No One Injured In Proton-M Launch Failure

Scratch one JCSAT satellite from the launch roster. A Russian booster rocket malfunctioned shortly after liftoff Thursday and crashed in Kazakhstan, destroying the Japanese communications satellite onboard.

Nobody was hurt when the Proton-M rocket failed 139 seconds after launch, causing its second and third stages to veer from course at an altitude of 243,000 feet. Parts of the rocket fell in an uninhabited area about 30 miles southwest of Zhezkazgan, reports The Canadian Press.

The failure resulted in the loss of the JCSAT-11 satellite, according to Roskosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov. The launch was conducted by the US-Russian joint venture International Launch Services.

Future launches from Baikonur were suspended until the cause of the failure is determined, according to Vorobyov. Depending on how long the investigation takes, the delay may or may not impact scheduled launches in November and December.

The JCSAT-11 was assembled by Lockheed Martin, for use by Japan's JSAT Corp. The heavy-lift Proton-M, considered the backbone of Russia's space program, was manufactured by Khrunichev, an ILS partner.

FMI: www.lmco.com, www.ilslaunch.com, www.roscosmos.ru