It’s planned for August 14th—to liftoff Inmarsat and International Launch Services (ILS) next Proton Breeze M commercial mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The enterprise begins with the launch of the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite that is scheduled to be shipped to Baikonur in early July for a six-week launch program. The satellite, an EADS Astrium Eurostar 3000 model, will weigh approximately 6 metric tons at liftoff, perfectly suited for the Proton Breeze M’s lift capability. Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, the majority shareholder in ILS, manufactures the Proton system.
The Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite will complete Inmarsat’s next-gen global satellite network, providing broadband MSS services. This is the first ILS mission since a Breeze M upper stage suffered a failure during the AMC-14 mission in March. It has been determined that the Proton Breeze M is ready to return to flight now that a Russian State Commission and an ILS-led independent review panel have concluded their inquiries into that incident, and, more importantly, corrective actions have been completed.
