Launch Services Panel Summary

The Satellite and Space Summit held in Long Beach, CA on May 21-23 provided a setting for industry executives to meet and discuss current and future issues relative to the satellite and space industry.  Thierry Guillemin, executive vice president & chief technical officer at Intelsat, offered the keynote address on innovation in the satellite sector.

Panel Participants
The launch services panel, “Prospects and Future Directions”, moderated by Dan Freyer of AdWavez Marketing, was a focus panel on the first day of the conference.  Joining Janice Starzyk, director of business development at International Launch Services (ILS), were key executives from Orbital Sciences Corporation, Sea Launch, Arianespace and ULA.  Starzyk focused on the plans for the next phase of Proton development as well as establishing the Angara rocket for the commercial market.

Future of Proton
The Phase IV Proton will include a 200kg increase in performance for heavier payloads.  In addition, ILS and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (Khrunichev) are developing a 5-meter diameter payload fairing. Discussing the need for the larger fairing to accommodate larger and stacked payloads, Starzyk addressed the future of satellite demand.   Starzyk said customer needs require more flexibility in spacecraft design requiring a larger payload envelope inside the launch vehicle’s payload fairing.

Angara
Initially launching from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, the Angara family of vehicles are currently being developed with a light, medium and heavy-lift variant, by Khrunichev. The first flight for the Angara 1.2 vehicle is planned for 2014.  The Angara rocket design will be based on heritage of previous vehicle designs and processes, taking components from Atlas, Zenit, Fregat, Soyuz and Proton.

To read the presentation presented by Starzyk click here.