Russia's shaky launch record continues. Last week, a Russian cargo freighter was successfully launched and docked with the International Space Station (ISS), while the launch of an International Launch Services (News - Alert) (ILS) Proton to put the SES-4 satellite into orbit was delayed again. Add on problems with the latest manned Soyuz capsule, and it's not a good start for 2012.

In the plus column, the Progress 46 cargo craft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on January 25 and successfully docked with ISS on January 27. The Progress brought up 2.9 tons of fresh food, fuel, and equipment.   It is the second successful Progress mission since August, when a Progress freighter crashed due to a clogged fuel pump on the Soyuz rocket.

Since the Progress failure, Russian space officials have said they have tightened up quality control to prevent further incidents, but since August, the Russians have lost an unmanned Soyuz launch to put a dual-use military/civilian communications satellite into orbit and failed to the Phobus-Grunt Mars probe in route to the Red Planet, ultimately leading to the probe's burn up in Earth's atmosphere a few weeks ago.

On the minus column, the launch of the SES (News - Alert)-4 communications satellite has been delayed again. The ILS Proton launch from Baikonur had been scheduled for January 29, 2012, but was scrubbed on January 27 "due to technical reasons with the rocket" according to an ILS press release. ILS is rolling the rocket back to the hanger for "corrective measures and additional testing" with no estimate on how long fixes will take.

It is the second time the ILS/SES-4 launch has been postponed.   The initial launch attempt had been scheduled for December 27, but was postponed due to technical issues with the avionics of the rocket's Breeze M upper stage. Engineers rolled back the launcher and replaced the avionics unit, then started preparing for a January 29 launch.   Maybe the third time will be the charm.

Initial speculation on Russian launch failures centered on cash -- specifically, that firms such as ILS pay more attention to commercial launches because they bring in outside currency. Two launches of the Soyuz rocket successfully took place from French Guyana at Arianespace's (News - Alert) launch complex in South America during 2011, so there is some logic to support the theory. All of the Russian launch failures over the past year have had Russian organizations as the primary customers.

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