satellite belongs to SES World Skies and has a service life of some 15 years.

The telecommunications satellite will provide digital television services for customers in the United States and the Caribbean regions.

This was the fifth Proton-M launch Russia has carried out since the start of the year.

MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti)