Proton Set For Aug. 14 Inmarsat Launch

The Proton Breeze M rocket is slated to return to flight Aug. 14 carrying the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite, following the vehicle's recent recertification for operations by the Russian State Commission and a failure investigation board led by International Launch Services (ILS).

The Proton M has been down since an anomaly on March 15 left the SES Americom AMC-14 spacecraft stranded in the wrong orbit. In April, the Russian State Commission attributed the failure to a ruptured exhaust gas conduit that caused a turbopump on the rocket's Breeze M upper stage to shut down prematurely. ILS then led an independent panel that cleared the vehicle last month (Aerospace DAILY, June 25).

"Having participated in the failure review process in its entirety, I am satisfied that the appropriate actions have been taken to deal with recent failures and to reassess the quality of the Proton vehicle," Inmarsat Chief Technology Office Gene Jilg said in a statement released today.

Inmarsat-4 F3 will complete Inmarsat's next-generation global satellite network, providing broadband MSS services. The satellite is scheduled to be shipped to the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in early July for a six-week launch program. Based on EADS Astrium's Eurostar 3000 bus, the satellite will weigh approximately 6 metric tons at liftoff.

"We thank Inmarsat for its support and patience," ILS President Frank McKenna said.

The Proton is manufactured by Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, the majority shareholder in launch manager ILS.