Posted: Thu, Oct 20, 2005, 8:37 AM ET (1237 GMT)
Controllers have lost contact with a Russian remote sensing satellite launched earlier this year, officials said Wednesday. Spacecraft controllers with the Khrunichev Space Center said that they had lost contact with the Monitor-E spacecraft. The cause of the problem was not immediately clear, although the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in a statement that "problems during its manufacture and operation in orbit" caused the loss of contact. It was not immediately clear if there were any prospects for restoring contact with the spacecraft. Monitor-E, first of a new generation of small remote sensing satellites, was launched in August on a Rockot booster.

Related Links:

•  RIA Novosti article
•  Reuters article
•  Itar-Tass article