spacetoday.net: ILS reduces staff, expects decline in launches

Posted: Tue, Aug 5, 2014, 9:20 AM ET (1320 GMT)
Proton M launch of SES-6 (ILS)

International Launch Services (ILS), the US-based company that markets Russia's Proton rocket, said Monday it was laying off a quarter of its workforce as it expects to reduce the number of commercial launches it performs. Company president Phil Slack said the layoffs were designed to "align better with our current level of business," which the company expects to be lower than in the recent past. ILS said that while it has conducted 7-8 commercial launches a year previously, it now expects to carry out only 3-4 such launches a year. Recent failures of the Proton on Russian government launches, as well as geopolitical tensions involving Russia, have hampered commercial sales of Proton launches.