Russia loses two satellites
August 7, 2012
By Chris Forrester
Rocket launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome have been suspended following problems with a Proton-M rocket carrying two satellites. The launch took place at 20.31 GMT on August 6th when the first two stages operated correctly but the third booster stage (Briz-M) failed to work properly and the two satellites were delivered into a low orbit that may mean a total loss of the craft.
The two satellites, an Express MD2 for Russia and Indonesia’s Telecom-3, were designed to supply DTH and other communications into their target markets.
A full investigati0n will now take place into the failure, but this will have a knock-on effect for other Baikonur launches, in particular those planned by International Launch Services (which had nothing to do with this launch).