Briz-M upper stage failure reschedules Proton launches in Q1 13 - source
BAIKONUR. Dec 21 (Interfax) - The Russian aerospace industry continues to investigate the Briz-M upper stage failure in the launch of a Proton-M rocket with the Yamal-402 satellite, a Baikonur source told Interfax.
The working group is studying documentation and modeling processes, which might have caused the accident. There will be no Proton launches until the work is done.
Therefore, the launch of the Satmex8 Mexican satellite has been postponed. "All launches planned for the first quarter of 2013 will be delayed as well," the source said.
The Anik G1 Canadian telecom satellite was due to arrive in Baikonur in the middle of December. Its launch had been planned for the end of January 2013. Now the Anik G1 project would have to wait until Samtex8 is out of the clean room at the Baikonur assembly station and that won't happen until late January.
There will be delays in launching Eutelsat-3D (planned for the second half of February) and Astra 2E (due in March).