A few hours ago the launch of the Express-AM4R (or Ekspress-AM4R) satellite, the most sophisticated Russian telecommunications satellite, has failed due to a malfunction of the third stage of a Proton-M rocket when it was at about 150 km (about 93 miles) altitude. The separation of the satellite from the third stage didn’t take place so they fell down and were destroyed. The value of the satellite was about 145 million Euros (about $200 millions).

The Express-AM4R satellite was supposed to represent a step forward for telecommunications in Russia and in neighboring countries, being able to broadcast television and radio channels but also telephone and Internet services. It was supposed to replace the Ekpress-AM4 satellite, which in turn had been the victim of a launch problem. On August 17, 2011, another Proton-M rocket had placed it in the wrong orbit due to a malfunction of its Briz-M stage.

The Ekspress-AM4 satellite was working but its orbit was too low for its thrusters to be able to raise it up to the planned geostationary orbit. There were various proposals for using it in the wrong orbit it had ended up in but in the end it was decided to end its mission, which actualy never really started, and on March 28, 2012 it fell down to Earth.

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The Express-AM4R satellite had an even worse fate. It was supposed to supply many telecommunications services for 15 years but it didn’t even reach orbit. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan started well but after about 9 minutes something happened. Once again it’s the third stage Briz-M called which had some kind of malfunction that caused a deviation from the path followed by an emergency engines shutdown.

The Russian Federal Space Agency will conduct the investigation that will shed light on the causes of the launch failure. In July 2013, the failure of the launch of another Proton-M rocket caused the destruction of three satellites of the Glonass system, the Russian version of the GPS system. The investigation revealed that some sensors were installed upside down, providing bogus data to the computer system. The computer tried to compensate for a non-existent problem making the rocket fall down shortly after its launch.

In recent days, Russian authorities have announced ambitious plans for future national space missions and a retaliation to USA sanctions caused by the Ukrainian crisis. The risk is the interruption of the supply of Russian engines used by Americans rockets and especially of the collaboration for the International Space Station. If Russia wants to manage its space missions on its own it will have to achieve a good degree of reliability.