Russian Proton-M rocket fails to orbit two satellites

Aug. 7

Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket failed to orbit two telecommunications satellites due to problems in the rocket's boost stage, federal space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.

Russia on Monday night launched Telkom 3 and Express MD2 aboard the Proton-M from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

However, "the Briz-M booster and the two satellites have not been detected on the transition orbit. The signal from the booster has been received from an interim emergency orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Preliminary information showed the Briz-M only had fired for seven seconds rather than the scheduled 18 minutes and 5 seconds.

"The boost stage is currently being tracked by the Aerospace Defense Troops and the federal space agency. The situation is being analyzed," Roscosmos spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov told reporters.

Due to the failure, all launches of the Proton-M rocket were temporarily suspended pending the end of investigations.

The 1.8-ton Telkom 3, with a life span of 15 years, was developed by the Information Satellite Systems-Reshetnev Company of Russia. It was expected to provide broadcasting and communications services for Indonesia and improve the country's IT infrastructure.

Express MD2, with a life span of 10 years, was designed and developed jointly by Russia and France. It was supposed to provide broadcasting, communications, Internet and other services for Russia's Far East and southern Siberia regions.

Monday's launch was the sixth of the Proton rocket in 2012, and the 378th in its flight history.

It was the first launch failure of Russia in 2012. In the past two years, the country has suffered five launch failures.

Coincidentally, Russia has already lost an Express satellite aboard a Proton-M carrier rocket in last August