Russian space rocket burns up
Print Edition
A PROTON-M carrier rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned and burnt up over Siberia soon after launch yesterday, the latest in a series of mishaps for Russia’s space industry.
The third stage of the rocket carrying the MexSat-1 communications satellite suffered a problem about eight minutes after launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian media quoted space officials as saying.
The country’s space agency Roscosmos subsequently said in a statement that the satellite, booster and third stage burnt up almost entirely in the atmosphere with no evidence of anything falling to earth.
It said also that the accident happened at a height of 161 kilometers and that the satellite had been insured by the customer.
The cause of the accident was not immediately established. The RIA news agency quoted a space official as saying that all launches of carrier rockets of this type will now be suspended.
Russia’s Proton rocket, known at the time under its UR-500 code, made its first test flights in the 1960s. It was designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile to carry a nuclear warhead targeting the United States, but was never deployed in that way.
Russia’s space industry has been haunted by accidents that have tarnished its reputation.
In April, it abandoned a 2.6 billion rouble (US$52.5 million) mission to supply the International Space Station after an unmanned Progress M-27M cargo ship, carrying almost 3 tons of supplies, was unable to dock with the ISS because of problems.
Just a few hours before Proton’s crash yesterday, the Progress M-26M spaceship docked at the ISS failed to ignite its engines and correct the orbit of the space outpost, Russian media reported.
The lives of the crew are not in danger, they said.
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