According to Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, three Russian Glonass - M positioning satellites, launched into orbit on December 5, have crashed into the offshore area of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Glonass - M satellite model of Russia. (Source: Internet)
These three satellites would have complemented Russia's Glonass satellite navigation system currently operating in orbit.
Earlier, the Interfax news agency also led a source from the Russian Defense Ministry, saying the satellites had not reached their intended orbit. According to the initial analysis, the cause of the incident is that Proton boosters carry three satellites on the malfunctioning orbit. Most likely, after leaving the launch pad, Proton boosters went off by about 8 degrees.
The three satellites weighed 1.4 tons, launched into space at 13:00 (local time, 10 am GMT) on December 5 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Glonass positioning satellite system has been developed by the Russian armed forces since the 1980s to compete with the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and in the future will compete with Europe's Galileo system.
Before the three new satellites were launched into orbit, Glonass had 26 satellites operating in orbit. Over the past 10 years, Russia has spent $ 2 billion on this project.