BAIKONUR. Feb 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center has made the Proton-M launch schedule for the first half of 2013, a Baikonur source told Interfax on Tuesday.
In all, five launches will be made, including four commercial, he said.
The Samtex 8 telecom satellite will be launched on March 26, Anik G1 in the middle of April, Eutelsat-3D in early May, and Astra 2E in early June. Three Russian Glonass-M navigation satellites will be put to orbit in June.
There have been no Proton launches for 2.5 months because of the abnormal operation of the Briz-M upper stage carrying Russia's Yamal-402 telecom satellite to a transitional orbit on December 8, 2012. Briz-M engines turned off four minutes ahead of time and the satellite was placed into a low orbit. The satellite engine propelled it into the right spot in the end, which cut the satellite's useful life.