Another Soyuz rocket launch fails
This time, a Soyuz-2 vehicle failed to put a communications satellite into orbit after lifting away from the country's Plesetsk spaceport, BBC News reports.
Debris is said to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere near the western Siberian town of Tobolsk.
In August, a Soyuz failure on a mission to resupply the space station led to a six-week suspension of flights.
Friday's rocket was carrying a Meridian-5 satellite, designed to provide communication between ships, planes and coastal stations on the ground, according to RIA Novosti.
Its was a Soyuz-2.1b, the most modern version of the rocket that has been in service in various forms since the 1960s. The failure is said to have occured seven minutes into the flight.
August's botched launch involved a Soyuz-U, which uses a number of different components and systems.
An inquiry into that incident eventually found the rocket's third stage to have experienced a blocked fuel line, which resulted in a premature engine shut-down.
Friday's failure now puts a major question mark against the next Soyuz launch, scheduled for 26 December from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This flight is intended to put in orbit six satellites for the Globalstar satellite phone company.
To learn more go to www.bbc.co.uk
