 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Moscow (AFP) Dec 5, 2010 Three Russian satellites were believed to have crashed into the Pacific on Sunday after the rocket carrying them failed to reach orbit following a launch from Baikonur, the defence ministry said. The rocket carrying the Glonass navigation satellites, Russia's answer to the US Global Positioning System (GPS) blasted off as planned from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1.25 pm (1025 GMT), Interfax reported. However, a second-stage booster rocket failed to carry its payload into orbit and is believed to have crashed into the Pacific off the US island state of Hawaii, space industry sources told Russian news agencies. "The ballistics experts have checked everything: the upper-stage rocket with the satellites is not on the main, intermediate nor emergency orbit," a source told the RIA Novosti news agency. "Our calculations show that the upper-stage rocket with the satellites probably fell into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii," the source said. However, Interfax cited another source as saying that the satellites likely burned up in the atmosphere. The Glonass system, developed by the Russian military in the 1980s, is being vaunted as Russia's answer to the GPS and to Europe's fledgling Galileo system. The three Glonass-M satellites, weighing 1.4 tonnes, were supposed to complete a constellation of satellites already put in place by Russia. Russia's defence ministry confirmed the loss, but said it would not affect the roll-out of the new positioning system. "There are currently 26 satellites in the Glonass constellation, including two emergency satellites. This allows complete coverage of Russian Federation territory," the ministry said in a statement. "The Russian space industry's capacity enables us to react rapidly to what's happened," it said, adding that the system would be fully in place next year.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Launch Pad at Space-Travel.com
Russian satellites crash into Pacific: space officialMoscow (AFP) Dec 5, 2010 Three Russian navigation satellites crashed into the Pacific off the US state of Hawaii Sunday after the rocket carrying them failed to reach orbit, officials from the Russian space agency said. The capsule carrying the three Glonass satellites plummeted into the sea 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) off Honolulu, one official told Russia's RIA-Novosty news agency, adding that there were no casua ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
