Russia’s International Launch Services (ILS) is eyeing a March return to flight following the conclusion of its investigation into the latest Proton rocket failure.
The launch provider said its next mission will be for the Satmex 8 satellite, which…
Russia’s International Launch Services (ILS) is eyeing a March return to flight following the conclusion of its investigation into the latest Proton rocket failure.
The launch provider said its next mission will be for the Satmex 8 satellite, which its Mexican owner is relying on to replace the aging Satmex-5 before it runs out of fuel.
At the time of going to press, ILS had yet to determine an exact date for this mission, or for the remainder of its near term 2013 manifest. This backlog includes Telesat’s Anik G1 spacecraft, as well as satellites for SiriusXM, SES and Eutelsat.
All Proton launches were put on hold last December while the ILS Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) investigated the rocket failure, which placed the Yamal-402 satellite into the wrong orbit. That spacecraft, which was built by Thales Alenia Space for Russian satellite operator Gazprom Space Systems, was later manoeuvred into its correct 55E slot, but the incident represented the third Proton Breeze-M rocket failure in 16 months.
Announcing the FROB’s conclusion on 12 February 2013, ILS said the failure was likely due to a “combination of adverse conditions”, which damaged the bearing on the oxidizer side of a turbo pump and led to the fourth burn ending four minutes early.
John Palmé, ILS vice president of programmes and operations, said: “My sincere appreciation goes out to our customers, insurance underwriters and independent subject matter experts for their thorough and diligent participation in the ILS FROB process.
“We thank our customers for their support as ILS Proton proceeds towards return to flight.”
After using its own fuel to reach its correct orbital position, SatelliteFinance understands that Yamal-402 has a reduced operational life of around 11 years.
As previously reported, Gazprom has filed a partial claim for the loss of service which, based on the sum insured, is likely to be in the region of US$110m.
