Third Consecutive Year Of Double-Digit Orders For US-Russian
Consortium
International Launch
Services tells Aero-News that 2005 was another great year for the
company, having launched seven times and won contract awards for 10
commercial and government missions.
A joint venture between Lockheed Martin of the United States and
Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia,
ILS is the most successful American-Russian aerospace
partnership.
"We maintained 100 percent success on our Atlas and Proton
Breeze M vehicles this year," said ILS President Mark Albrecht. "We
also captured 48 percent of the new government and commercial
orders in our addressable market, illustrating the strong demand
for our vehicles."
This is the third consecutive year of double-digit orders for
ILS, and the fifth time it has hit that mark in six years. Since
its inception, ILS has signed contracts for more than 100
commercial and US government launches, with a total value greater
than $8 billion.
"We have the best launch tempo in the industry," Albrecht said.
"With two independent systems, we can -- and do -- launch both on
the same day. For example, both Atlas and Proton (file photo,
below) lifted off within five hours of each other last February
3."
2005 was a triple anniversary year for ILS and its partners.
Besides being the 10th year for ILS, it was also the 40th
anniversary of the first Proton flight, and the 50th anniversary of
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from which the Proton
vehicles launch.
The completed ILS launches utilized various configurations of
the Atlas rocket, which extended its string of successful flights
to 77, and four flights with the Proton vehicle using the Breeze M
upper stage. Proton vehicles also performed three successful
missions for the Russian government, for a total of seven flights
this year, more than any other single rocket in its class.
The 10 ILS awards were for a mix of Atlas and Proton launches
from customers in Europe and North America, including the US
government. These include authorization from the US Air Force to
proceed with three missions assigned to ILS under the Evolved
Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Atlas V has a total of 16
EELV assignments.
"We welcomed two new
customers with ties to Scandinavia," Albrecht said. "They are
Orbital Sciences Corp. with the Thor II-R satellite it's building
for Telenor of Norway, and SES and its affiliate SES SIRIUS AB of
Sweden with its SIRIUS 4 satellite. We also received repeat orders
from Inmarsat and DIRECTV, both of whom booked an additional launch
after successful missions in 2005."
ILS has now received contracts to launch every major commercial
spacecraft platform, Albrecht said, ranging in mass from Orbital's
2,450-kg STAR model for Thor II-R to one of the heaviest commercial
satellites, the 6,200-kg 702 model built by Boeing Satellite
Systems for DIRECTV.
ILS resulted from the 1995 merger of Lockheed Corp. and Martin
Marietta. At the time both companies offered launch vehicles in the
intermediate-class market: Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia
International marketed the Proton, and Martin Marietta's Commercial
Launch Services had the Atlas. ILS brought the sales, marketing and
mission management responsibilities for both vehicles under a
single management team. Because both rockets carry a mix of
government and commercial missions, ILS can boast that one or the
other of its vehicles is launching nearly every month, on
average.
Here's how 2005 stacked up statistically for ILS:
- 7 out of 7 successful launches
- 4 ILS Proton launches with Breeze M upper stage
- 13th Proton/Breeze M mission, for a 100 percent success
rate. In addition, Russian government successfully launched
three Protons
- Proton had highest launch rate of any vehicle in 2005
- 3 Atlas launches
- 2 Atlas V (file photo, above right)
- 1 Atlas III, retiring this model