Next Commercial Launch Of Russian Proton-M Rocket To Be Insured For Over $30Mln - Document

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2019) The next commercial launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket loaded with the European Eutelsat 5 West B communication satellite and the US Mission Extension Vehicle-1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome will be insured for over 2.1 billion rubles ($30.7 million), a document published on the public procurement website revealed.

"The name of the services provided: insurance of risks in launching E5WB and MEV-1 spacecraft ... The coverage amount is 2,146,286,130 rubles," the document said.

Last week, a spokesperson for the Russian space agency Roscosmos told Sputnik that the next commercial launch of the Proton-M was planned for September 30.

This year, three launches of Proton-M rockets were carried out and three more missions are planned to be conducted by the end of the year.

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the manufacturer of Proton-M, carries out commercial launches of Proton-M under contracts with International Launch Services, the provider of launch services with the use of Proton rockets on the international market.

Between 1996 and 2018, the company carried out 96 commercial launches.