First Proton launch after May accident may take place on August 28-30
Posted by TASS Russian News Agency, Darren Maggs on 5th Aug 2015
First Proton launch after May accident may take place on August 28-30
MOSCOW, July 27
The first launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket after an abortive blast-off in May is expected to take place in a period from August 28 to 30, 2015, a source in the Russian space sector told TASS on Monday.
"An Inmarsat-5F3 spacecraft may be launched in a period from August 28 to August 30. These are preliminary dates. The final schedule of launches will be endorsed by the Khrunichev Center [Proton manufacturer — TASS] within days," the source said.
Earlier, Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov said that the first post-accident Proton launch was planned for August but did not proved exact dates.
An accident at a Proton-M carrier rocket that was to put into orbit a Mexican satellite took place on May 16, exactly a year after a similar accident. Roscosmos specialists arrived at a conclusion that the cause of the accident was a design fault, like the one that was behind a Proton fall back in 1988.
© ITAR-TASS/Roscosmos