Satellites lost in Russian rocket failure

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A botched Russian launch junked two multi-million dollar satellites on Tuesday (August 7) that were to provide Indonesia and Russia with telecom services, adding to a series of failures that have dogged the once-pioneering space industry.

Russia's space agency said the failure of the upper stage of the launch atop its workhorse Proton rocket led to the loss of Indonesia's Telekom-3 and Russia's Express MD2 satellites.

The error after takeoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan replicates a mishap that scrapped the $265-million Express AM-4 satellite last summer, casting doubt on the reliability of the Russian rocket.

The space agency, Roskosmos, said in a statement that the Briz-M booster had fired its engines on schedule, but they had burned for only seven of the programmed 18 minutes and 5 seconds needed to push the satellites into their planned orbit.

(This video shows the launch, before the stage failure.)