Khrunichev Press Release
MOSCOW, Sept. 6, 2007 – The Proton Breeze M rocket carrying JSAT Corp.'s of Japan JCSAT-11 telecommunications satellite lifted off at 4:43 a.m. today (at 2:43 Moscow Time, 6 September) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Proton launcher failed to inject the satellite into orbit due to an anomaly in second-stage operation.
Khrunichev expresses its regret to JSAT Corp. and all partners involved in the mission.
The launch was carried out under the auspices of International Launch Services, a joint venture of Space Transport Inc., Khrunichev and RSC Energia set up to provide marketing, sales and mission management for Proton launches.
Shortly after the failure Russian State Agency formed a State Commission to investigate the anomaly and report on the results of its findings. The commission will determine the causes of the launch failure and work up its recommendations for a corrective action plan to prevent such anomalies in the future.
Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center — the Moscow-based designer and manufacturer of Proton launch vehicle — remains committed to fulfill in timely and efficient manner its obligations under the framework of federal programmes and international agreements. To this end, Khrunichev will work to return Proton Breeze M to safe flight as soon as possible.
Proton Breeze M is an upgraded version of the principal heavy�lift vehicle in Russia's space programme, the Proton. With 40 years of its flight history and overall record of over 325 launches, Proton is among the world's most reliable launch vehicles and has been widely used to insert governmental and commercial payloads into near- Earth orbits and escape trajectories.
Proton Breeze M version, operational since April 2001, is characterized by high power capacity and improved performance. The JCSAT 11 mission was the 17th Proton Breeze M flight overall.
Under ILS auspices Proton Breeze M has carried out 16 commercial missions out of which just two missions resulted in failure, since its inaugural commercial flight in 2002.