Russia’s Proton rockets are back in business. Last week, a Proton lifted off
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan—the first since the Central
Asian state grounded the rockets in July when one crashed on its territory
shortly after launch
(Â鶹´«Ã½, 17 July, p 23).
Kazakh officials
have now accepted a Russian report into the accident which traced the problem to
a faulty weld in the rocket’s second stage.
Although last week’s launch went according to plan, one of the two
communications satellites that formed the rocket’s payload is not responding to
ground control.
