MOSCOW: Russia's space agency said Saturday that a satellite launch had suffered an "emergency situation", with the carrier rocket apparently suffering a glitch.
The space agency, Roscosmos, said in a statement that a Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican satellite had suffered a problem on launch.
"An emergency situation took place when the Proton-M rocket launched with a MexSat-1 satellite. The reasons are being identified," Roscosmos space agency said in a statement.
A source in the space agency told RIA Novosti state news agency that the Proton rocket lost communications with the ground about a minute before the satellite was supposed to separate from the third stage rocket.
The satellite failed to separate from the rocket and would be unable to function.
"The Mexican satellite is lost. Launches of rockets of the Proton type will be grounded until the reason is identified," the source added.
The launch took place at 8:47 am Moscow time (0547 GMT)from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The accident took place hours after the engines of a Progress M-262M spacecraft docked to the International Space Station failed to switch on at the scheduled time to correct its orbit, the space agency said.
"The reasons are being studied by specialists at the flight control centre. Roscosmos will give out further information when it is available."
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