Russia loses newly launched telecom satellite

[August 18, 2011]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's space agency said it lost contact with a communications satellite shortly after its launch Thursday, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged the nation's space program.

The Express-AM4 satellite, described by officials as Russia's most powerful telecommunications satellite, was launched atop a Proton-M booster rocket from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Federal Space Agency said in a statement that the booster itself worked fine, but a subsequent failure of the additional upper stage, the Briz-M, resulted in the loss of communications with the satellite. It said efforts are being taken to re-establish contact with the 5.8-ton (6.38-ton) craft.

The Briz-M upper stage has suffered several failures, most recently in February when its malfunction led to the loss of a Russian military satellite.

In December 2010, another technical glitch led to the loss of three GLONASS-M navigation satellites, which were to be part of Russia's satellite navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS. That mishap eventually cost then-space chief Anatoly Perminov his job.

[Associated Press]

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