More on the Crash of ATI's satellite from Reuters... Is ATI stock crash to come this am?
FOCUS-Ukrainian rocket crashes, 12 satellites lost
FOCUS-Ukrainian rocket crashes, 12 satellites lost (Adds detail, background)
MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Twelve commercial communications satellites were destroyed on Thursday when a Ukrainian-made Zenit rocket crashed shortly after launch from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency said.
The satellites belonged to Globalstar Telecommunications
Ltd, an international consortium led by Loral Space and Communications LOR.N of the United States.
The launch was the first of three Zenit-2 rockets, converted
Soviet ballistic missiles, which were planned from Baikonur in
Kazakhstan this year to form part of a $2.6 billion
communications system using 48 satellites.
The rocket went down four and a half minutes after launch.
It was not immediately clear what arrangements would be made to
replace the lost satellites.
"There was a malfunction command on the guidance system 272
seconds after the launch. The motors on the Zenit rocket cut out
and it fell to earth," space agency spokesman Vyacheslav
Mikhailichenko told Reuters in Moscow.
He could not say exactly where the rocket had come down but
said it was likely to have been somewhere in the Altai or
Khakassia regions of southern Siberia.
The accident will be an unwelcome setback for Russia and
Ukraine's space industries, which have been struggling to make a
living following the end of Soviet state subsidies by taking a
major share of the fast-growing global satellite launch market.
The two-stage rocket was built by Ukraine's Yuzhnoye plant.
Two further launches were planned for this year to put a total
of 36 satellites in orbit for Globalstar. The mobile
communications system is due to start operations next year.
The Zenit-2, made by Ukraine's NPO Yuzhnoye at
Dnipropetrovsk, is also to be used on the SeaLaunch system being
developed by Boeing Co. BA.N of the United States with
Russia's Energiya rocket maker and Norway's Kvaerner KVIOb.OL.
Those rockets will be launched from a converted oil rig at sea.
The Globalstar consortium also includes Qualcomm Inc
QCOM.O, Air Touch Communications Inc. ATI.N, Elsacom,
France's Alcatel CGEP.PA, Italy's Alenia ALEI.RO, France
Telecom FTE.PA, Hyundai 78250.KS of South Korea, Space
Systems/Loral 9622.Q, Daimler Benz Aerospace DAIG.F and
Britain's Vodafone Group Plc VOD.L.
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