Russia will delay launches of military spacecraft this year because of a failed satellite launch last month, a top defense official said on Tuesday.

The delays will be "insignificant," Russian Space Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said.

Two telecommunictaions satellites were lost on August 7 due to a failure in the Russian Proton-M rocket's upper stage.

Ostapenko said the launches will be put on hold until the findings of a government probe into the incident are fully looked into, as the Briz-M upper stages are also used to hoist military spacecraft into orbit.

Several senior space officials have been sacked over the failure.

Source: RIA Novosti