Russia plans to conduct more than ten space launches within the next three months, a space rocket industry source told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"Two launches are expected to take place in May, six in June, and three in July," he said.
Eight spacecraft will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan, two from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region, and one rocket will take off from a launch pad in the Orenburg region, where the Dombarov missile division of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces is deployed, the source said.
A Proton-M launch vehicle equipped with a Briz-M upper stage is due to place the U.S. Telstar 14R telecommunications satellite into orbit on May 20, he said.
"A Soyuz-FG launch vehicle carrying a Soyuz TMA-02M new-series spaceship with a three-member International Space Station [ISS] crew on board will lift off early on June 8," he said.
A Progress M-11M cargo carrier will lift off for the ISS on June 21, the source said.
"The launch of a Proton-M [rocket] equipped with a Briz-M upper stage and carrying two telecommunications satellites – the U.S. SES-3 and Kazakhstan’s KazSat-2 – is expected to take place on June 25," he said.
Six U.S. Globalstar-2 communications satellites will be put into orbit by a Soyuz-2-1A launch vehicle equipped with a Fregat upper stage on July 3, the source said.
"On July 18, a Zenit-2SB rocket fitted with a Fregat-SB upper stage will launch the Spektr-R astrophysical observatory, and a Proton-M launch vehicle equipped with a Briz-M [upper stage] and carrying the U.S. ViaSat-1 telecommunications satellite is expected to take off two days later," the source said.
A Dnepr rocket, a converted intercontinental ballistic missile, will lift off from the Orenburg region on June 20, carrying eight satellites, including Ukraine’s Sich-2, he said.
Russia has conducted six space launches since the beginning of the year – four from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and two from Plesetsk. One launch ended in failure.
