As strange as it might seem, there’s good news in the preliminary finding by Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, that improperly installed instrumentation caused the July 2 crash of the Proton rocket. The human error factor means Proton, one of two main workhorses in the commercial geostationary satellite launch market, presumably can return to flight in relatively short order. 

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Greg Thomas is a co-owner of SpaceNews. Greg is also a member of SpaceNews’ Board of Directors. Greg's experience spans both print and digital businesses. Before joining SpaceNews, he served as COO of Inside Communciations, a sports publishing...