MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Inmarsat, a British provider of satellite communication services, will launch one of its satellites using a Russian Proton-M launch vehicle, International Launch Services (ILS), provider of launch services using Russian Proton and Angara rockets, has said.
"ILS and Inmarsat have agreed to a future launch of an Inmarsat satellite onboard an ILS Proton from Baikonur in Kazakhstan," ILS said in a report.
According to specialized U.S. media, this would be the Europasat/Hellas-sat 3 communication satellite owned jointly by Inmarsat and Saudi company Arabsat. It is due to be launched in 2017.
Inmarsat is the second client to reject the services of U.S. company SpaceX because of the flawed design of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.
ILS was registered in the United States in 1995. It is a company headquartered in Reston, VA, near Washington, D.C. Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (Moscow), the designer and producer of Proton and Angara rockets, has a controlling stake in ILS. To date, ILS has launched 92 commercial missions.