All news

Next Proton carrier rocket to be launched on August 28 — Khrunichev Center

The next launch is planned to be made with British communications satellite Inmarsat 5 F3

MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Preparations for launches of the Proton-M carrier rocket resume at the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan after temporary suspension after the crash in May.

"The next launch is planned to be made with British communications satellite Inmarsat 5 F3. In accordance with the new schedule of launches, the next launch is scheduled for August 28," Khrunichev Center communications department said on Wednesday.

Proton launches were temporarily suspended after the Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M acceleration unit and Mexica’s Mexsat-1 satellite crashed on May 16. A minute before the Briz-M acceleration unit with the Mexican satellite was expected to separate from the carrier rocket, an emergency situation occurred at an altitude of 161 km, due to which the rocket’s head section and third stage failed to separate and burnt up in the dense layers of the Earth’s atmosphere above the Trans-Baikal area in East Siberia.

Roscosmos space agency said the crash occurred because of an old deficiency in the construction of engines. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the recent accident "is miraculously similar" to the crashes in 1988 and 2014, when the state commission also failed to establish the exact causes for malfunctions.

Roscosmos head Igor Komarov ordered the Khrunichev Center to develop and implement a plan on eliminating deficiency in the construction and design of engines.