Russia Loses Advanced Military Satellite After Launch
MOSCOW — Russia has lost
communication with a newly developed military satellite after it
apparently failed to separate from the booster rocket after its launch, a
source in the country’s air and space forces told TASS state news
agency on Monday.
“The spacecraft ... is recognized as lost since it is impossible to use
it according to its purpose,” the source said, adding that a repeat
attempt to separate the satellite from the upper-stage rocket was
unsuccessful.
A Soyuz-2.1B rocket carrying two satellites blasted off from Plesetsk cosmodrome on Saturday.
On Sunday, RIA Novosti state news agency reported that one of the two
satellites had apparently not separated from the upper-stage rocket,
citing a source in the space industry.
The lost satellite called Kanopus-ST, named after the star Canopus, is
both for civilian and military use, reported Kommersant business daily,
citing sources in the space industry.
It was developed to scan the Earth’s oceans and weather systems from
space including spotting submarines for the military. The satellite took
10 years to develop and was considered highly promising.
A member of the commission set up to investigate the incident told
Kommersant that the problem appeared to be with the attachment of the
upper-stage rocket to the satellite, which did not open up on time.
The satellite will fall back to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere in the next two or three days, a source told Kommersant.
Moscow has not yet officially commented on the space incident.
Russia has lost a number of costly satellites, which it launches
commercially for other countries as well as for its own needs. Most
recently it lost a Mexican satellite in May.
In 2014, a Russian rocket carrying its most advanced communication
satellite to date fell back to Earth in a blow to the space industry.
In 2013, a Russian Rocket carrying three Russian-made Glonass navigation satellites also failed.
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