ILS Sets Proton Breeze M Return to Flight in August with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 8

MCLEAN, Va., July 6, 2006/Satnews Daily/ ― International Launch Services (ILS) has scheduled its next Proton mission for Aug. 5 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Aug. 4 GMT) with the launch of the Hot Bird 8 satellite for Eutelsat. After that flight, ILS said it plans two additional Proton Breeze M missions in 2006, based upon customers' satellite delivery schedules.

ILS suspended missions with the Breeze M upper stage after a Feb. 28 launch failed to place the Arabsat 4A satellite into the correct orbit. ILS said it is ready to return to flight with its Proton M/Breeze M vehicle now that a Russian State Commission and an independent review panel have concluded their inquiries into that failure.

The Aug. 5 flight is ILS' second Proton mission of the year and fourth launch overall for 2006.

“As we start the launch campaign, we acknowledge the confidence of our long-standing customer Eutelsat in the Proton M/Breeze M vehicle,” said ILS president Mark Albrecht.

“The Proton M launch vehicle has a 100 percent success rate, and the reliability of the Breeze M upper stage remains one of the highest in the industry,” Albrecht said. “With the arrival of the satellite, all the flight hardware is in place to start operations.”

The Hot Bird 8 satellite is set to arrive in Baikonur Thursday morning. Weighing 4.9 tons and equipped with 64 Ku-band transponders for television and radio broadcasting, Hot Bird 8 will be the largest satellite yet orbited by Eutelsat.

ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia.

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