Cosmos (3 sat)

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Mission details:

• The dramatic failure of a Proton-M rocket launched from Baykonur on Jul 02, 2013 came seconds after launch when it went off course and powered itself downwards into the steppe. By a few seconds after launch the rocket was unstable in pitch and then began swinging to one side and then the other; by 17 seconds the vehicle was flying horizontally and then heading downwards. The payload section disintegrated at about T+24s and broke off due to aerodynamic forces seconds before the rocket impacted the ground and exploded at around T+32s, under 2 km from the blockhouse and near the Rokot/Strela silos at area 175. Reports indicate that no-one was injured in the accident. Preliminary investigations suggested that the launch occurred 0.4 seconds early (or at least one of the pad cable connections separated), when the engines were not yet at full thrust, but later reports claim instead that the problem was with angular velocity sensors being physically installed upside-down, fooling the rocket's flight control system and causing the unstable flight.
• The payload second consisted of the Blok DM-03 No. 2L upper stage carrying three Uragan-M (Glonass-M) navigation satellites, nos. 48, 49 and 50.
  The previous Proton-M/DM-03/Glonass launch, in 2010, also failed, but less spectacularly.