A federal mission successfully achieved Proton’s return to flight on 28 September after the rocket was grounded following its May launch failure.
The mission for the Russian Luch relay satellite was the fifth time Proton had launched this year and the…
A federal mission successfully achieved Proton’s return to flight on 28 September after the rocket was grounded following its May launch failure.
The mission for the Russian Luch relay satellite was the fifth time Proton had launched this year and the 398th since its inaugural flight in 1965.
The scheduling of the remainder of the ILS Proton manifest for 2014 is still being determined. However, earlier indications suggest domestic satellite operator RSCC is next in line with its Express-AM6 set to be lofted by the end of October. Its Express-AM4R spacecraft was lost in the 16 May launch failure, the rocket’s fifth in less than five years.
The Yamal-401 satellite for Gazprom Space Systems, another Russian operator, had been pencilled in for an end of November launch, while SES‘ Astra-2G spacecraft is likely to follow by mid-December.
The ILS launch of Inmarsat’s next generation I-5 F2 is expected to take place at the end of the year or the beginning of 2015.
Proton’s return to flight came after an investigation pinned the mission failure on an anomaly that had affected its third stage.
The ILS Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) agreed that the probable cause of the failure was the loss of structural integrity of a bolted interface that attached the third stage steering engine turbopump to the main engine structural frame. That helped damage a fuel inlet line to the oxidiser gas generator, which caused a fuel leak that ultimately resulted in the turbopump shutting down prematurely.
ILS said the FROB put together a corrective action plan that addresses the probable cause and contributors to the failure, and that this was used for the successful Luch mission.
“We thank all of the FROB participants – our customers, insurance underwriters, technical experts and all others – for their diligent work and generous time; their continued support is sincerely appreciated,” said ILS CTO John Palmé.
The Proton’s recent rough patch helped push ILS to announce plans in August to axe about a quarter of its workforce, as it halves the number of missions it carries out per year to around 3-4.
The string of federal Proton failures also prompted Russia to consolidate its space industry under a single entity, the United Rocket and Space Corporation, to get a tighter grip on the issues facing its industry.
