ILS Proton M launches with Inmarsat-4 F3

The first three stages of the Proton will use a standard ascent trajectory to place the Breeze M fourth stage and the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite into a suborbital trajectory from which the Breeze M will then place itself and the spacecraft into a low Earth circular parking orbit.

Once Inmarsat-4 F3 is in the parking orbit, it will be injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit following four additional burns of the Breeze M. This will be the 3rd ILS launch of 2008, the 46th Proton launch for ILS, and the 9th Eurostar satellite launched on Proton.

The satellite, an EADS Astrium Eurostar 3000 model, will weigh approximately six 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-generation global satellite network, providing broadband MSS services to users everywhere.

This is the first ILS mission since a Breeze M upper stage suffered a failure during the AMC-14 mission in March. 

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 corrective actions have been completed.

“Having participated in the failure review process in its entirety, I am satisfied that the appropriate actions have been taken to deal with recent failures and to reassess the quality of the Proton vehicle,” said Gene Jilg, Chief Technology Officer for Inmarsat.