WACH VIDEO. The Russian communications satellite Express-AM4R has failed to go into orbit, its loss being estimated to have cost over R1 billion (€21 million).
According to Vedomosti, this followed an emergency that developed in the start-up rocket Proton M after 545 seconds of the launch. The unmanned rocket went down after blasting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Express-AM4R would have been the third Express satellite to be launched this after Express AT-1 and Express-AT.
It would have been used as a backup for Express-ATM4, which was lost in August 2011 when launching from Baikonur.
