There is no point in trying to sugarcoat it: The past year has been rough for commercial launch services provider International Launch Services. The same Russian heavy-lift Proton rocket that ILS sells commercially has suffered repeated failures in Russian government launches, which, though not handled by ILS, have cast a pall over overall Proton quality. Proton is a tougher sell in the global commercial market as a result, and its customers' launch insurance premiums have risen as well.
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