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Proton-M crash investigation to be made public until end of week

The investigation’s results will be finalized by the interdepartmental commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian federal space agency’s commission investigating the crash of a Proton-M rocket has completed its investigation and will make it public until the end of the week, Roscosmos spokeswoman Anna Vedishcheva told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The investigation’s results will be finalized by the interdepartmental commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

A Proton-M booster carrying three Glonass-M satellites blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 06:38, Moscow time on July 2. Immediately after the launch, it deviated from the trajectory and began to disintegrate in midair. It fell some 2.5 kilometers from the launch site and exploded. Roskosmos said the accident occurred in the 17th second of the flight because of emergency engine shutdown. An aerospace source said the accident had not been caused by a breakdown of the DM-03 accelerator unit.

A heptyl cloud formed after the explosion. The launch pad and the launch crew were not harmed, and no casualties were reported at the crash site.

Vice president of the GLONASS federal network operator Yevgeny Belyanko said the loss of three satellites would not affect the operation of the GLONASS system.