Moscow - Russia on Saturday lost a Mexican satellite on launch just hours after a glitch with a manoeuvre involving the International Space Station, the latest in a string of embarrassing failures for its troubled space programme.
Russia's Roscosmos space agency said the Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican MexSat-1 satellite fell back to Earth and burnt up in the atmosphere after suffering an engine problem on launch early Saturday.
Just over eight minutes after launch, an "emergency situation was recorded with the engines of the third stage of the carrier rocket", the space agency said.
The accident took place at an altitude of 161 kilometres (100 miles), high enough for the rocket to burn up as it plunged back to Earth, it said.
"The third stage rocket, the upper stage and the satellite almost completely burnt up in the atmosphere," it said. "At the moment there have been no reports of falling non-combusted fragments."
Fragments of the carrier rocket, which contained several tons of toxic fuel, fell back to Earth over Siberia's Chita region, space industry sources said, while Russia's emergencies ministry said there was no damage or injuries on the ground.
A commission involving various space industry bodies will look at the reasons for the accident and "take the corresponding decisions," the space agency said.
The accident commission was due to meet Sunday morning at 10 am (0600 GMT) to discuss the failed launch, a space industry source told Interfax news agency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "naturally was informed" of the satellite failure, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, cited by Interfax, declining further comment.
Russia last year reacted to previous space failures by sacking the head of the space agency.
AFP
