Proton launch failure raises questions about timeline for completing GLONASS constellation
The September 6 crash of a Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese telecommunications satellite (JCSAT 11) has injected an element of uncertainty into plans for completing the GLONASS constellation.
Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome automatically suspended all Proton rocket flights, pending an investigation, after the failure of the rocket, which crashed in the steppes of Kazakhstan just over two minutes after lift-off. Russia rents the space facility from Kazakhstan, a former republic in the USSR.
By Inside GNSS