International Launch Services (ILS) and Eutelsat have announced the signing of two launch contracts for the 2018-2020 period. ILS is a Khrunichev Space Center subsidiary, which provides Proton-based launch services for global international commercial satellite operators, and Eutelsat Communications is one of the world’s leading operators of satellite communications, headquartered in Paris, France.

International Launch Services (ILS) announces the first commercial Angara 1.2 launch contract was signed recently with Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) for the launch of the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (Arirang) 6 also known as the KOMPSAT-6 satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northwestern Russia around 2020. The Angara 1.2 vehicle is the newest Russian launch vehicle, designed and built by Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center (Khrunichev), serving the small to medium range satellite market, with the capability to launch up to 3.5 Metric Tons to Low Earth Orbit or Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The KOMPSAT-6 mission will be launched by Angara 1.2 into an SSO orbit.

Blasting off at 10:10 (msk) on Thursday, June 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Proton M / Breeze M ILV successfully delivered to the target super synchronous geo-transfer orbit with an apogee of 65 thousand km the high-performance 6MT+ Intelsat-DLA2 spacecraft for the Luxembourg operator Intelsat S.A.