Khrunichev denies that it is suspending work on the Proton and the Angara after crash.

Published: 12/14/1999

The Khrunichev aerospace group has said that it has not suspended work on new booster rockets, Proton-M and Angara, following the crash, on October 27th 1999, of the Proton-K rocket. A spokesman for the group confirmed that there would be no new launches of Proton until the state commission finds and eliminates the causes of the accident. He acknowledged that delays in commercial contracts might bring about temporary curtailment of some works. According to the company, there are no grounds for abandoning such promising projects as that of Proton-M and Angara. It insists that Angara is an ecologically safe booster rocket, using a mixture of kerosene and oxygen or oxygen and hydrogen. The new rockets will be able to carry payloads from two to 30 tons into low orbit and payloads from 3.5 tons to 5.9 tons into geostationary orbit: much more than Proton rockets can currently launch into space. US company, Lockheed Martin, has allocated$68m for the marketing of the Angara family rockets. The first launch is scheduled for 2001, when a light class rocket will be launched. Medium-class rockets will be used in future. The four-stage Proton-M is a significantly reviewed version of the Proton rocket. It has a larger spherical nose cap, allowing an almost 100% increase in the payload. The Proton-M will operate a new booster block Breeze-M. This should improve the rockets" technical properties and allow the simultaneous launch of several satellites, with an aggregate weight of three tons.

Article ID: 1220