Russia Delays 2012 Military Launches After Satellite Failure
11:47 04/09/2012 MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will delay launches of military spacecraft this year because of a failed satellite launch last month, a top defense official said on Tuesday.
The delays will be "insignificant," Russian Space Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said.
Two telecommunictaions satellites were lost on August 7 due to a failure in the Russian Proton-M rocket's upper stage.
Ostapenko said the launches will be put on hold until the findings of a government probe into the incident are fully looked into, as the Briz-M upper stages are also used to hoist military spacecraft into orbit.
Several senior space officials have been sacked over the failure.
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