Today, the first ever angolan communications satellite will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. It is set to lift off at 7PM UTC. The rocket, consisting of an ukrainian built Zenit booster as a first stage, and a russian Fregat upper stage, was rolled out to the launch pad two days ago.

The spacecraft, creatively dubbed Angosat 1, is a 1,647 kilogram satellite, that will end up in a geostationary orbit, at about 35,800 kilometers altitude and a longitude of 13 degrees East. It will use 16 C-band and 6 Ku-band transponders to facilitate communications (TV and internet) over Africa and parts of Europe.

This is the first flight of a Zenit rocket since December, 2015, when the future of the launcher was basically dead, and revived with this launch. It will be live streamed by the russian space agency, Roscosmos, and you can watch it here. I won't be able to provide updates during launch, so make sure to check it out.