Feb 28 2006
From The Space Library
International Launch Services (ILS), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow, announced that a rocket carrying an Arabsat 4A telecommunications satellite had failed to reach its proper orbit. The Russian Proton Breeze M rocket, which launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:10 p.m. (EST), failed to burn its upper-stage engine for as long as its designers had planned, leaving the satellite stranded in low orbit. EADS Astrium engineers had designed Arabsat to expand and optimize capacity for direct-to-home TV broadcasting, telephony, and data transmission over a coverage zone encompassing North Africa, the Middle East, and part of Western Europe. If the launch had been successful, it would have placed Arabsat in a geostationary transfer orbit with an apogee of 36,000 kilometers (22,369 miles). ILS announced that it would form a failure-review oversight board “to review reasons for the anomaly and define a corrective action plan.” An investigatory Russian state commission would conduct a similar review.
Sergi Manstov, “Proton Failure—Arian Re-sets,” NASASpaceFlight.com, 1 March 2006; Jefferson Morris, “Proton Launch Failure Leaves Arabsat 4A Stranded,” Aerospace Daily and Defense Report, 2 March 2006.
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