Russian Satellite Crashes in Siberia; Soyuz Failure Cited [RIA Novosti]

A Russian Meridian communications satellite crashed in Siberia shortly after liftoff Dec. 23, and officials said it appeared to be the result of a Soyuz rocket failure, the official RIA Novosti news agency reported.

“Early information suggests that the Soyuz-2 suffered a malfunction during the third stage and the satellite came down in Siberia,” near the city of Tobolsk, a Defense Ministry official said.

The accident is the latest in a string of problems for the Russian space program, including the loss of three Glonass-M navigation satellites in December 2011, the August failure of a Soyuz-U rocket carrying a Progress capsule filled with international space station supplies and the failed November launch of the Phobos-Grunt Mars probe.