Russia today lost contact with a newly launched spacecraft after what appeared to be a ‘successful’ launch from its lavish new cosmodrome in Siberia.
Space officials were left scrambling to ‘analyse’ the data after the glitch which followed an apparently smooth launch from the country’s Far East.
The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit.
The Roscosmos website said: ‘During the first planned communication session an attempt to establish connection failed due to the spacecraft’s absence on the target orbit. Currently all information is being analysed.’
Space officials were left scrambling to ‘analyse’ the data after the glitch which followed an apparently smooth launch from the country’s Far East
The first launch from Vostochny spaceport took place in April 2016, with President Vladimir Putin, pictured, overseeing the take-off, but it was postponed at the last minute before a successful second attempt
The Roscosmos website said: ‘During the first planned communication session an attempt to establish connection failed due to the spacecraft’s absence on the target orbit’
Interfax earlier cited an unnamed source saying there had been a two-hour communication silence from the orbiting craft
The first launch from Vostochny spaceport took place in April 2016, with President Vladimir Putin overseeing the take-off, but it was postponed at the last minute before a successful second attempt
Interfax earlier cited an unnamed source saying there had been a two-hour communication silence from the orbiting craft.
Earlier Roscosmos said: ‘All the initial stages of the rocket’s flight went according to plan.’
The launch was aimed to put the Meteor-M weather satellite and 18 other payloads into orbit.
Clients from Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Norway had equipment on the launch.
The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit
The launch was aimed to put the Meteor-M weather satellite and 18 other payloads into orbit
Interfax earlier cited an unnamed source saying there had been a two-hour communication silence from the orbiting craft.
Earlier Roscosmos said: ‘All the initial stages of the rocket’s flight went according to plan.’
The launch was aimed to put the Meteor-M weather satellite and 18 other payloads into orbit.
Clients from Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Norway had equipment on the launch.
Clients from Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Norway had equipment on the launch
Earlier Roscosmos said that the initial stages of the rocket’s flight went according to plan’
The first launch from Vostochny spaceport took place in April 2016, with President Vladimir Putin overseeing the take-off, but it was postponed at the last minute before a successful second attempt.
The third launch from Vostochny is scheduled for 22 December.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, before today’s problem, said: ‘The programme of launches will continue next year – it will grow, increase.’
Vostochny, located in the Amur region which borders north-eastern China, is intended to reduce Russia’s dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases in the former Soviet, Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
But the space port has been dogged by corruption and cost overshoots.