The government of Kazakhstan’s temporary ban on Russian rocket launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome has mobile satellite service providers with upcoming launch dates there watching the situation carefully.
The ban was initiated after a Russian-made Proton K booster rocket carrying a Russian military satellite exploded and rained debris over neighboring villages in the country. The Kazakh government, which owns the facility but leases it to Russia for launches, said it would allow no further launches until an investigation into the explosion is complete. That study is expected to last at least a month.
Mobile satellite companies with scheduled launches from the Baikonur facility include ICO Global Communications and Globalstar Communications L.P. Both are in the process of establishing their respective low-earth-orbit satellite networks. Whether this temporary ban will interrupt either’s schedule remains unclear.
Globalstar’s next several launches have been scheduled to take place at Cape Canaveral, Fla., but the company does have several other launch dates reserved at Baikonur for later this year.
ICO, which has yet to launch a satellite, has greater concerns. The company planned to commence with its launch schedule later this year using the Proton K rocket from the Baikonur facility.
“As a consequence of the Proton failure, the rocket is grounded,” said Joe Tedino, ICO spokesman. “Our launch manifest is under review.”
ICO intends to use several different rockets in its launch rollout. They include the Proton K, the Atlas II, the Delta III and the modified Zenit rocket from SeaLaunch.
However, the Delta III rocket also is grounded pending investigation of an April incident in which the rocket’s second stage booster failed to place an Orion satellite in its proper orbit, resulting in a complete loss.
While Tedino said these investigations are of some concern, he said they do not represent a delay for ICO’s launch schedule, as there has never been a specific launch date to miss.
“It’s not like we were supposed to launch next week and now we can’t,” he said. “We expect to launch in the next few months, but we just don’t know specifically when.”
Despite the recent failure, Tedino expressed faith in the Proton K rocket.
“It’s a proven rocket,” he said. “It’s reliability percentage is somewhere in the nineties.”
The Proton K rocket is marketed by an international consortium called International Launch Services, made up in part by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin Corp. and Russian companies RSC Energia and Khrunichev, which actually builds the rocket. The one that exploded was testing a new type of upper stage rocket designed to better carry satellites to orbit.
