Satellite stranded after botched launch

MOSCOW, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A massive European multimedia satellite -- billed as the largest commercial communications spacecraft ever built -- was left in a useless orbit early Tuesday after the upper-stage of a Russian Proton rocket failed to fire.

The Astra 1K satellite was to become the 14th spacecraft in a European network operated by SES ASTRA of Luxembourg, a company that provides 91 million homes with television and multimedia services. The satellite was carried into space aboard a Russian Proton rocket Monday evening.

The initial phases of launch went well, with the rocket successfully lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Monday evening and placing the satellite into a temporary parking orbit. However, the rocket's upper-stage engine, made by Russia's Energia Corp., failed to fire as planned during the second of three scheduled burns to raise the satellite into an orbit 22,300 miles above the planet's surface.

The second engine firing had been scheduled for about 6 hours and 14 minutes after launch.

"We extend our sincerest condolences to SES-ASTRA and SES-GLOBAL for the apparent failure of the Block DM (upper-stage booster) to place the Astra 1K satellite into the proper orbit," Mark Albrecht, president of International Launch Services, said in a statement shortly after the failure.

ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Russian companies Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia. The satellite, which weighs close to 6 tons and stands 22 feet tall, was built by Alcatel Space of France.

The failure is the second ILS Proton failure in 25 flights. A Russian State Commission, as well as an ILC failure review board, are being formed to investigate the accident.

The satellite and the upper-stage booster eventually will be pulled back down by Earth's gravity and incinerate in the atmosphere, with small bits of debris possibly reaching the surface, said a spokesman with Rosaviakosmos, the Russian space agency.

--

(Reported by Irene K. Brown, UPI Science News, at Cape Canaveral, Fla.)