The Federal Space Agency of Russia disclosed the details of the accident with the carrier rocket “Proton-M” and the Mexican satellite “MexSat- 1”.
The official report about the accident was published on the website of the agency on Saturday, May 16. “Abnormal operation of engines of the third stage of the carrier rocket was recorded at the 497th second of the flight” - the statement said.
Roscosmos stated that the accident occurred at an altitude of 161 kilometers. The agency told that “the third stage, upper stage and spacecraft got almost completely burned in the atmosphere”. The report also clarifies that so far the search teams did not manage to find unburned elements. Earlier a source of “Interfax” in the space industry named the failure of steering engines of the third stage as a preliminary cause of the accident. It was reported that the stage and upper stage fell in the Trans-Baikal Region. This information has received no confirmation for the time being.
Author: Anna Dorozhkina