Loss of Ekspress-AM4 (2011)
A Russian communications satellite stranded in an unusable orbit by a Breeze-M flight control error in August 2011, insured for about 264.5 million dollars.
A multi-burn upper stage such as the Breeze-M used on Proton executes a programmed sequence of burns separated by coast phases; a single error in that sequence is enough to leave the satellite in an orbit its own engines cannot correct. Ekspress-AM4 is the example: the Russian commission blamed the failure on the stage's flight control system, not on a mechanical defect. For the market, the episode carried three lessons. A single loss can absorb a large share of a narrow line's annual premiums. Repeated failures of the same upper stage, including AMC-14 in 2008, lead underwriters to price the vehicle on its recent record rather than its historical average. Finally, domestic insurance capacity that retains the risk instead of ceding much of it abroad concentrates the loss on a few balance sheets.
Launched from Baikonur aboard a Proton-M on August 18, 2011, Moscow time, the Ekspress-AM4 communications satellite could not be placed in its orbit after a failure of the Breeze-M stage's flight control system; it was insured for about 264.5 million dollars with a Russian insurer, and Proton launches were suspended during the investigation.
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