The 7 March failure of International Launch Services' Proton rocket to place the AMC-14 communications satellite into geosynchrononous transfer orbit has been attributed to an anomaly during the second burn of the Breeze M upper stage.
Built by Lockheed Martin. AMC-14 was owned by SES Americom and planned for use by Echostar. ILS and Russia booster manufacturer Krunichev had each conducted one successful Proton mission so far this year.
It is the second ILS Proton launch failure caused by a malfunction of the Breeze M. The AMC-14 launch from Baikonur was the 45th Proton mission for ILS, and the fifth failure since it began commercial launches of the Russian booster in April 1996.
Over the same period, there were also two Proton failures on Russuan satellite launches conducted by Krunichev. One of those involved a Breeze M upper-stage failure, on its first flight. The failures were:
6 September 2007 (ILS) - failed to place JCSAT-11 into orbit when a damaged pyro firing cable prevented separation of the first and second stages of the rocket.
1 March 2006 (ILS) - placed Arabsat 4A into the wrong orbit when a foreign particle blocked a booster pump in the oxidiser system of Breeze M upper stage, causing its engine to shut down prematurely.
26 November 2002 (ILS) - placed Astra 1K in a lower than expected orbit when contamination caused excessive fuel build-up in the Block DM upper-stage engine, which was destroyed in ignition.
27 October 1999 (Krunichev) - Express-A1 satellite fell back to Earth when contamination caused oxidizer nozzles to burn and resulted in catastrophic engine failure on the Block DM upper stage.
5 July 1999 (Krunichev) - failed to place Raduga satellite into orbit when a weld seam failed on a turbine cover in the Beeze M upper stage, causing a fire in the turbine.
15 December 1997 (ILS) - AsiaSat 3 did not reach its intended orbit when defective seals in an oxygen pump led to cavitation, reducing flow and triggering an automatic engine shutdown on the Block DM upper stage.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
