Rocket fails soon after launch
KIEV, Ukraine — A Russian rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned Saturday shortly after its launch — the latest mishap to hit Russia’s troubled space industry, whose Sovietera glory has been tarnished by a series of launch failures.
The rocket, a Proton-M, was launched from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, said a problem involving steering engines occurred in the rocket’s third stage about eight minutes into its flight, 97 miles above the Earth. The agency said the rocket and Boeing-constructed satellite did not reach their planned orbit and almost all of the debris burned up in the atmosphere.
The last failed launch of a Proton-M occurred exactly a year ago, also caused by a problem in the rocket’s third stage. Since then, there have been six successful flights.
The Interfax news agency quoted industry sources saying the failure could result in the suspension of all upcoming Proton-M launches, including the next in June for a British satellite. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a commission be set up to determine the cause of the rocket failure.
In a separate space failure Saturday, Roscos- mos also reported that a Progress spaceship attached to the International Space Station failed to ignite its engine, thus failing to adjust the orbit of the space station. The agency said it was looking into why that happened, but added that the space station’s crew was not in any danger from the incident.
Russia’s space program has seen a string of launch failures in recent years. Space experts say the program has been hampered by a brain drain and a steady erosion of engineering and quality standards.
In April, an unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 3 tons of supplies failed to dock with the International Space Station after it went into an uncontrollable spin after the launch.