Russian rocket carrying telecoms satellite crashes

Almaty, Sep 6: An unmanned Russian space rocket carrying a Japanese satellite crashed today after blasting off from a launch pad in Kazakhstan, the Emergencies Ministry said.

The Proton-M booster with the Japanese JCSAT-11 communications satellite on board crashed into open countryside after lifting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, it said.

No one was injured.

''The tentative place of the crash is 40 km to the south-west of the city of Zhezkazgan,'' the ministry said in a statement, referring to an industrial town in the centre of the Central Asian state.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was visiting Zhezkazgan at the time of the crash, a presidential administration official told Reuters.

The emergencies ministry said the accident was caused by an engine malfunction. Officials at Baikonur, rented by Russia from Kazakhstan, were investigating the accident.

The main Russian control centre near Moscow could not immediately be reached for comment.

Proton rockets are filled with highly toxic fuel. The last crash of a Proton rocket, a type in use since 1965, occurred at Baikonur in 1999.

Russia's Vesti-24 news channel said the Kazakh authorities had suspended launches from Baikonur pending the investigation into the crash, but there was no official confirmation of that.

The incident is likely to add to tension between Russia and Kazakhstan over Baikonur. Kazakh officials have complained of environmental damage caused by the launches, and want to bring them under Kazakh control.

Speaking to reporters in Astana, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said he had ordered the creation of a state commission to investigate the crash.

''Whoever is to blame for this will be identified and the damage done to our country's environment will be compensated for by those who violated it,'' he said.

Reuters>