The Indonesian telecommunications satellite Telkom-3, launched into a non-calculated orbit by the Russian carrier rocket "Proton-M", collapsed. This is evidenced by the data of the US Air Force, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the portal space-track.org.
The device entered the atmosphere at about 3: 00 Moscow time, after which it began to disintegrate. The location of the entrance is not specified, it is also unknown whether any debris reached the surface of the Earth.
Telkom-3 was launched in August 2012. Together with it, the Russian communication satellite Express-MD2 was planned to be put into orbit. Both devices were immediately recognized as lost. The cause of the accident was a malfunction of the upper stage "Breeze-M".
In 2012, the International Space Station (ISS) had to dodge one of the upper stage debris. The station's orbit was lowered by 800 meters.
At the end of January, the American company SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 launch vehicle with a record number of satellites on January 24. 143 spacecraft were successfully launched into orbit.
In December 2020, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin , explained the failure of plans for launches by the coronavirus pandemic and the adjustment of plans by partners. Meanwhile, SpaceX managed to break its own record for the number of launches in the same year.
Ivan Ovsov
