Russia sacked officials to lose satellites

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on December 29 fired two officials from the space agency after the failed rocket launcher lost three satellites.

>>>3 Glonass satellites of Russia fall into the Pacific Ocean

Russian rocket Proton-M was unable to bring three satellites into orbit during the December 5 launch - Photo: AFP

The AP said the two men who were dismissed were deputy director of Russian Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky and deputy director of missile maker RKK Energiya (under state management) Vyacheslav Filin. Anatoly Perminov, the director of the Russian Space Agency, was reprimanded.

The incident involved a satellite launch on December 5, when the Proton-M rocket could not put three GLONASS-M satellites into the specified orbit. An investigation later discovered the cause due to calculation errors resulting in excessive fuel injection for the upper rig of the rocket.

According to RIA Novosti, Russia is trying to put enough GLONASS satellites into orbit to compete with the US global positioning system (GPS).