The head of Roskosmos announced the launch of “Proton” in April – RBC

07:47

the Head of the Roscosmos announced the launch of “Proton” in April

the Head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov.

Photo: Marina Lystseva/TASS

the Head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov said that after the first checks the start of the carrier rocket “proton” is scheduled for April

the First commercial launch of the carrier rocket “proton-M” after the inspections scheduled for the beginning of April 2017, said the head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov in an interview to “Russia 24″.

According to him, negotiations with the customer continue. Komarov said that it would have no impact on the Federal program. “That is all the boosters, which should be run by the state order, have in stock” — he said (quoted by TASS).

At the end of January it became known that the leadership of the Roscosmos withdrew to the Voronezh mechanical plant (VMZ) all the engines of the second and third stages of the carrier rockets “proton-M”, which was released in the last few years. As he wrote on 25 January, the newspaper “Kommersant”, the reason for the test was the incident in December 2016. During testing one of the engines suffered a burnout.

the diagnosis result, the experts found that the production of the second stage engine was used solder, not corresponding design documentation. Instead of standard they used other, more expensive solders with the content of the precious metal. “Roscosmos” then reported that test there may be a delay of launches of “Proton”.

January 28, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited VMZ, where a meeting was held with participation of the head of the Roscosmos Igor Komarov. According to its results the Deputy Prime Minister has promised to punish all those responsible in the substitution of technology and documentation. He also reported that the launches of “proton-M” will resume in three and a half months.

As wrote “Kommersant”, the meeting became known that collecting engines for carrier rockets of type “proton” and “Soyuz” the plant will pass under the control of “Energomash”. Currently VMZ is a subsidiary of the State space scientific production center Khrunichev.