LOS ANGELES, November 9 -- The international corporation Sea Launch has successfully put in space the European communication satellite Inmarsat-4. The ground station has already received the first radio signal from the satellite, currently in the intermediate geosynchronized orbit. Later the satellite will be propelled into the permanent geostationary orbit. The Russian-Ukrainian launch vehicle Zenit-3SL blasted off from a floating launch pad near the equator in the Pacific at 17:07 Moscow time. Minutes later the satellite and the booster separated from the second stage. Inmarsat-4 is a fourth-generation communication satellite of the international sea communication organization Inmarsat. It has a mass of 5,958 kilograms and a service life of over 13 years. Originally the satellite was scheduled to be launched on November 5. However, the pre-start countdown was stopped in the automatic mode about 2.5 hours before the launch time due to a software failure. The cause of the mishap was promptly identified and eliminated.