A Russian communications satellite crashed just after liftoff Friday (Dec. 23) when its rocket apparently failed, the latest in a series of rocket launch failures for the country this year.
An unmanned Soyuz-2 rocket launched the Meridian military communications satellite from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Russian northern region. But the rocket failed to reach orbit, making it the fifth failed space mission for Russia in 2011.
"This area of the space industry is in sort of a crisis," Russian space agency chief Vladimir Popovin told reporters in a televised press conference today. "We can say even now that the problem lies in the engine." But more analysis is needed to be certain exactly what went wrong, he added.
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