BAIKONUR. Aug 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Three space launches are to be carried out from the Baikonur cosmodrome in August, four in September and five in October, a Baikonur insider told Interfax on Friday.
The launch of a Proton-M with a Briz-M booster and the Russian telecommunications satellite Express-AM4 has been set for August 18. A space truck, Progress-M-12M, will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Soyuz-U rocket. And finally, a Proton-M will be launched with a Briz-M booster and a Kosmos military satellite.
September will see two Proton commercial launches with the QuetzSat-1 satellite on September 14 and the ViaSat-1 satellite on September 30. Two Soyuz-FG launches are due on September 22 with the Soyuz-TMA-22 spaceship carrying a regular expedition to the ISS and on September 29, with a cluster mission to put into orbit Canopus-B, the BKA Belarusian satellite and three small satellites Zond-PP, ADS-1B and TET-1.
The program set for October includes the launch of a Zenit-3SLB rocket on October 3 with the Intelsat18 telecommunications satellite, the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket on October 8 with six Globalstar-2 satellites. Protons are to be launched twice - on October 16 with the SES-4 commercial satellite and on October 30 with a cluster of three Glonass-M navigators. The space truck ProgressM-13M will travel to the ISS on a Soyuz-U rocket on October 26.
Three launches have been scheduled for both November and December.
"Overall, 25-26 launches will have been carried out from the Baikonur launch pad by the end of the year, more than in the previous years (22 in 2010 and 23 in 2009). This will help the Baikonur cosmodrome to maintain world leadership in the number of launches. It currently accounts for one third of the space launches carried out globally," the Baikonur insider said.