Russia plans to launch 3 Glonass satellites in early July

A Proton-M launch vehicle coupled with a DM-03 upper stage and carrying 3 Glonass-M navigation satellites should be sent into orbit in early July.

"The launch from the Baikonur space center is scheduled for 6:38 a.m. Moscow time on July 2," a source from the Russian space rocket industry told Interfax-AVN.

A fully assembled Proton-M space vehicle should be delivered to the launch pad in the first half of June to subject the DM-03 upper stage to comprehensive tests, including its test filling with oxidizer.

"Before the first launch of this upper stage, there was no test filling, as the designers considered this unnecessary. It is well known what this decision led to: the DM-03 was filled with more oxidizer than necessary, and the satellites ended up in the Pacific Ocean," the source said.

After the comprehensive tests, the launch vehicle will be fully disassembled and examined and then reassembled for launching Glonass-M satellites.

It was reported earlier that a Proton-M launch vehicle coupled with a DM-03 upper stage and launched from the Baikonur space center on December 5, 2010 failed to put 3 Glonass-M navigation satellites into orbit. The satellites fell into the Pacific Ocean 1,500 kilometers away from Honolulu. It was found out later that the failure was due to the fact that the upper stage was filled with 1.5 tonnes more oxidizer than necessary because of a mistake in the design documents.