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Russian plane with European satellite departs for Baikonur after emergency landing

The An-124-100 plane cut short its flight from Moscow to Baikonur on Tuesday and made an emergency landing in the city of Ulyanovsk because of technical problems

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. A Russian transport plane Ruslan carrying a European communications satellite Astra 2G departed for Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, early on Wednesday, the head of the Volga-Dnieper company’s PR group of the foreign relations department Taisia Nikitenko said.

The An-124-100 plane cut short its flight from Moscow to Baikonur on Tuesday and made an emergency landing in the city of Ulyanovsk, on the Volga River, because of an increase of temperature in the plane’s fourth engine.

The crew of the plane, owned by the Volga-Dnieper Airlines, decided to switch off the engine and made an emergency landing following consultations with the customer. The company later said the plane underwent maintenance and several parts of the engine have been replaced.

The company stressed the launch of the European satellite, scheduled for late November, is unlikely to be postponed due to the emergency landing. Ruslan has a dual redundant system and could have continued the flight.

The Astra 2G satellite is due to be launched by a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in the end of next month to provide communications services to a number of countries in Europe, Central Africa and Asia.