Posted: Wed, Oct 10, 2007, 6:08 AM ET (1008 GMT)
Russian investigators have identified faulty wiring as the cause of the launch failure of a Proton rocket last month, officials said Tuesday. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said a "faulty control wire" prevented the second stage of the Proton from separating properly from the first stage, causing the vehicle to plummet to Earth, crashing 40 kilometers from the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan. Perminov said engineers have developed a way to prevent the problem from occurring in future launches. Russia plans to use a Proton to launch three GLONASS navigation satellites in late October, depending on the ability of Russia to work out compensation to Kazakhstan for the failure; the Kazakh government is asking for $60 million in reparations for the accident. It is not certain when the Proton will resume commercial missions. The September 6 failure destroyed a US-built Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-11.

Related Links:

•  RIA Novosti article
•  Itar-Tass article
•  Interfax article