Booster Fregat may have been lost due to GLONASS equipment failure - source
"According to preliminary findings, there occurred a technical flaw in the booster's satellite navigation equipment, which operates on the basis of GLONASS and GPS signals and enhances the Fregat's accuracy in putting space satellites into the designated orbits," the source said.
As a result, the booster after separation from the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket was not properly oriented, entered the atmosphere and splashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Soyuz-2.1b space rocket carrying the booster Fregat and nineteen space satellites blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport at 08:41 on Tuesday. The Russian space corporation Roscosmos then said the weather satellite Meteor-M N.2-1 was successfully delivered to an intermediate orbit but contact with it failed to be established.
Earlier, a source in the space rocket industry told TASS none of the Russian or foreign emergency services had reported anything like the fall of debris of the Fregat booster and 19 satellites. With a high degree of probability, it may be assumed that it either fell into the Atlantic or, which is less likely, entered the wrong orbit.