Russian Proton with Mexican satellite burned up over Siberia

A Russian Proton rocket that launched on Saturday to launch a Mexican communications satellite into orbit burned up due to serious problems shortly after launch. “The accident occurred at an altitude of 161 km. The third stage, upper stage and spacecraft almost completely burned up in the atmosphere. At the moment, no fall of unburnt elements has been recorded,” Roscosmos clarified.

The Proton-M launch vehicle with the Mexican satellite MexSat-1 (Centenario) on board took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 05:47 GMT (8:47 Moscow time).

According to sources in the space industry, the first two stages of the rocket separated normally, but problems were discovered 500 seconds after launch. “The preliminary cause of the accident is the failure of the third stage steering motors,” a source told TASS.

Satellite lost

Telemetry data from the rocket stopped coming in about a minute before the Mexican satellite was due to separate from it. At this moment, Proton-M was at an altitude of 160-161 km.

The satellite, according to a RIA Novosti source, was lost. Further launches of Proton will be suspended until the causes of the accident are clarified, the source added.

The first meeting of the state commission formed to investigate the causes of the accident was scheduled for Sunday morning.

The Proton rocket has been produced since 1965 by the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center and during this time has made more than 400 launches, notes site nasaspaceflight.comnot affiliated with NASA.

A series of problems

On Saturday morning, Roscosmos reported another emergency situation: the engines of the Progress M-26M space truck docked to the ISS did not turn on in time, as a result of which the planned correction of the International Space Station’s orbit did not occur.

Earlier in May burned out in dense atmospheric layers the same space truck, which was supposed to deliver fuel to the ISS, oxygen and water. After the launch, the Flight Control Center lost contact with it, the device began to rotate around its axis uncontrollably.

As a result of several attempts to restore contact with Progress, Roscosmos was forced to admit failure.