MOSCOW |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said it had lost track of a newly-launched major telecommunications satellite on Thursday, the latest in a series of setbacks that have dogged its space industry.
The Express AM-4 satellite, described by its makers as the most powerful satellite ever built in Europe, launched late on Wednesday aboard a Proton-M rocket from the Russia-leased launchpad in Kazakhstan.
The Russian space agency said the first stages of the launch went smoothly but communication with the satellite was lost due to a failure of the Briz-M upper stage.
It said experts were working to re-establish contact with the craft, built by Astrium, a unit of European aerospace group EADS, to provide digital TV, Internet and telecom services for Russia.
Russian news wires quoted industry sources as saying the craft had never reached its planned orbit.
Its loss would be a major embarrassment for Moscow, following a series of botched launches and at a time when Russia hopes to showcase its technology at the MAKS airshow outside the capital this week.
A breakdown of the Briz-M engine burns led to the loss of a key military Earth-mapping satellite earlier this year.
That mishap also follows the costly loss in December of three GLONASS navigation satellites in a major setback to Kremlin plans to create a global positioning system that would rival the U.S.-made GPS.
The glitches cost Russia's veteran space agency chief Anatoly Perminov his job this spring. He was replaced by former deputy defense minister and space forces commander Vladimir Popovkin.
(Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
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