A Proton Breeze M rocket suffered a failure eight minutes after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, resulting in the loss of a satellite and rocket. Inmarsat's F3 satellite, next in the launch queue, has now been delayed.
The Proton rockets have proven something of a liability for the satcoms firm, with this incident becoming the third in a string of failures involving the vehicles. Six Protons and their payloads have now been lost in the past five years.
“Although in the past, Proton has returned to flight within a few months of a launch failure, it will not be possible to determine the length of the delay in the launch of I-5 F3 until the cause of the Centenario launch failure is established,” said ceo Rupert Pearce. “Customers are understandably anxious to see the delivery of GX services on a global basis, and as soon as we have sufficient information to ascertain the new launch date for I-5 F3, we will make the information public, as well as comment further on the impact of the delayed launch of I-5 F3.
Inmarsat has now been forced to write-down its forecasts of an 8-12% increase in core mobile satellite revenue between 2014 and 2016. Pearce said the company was “buoyed by early revenues from I-5 F1, which is in service over EMEA and Asia, and by the successful delivery of I-5 F2 into orbit over the Americas.”
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