Soyuz Rocket Launches European Galileo Satellites Into Wrong Orbit

The launch service provider Arianespace confirmed late Friday (Aug. 22) that two satellites for Europe's Galileo navigation network were released into the wrong orbit after launching aboard a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.

It was not immediately clear whether the two satellites have enough fuel to make up for the orbit injection error.

Arianespace and European Space Agency officials initially heralded Friday morning's launch as a success, declaring the satellites healthy and claiming they were deployed into their targeted orbit approximately 23,500 kilometers, or 14,600 miles, above Earth.

The Russian-built Soyuz ST-B rocket carrying the Galileo navigation payloads blasted off at 8:27 a.m. EDT (1227 GMT) from the French-run Guiana Space Center in South America.

The Soyuz launcher's three booster stages gave way to a Russian Fregat-MT upper stage less than 10 minutes after liftoff.

The Fregat was programmed to fire two times to propel the Galileo satellites into a circular medium Earth orbit tilted at an angle of 55 degrees to the equator.



But U.S. military orbital tracking data indicated the satellites were flying in a lower orbit than planned. Officials confirmed a launch anomaly in a statement late Friday.

"Complementary observations gathered after separation of the Galileo FOC M1 satellites on Soyuz Flight VS09 have highlighted a discrepancy between targeted and reached orbit," Arianespace, the French launch services company, said in a statement.

Arianespace said investigations into the launch anomaly are underway and more information will be provided after a flight data analysis to be completed Saturday.

Russian Rocket launch fails at Kapustin Yar - Weather Satellite payload

A weather rocket launched from Russia's Kapustin Yar launching field crashed in Kazakhstan's western region, according to government reports.

The incident happened early in the morning on March 27, between 1 and 2 a.m., a government source said.

The rocket fell less than one kilometer away from a local village named Shungai with no casualties reported.

According to reports from Kapustin Yar, it was an accident caused by a propulsion system failure, which kept the rocket from reaching its designated destination.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Defense Ministry said it will suspend all Russian missile experiments on leased testing fields in Kazakhstan until the cause of the crash is identified, according to the ministry's website.

"The Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan has suspended Russia's testing on the leased military grounds in Kazakhstan until the cause of the accident is found," the press office of the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Kazakhstan's Environmental Regulation and Control Department said soil and air samples will be collected from the crash site to assess the environmental impact.

Kapustin Yar is known to be a launch site for smaller space vehicles. It is also one of Russia's first missile test ranges. During Soviet time a number of intermediate and short range missile projects were tested there.

Space Debris: Ecuador Pegaso satellite collides with Russian rocket remains

An Ecuadoran satellite launched last month, with the help of China, has collided with the remains of a Russian rocket in the coming hours, the country's civilian space agency warned Wednesday.

The "Pegaso" (Pegasus) nanosatellite, designed and built in Ecuador, set off aboard an unmanned rocket April 25 from the Jiuquand station in northern China. It is the country's first.

The Joint Space Operations Center in the United States, which monitors all artificial Earth-orbiting objects, said there had been no head-on crash but "data indicated a lateral collision with particles" of the Soviet-era rocket.

"Pegasus could be damaged or spinning out of control but, because it's still in orbit, we have hope," Ronnie Nader, head of the Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency, tweeted.

"Ecuador still has its satellite, the people still have Pegasus," he wrote, saying it could take up to 48 hours to assess damage.

The 2.6-pound nanosatellite had been orbiting at a distance of 404 miles while transmitting pictures of the Earth.

Measuring just 10 by 10 by 75 centimeters (four by four by 30 inches), and weighing 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds), Pegaso on Thursday transmitted its first live video with audio.

Last month's launch came amid much fanfare, including a live broadcast.

The South American country plans to send a second satellite into space from Russia in July.