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Russia suspends Soyuz rocket launches after Progress failure

26 August 2011 00:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russian Soyuz rockets have been grounded until the reasons of Wednesday’s loss of a Progress cargo ship are established, a space industry source told Interfax news agency Thursday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"A decision has been made to suspend space launches of the Soyuz rockets until the reasons behind the failed launch are established," the source said.

So far the Russian space agency Roscosmos hasn’t confirmed the suspension. But the space authorities have put off Thursday’s launch of a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Space Center in northern Russia, said the commander of Russian Space Troops Gen. Oleg Ostapenko.

The launch of the Soyuz-2, which would send a Glonass-M navigation satellite to the orbit, was postponed to September, said Ostapenko.

"The commission in charge of the Glonass-M launch will have to make a final decision within the next few hours," he said.

Meanwhile, the launch of a manned space ship from Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan was also likely to be postponed until the second half of October, said a well-informed source at Baikonur.

On Wednesday, the Progress M-12M cargo ship failed to reach the orbit after the engine of the Soyuz-U carrier rocket was turned off during the ascend.