Medvedev orders to investigate failure of Russia's Proton rocket

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered Saturday to investigate the latest failure of the Proton-M space rocket.

"The prime minister ordered to set up a commission to ascertain the exact causes of the accident, while proposals on personal and financial responsibility for this accident should be submitted upon the investigation results," RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev's spokesperson Natalya Timakova as saying.

Earlier in the day, a Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican satellite suffered a third stage failure just before the detachment of the satellite.

"The accident occurred at an altitude of 161 kilometers. The ( carrier's) third stage, upper stage and the space satellite have almost completely burnt in the atmosphere," Russian federal space agency Roscosmos said in an online statement.

Roscosmos announced that the rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, have almost completely burnt in the atmosphere together with the satellite.

It added that the satellite and its launch were insured by the customer, while third party liability was insured by the Russian side.

This is the second incident happened in the same day. Early Saturday morning, a planned correction of the International Space Station's orbit could not be carried out after the engines of the Progress M-26M cargo ship failed to start on time.

According to preliminary data, the engine failure was probably caused by a problem with the control system. A new orbit adjustment attempt could take place within a week.