A European telecommunications satellite failed to reach orbit after its launch from Kazakhstan on a Russian-made rocket Tuesday, calling both the huge commercial venture and Russian space capabilities into question.
Huge European satellite adrift after mishap during Russian launch

MOSCOW (AFP) Nov 26, 2002

A European telecommunications satellite failed to reach orbit after its launch from Kazakhstan on a Russian-made rocket Tuesday, calling both the huge commercial venture and Russian space capabilities into question.

"If we don't quickly discover the exact reasons for this failure, we will risk losing the confidence of our foreign partners," Konstantin Kreidenko, spokesman for Russian aerospace agency Rosaviakosmos told AFP.

The Astra 1K satellite was the largest civil telecoms satellite ever launched and was intended to relay television programs, Internet data and mobile telephone communications throughout Europe, Alcatel Space said.

After blasting off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome at 4:04 amGMT Monday), the satellite failed to reach its ultimate orbit 36,000 kilometres (22,370 miles) from the earth, Russian space officials said.

It is now hovering just 200 kilometres from the earth. Experts said it was possible to use the satellite's own propulsion system to boost it into orbit, but that would require an increased use of fuel, which could reduce the satellite's expected lifespan of 13 years.

And it all depends on where the satellite is. A similar tactic was successfully used to rescue a troubled Artemis satellite in July 2001, but it was orbiting 17,000 kilometres high.

The Astra 1K failed to reach orbit due to a malfunctioning accelerator, said Kreidenko, adding that the rocket launcher was not to blame and that an investigation would be opened.

Len Denst, vice president of Russian-US joint venture International Launch Services (ILS), which owns the Proton launcher, said the satellite failed to reach orbit after ejecting prematurely from the rocket.

The satellite was the first project designed by Alcatel for SES Astra, part of Luxembourg-based world satellite operator SES Global, whose 29 satellites transmit more than 1,100 television and radio channels, as well as Internet and multimedia, around the world.

The project cost SES Astra some 280 million dollars (euros).

The incident "could call into question" a communications satellite launch set to take place early next year, said Olivier Colaitis, head of marketing and strategy at Alcatel Space.

The failed launch is the latest to trouble the Russian aerospace industry, coming less than two months after a Soyuz transport rocket exploded in mid-air seconds after launch from a military cosmodrome in Plessetsk, killing a serviceman and destroying a Russian satellite that was set to carry out scientific experiments for the European Space Agency (ESA), the United States, Canada, Indonesia and Japan.

But several space agencies sought to reassure their Russian counterparts, with the ESA's Russia representative Alain Fournier-Sicre saying that "the ESA will strictly continue its cooperation with Russia."

"Space always presents a certain risk and we're not immune to failure," he said.

ESA said that it still planned to go ahead with a planned June 2003 launch of a probe to Mars aboard a Soyuz from Baikonur, as well as next year's planned mission of two European astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Soyuz.

And NASA's Russia spokesman Sergei Puzanov said that "technical failures in space happen to all countries."

He added that trust in the Soyuz rocket was restored after a joint Russian-Belgian mission successfully reached the ISS last month.

The Astra 1K, with its 37-metre (122-foot) span and measuring 6.6 metres in height, is equipped with 10 orientation antennae. Due to its unusually large size, it may replace the three Astra satellites already in orbit and serve as back-up for four others.

Tuesday's launch was was the 14th and final launch of the Astra series. It was the sixth of an Astra satellite aboard a Proton rocket, owned by ILS, a joint venture of US-based Lockheed Martin and Russia's Khrunichev and RKK Energiya.