Plans to launch US-made satellites on Proton rockets this year have not been affected by the country’s sanctions against Russia, according to International Launch Services.
The launcher, a unit of Moscow-based Khrunichev, said the US licences it has…
Plans to launch US-made satellites on Proton rockets this year have not been affected by the country’s sanctions against Russia, according to International Launch Services.
The launcher, a unit of Moscow-based Khrunichev, said the US licences it has in place for missions up until the end of 2016 have not been impacted at all following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“None of the current US Treasury Department sanctions against Russian individuals and entities have an impact on our business,” said a spokesperson.
An earlier report had claimed that, as a result of rising political tensions between the two countries, planned ILS launches this year of satellites for SES, Inmarsat and Turksat were under threat because they have US-made components.
Satellites and their components are already subject to strict export rules in the US and, with the country now appearing to move further away from Russia, these restrictions could be stepped up after recently being seen to be softening, reported Advanced Television.
However, UK-based MSS operator Inmarsat has sought to address any concern that its next generation system could be delayed because of the Ukraine crisis.
In its interim financial results today, the group said the delivery schedule of Inmarsat-5 F2 and F3 continues to provide for launches that will complete its global coverage by the end of 2014.
“We continue to believe and be advised that current US and EU restrictions in place against the Russian Federation do not affect our launch plans,” it said.
A spokesperson for SES said: “This is a new development that we are closely monitoring and we will, as necessary, actively engage with the relevant parties to properly understand the situation. Nevertheless, at this time, we have no change to the Astra 2G launch schedule due to this situation.”
ILS said it is actively reaching out to key US government decision-makers to inform them of the importance of Proton to the US and international commercial satellite market.
Turksat was unable to comment before the press deadline.
Elsewhere, the growing rhetoric on the need to enforce economic sanctions on Russia has already seen Canada scrap a Russian Soyuz launch for its M3M microsatellite, which is designed to track and monitor marine vessels.
M3M, built by Canadian space hardware subsystems maker COM DEV, was due to be shipped to Kazakhstan for a flight in June.
Com Dev CEO Mike Pley said: “Recognising the current events in the Ukraine, we had been engaged in discussions with the Government of Canada with respect to a potential delay of the launch of M3M, and plans to mitigate the impact of any delay.
“We are confident that the mitigations will be in place prior to the originally planned M3M in-service date of September 2014.”
