Six Proton Launches Scheduled From Baikonur By Year’s End

BAIKONUR. Aug 28 (Interfax-AVN) – Six launches of Proton space rockets are planned from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur space centre by the end of this year, a space centre source told Interfax on Thursday.

Three rockets would carry Russian payloads, and the other three would deliver telecom satellites to orbit for payments, he said.

A Proton will launch Canada’s Nimiq 4 satellite and another Proton will launch a cluster of Russian Glonass-M satellites in September, the source said.

A Proton will take Luxembourg’s Astra-1M satellite into orbit in October.

Launches of the Ciel-2 telecom satellite and Russia’s Express AM- 44/MD-1 and Glonass-M are scheduled for December.

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