MOSCOW, July 2 – RIA-NOVOSTI. Proton-M with GLONASS satellites launch failure most likely won’t affect Russia’s position on the world space launches market , – space industry expert, corresponding member of Russian Academy of Sciences named after Tsiolkovsky Andrei Ionin believes.
“I believe the launch schedule won’t be affected and we won’t lose contracts. The matter is that there is no alternative, there is no substitution for Proton on the market. French Ariane rocket is 5 times more expensive, the Americans left the market as their rockets are too expensive and the Chinese are not presented on the market at all, ” – he told RIA.
The booster with 3 GLONASS-M navigation satellites crushed at Baikonur spaceport about one minute after takeoff. As the source within space industry earlier reported the most likely causes of crash were control system and its executive units (control power units in particular) problems. In his turn Academician Pilyugin Centre (Proton-M control system developer) representative told RIA that conclusions on the crash cause could be made only when telemetry data is received.
On August 7, 2013 the launch of Proton-M booster setting Express-MD2 communication satellite and Indonesian Telcom-3 telecommunication space device into the orbit ended up off-nomilally because of Briz-M failure. Off-nominal Proton-M launch was caused by Briz-M off-nominal operation caused in its turn by additional fuel tanks pressurization line plugging-up.
