3 Cosmos Satellites Destroyed as Rocket Fails

A Soviet rocket failed after its launch and three satellites were destroyed. U.S. defense officials said Friday that the accident sent large chunks of debris hurtling to Earth.

The official Tass news agency, in a rare report of a problem in the Soviets’ commercial space program, gave few details of the accident. The untimely release of the satellites suggests that the unmanned Proton rocket exploded after its launch on Wednesday.

Tass said in its dispatch Thursday that the destroyed satellites--named Cosmos 1917, 1918 and 1919--were designed to test elements and equipment of a space navigation system.

Kremlin officials have touted the Soviet space program as a reliable means of deploying weather and navigation equipment for foreign organizations in the wake of similar failures in the U.S. space program.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., a U.S. defense official said debris believed to be from the blast landed off Australia and that another chunk is expected to land in central Siberia.

Orbiting Debris

Bob Hollie, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman, said a third, smaller chunk is still orbiting, and he was unable to predict a re-entry time.

Hollie said the debris “may or may not be related to the Proton launch by the Soviet Union . . . . The problem we have is they never made it into orbit. The rocket blew up before it attained orbit.”

He said it’s “hard to say” if the debris poses any danger.

“We don’t know exactly how big the piece is,” he said, but added that it is bigger than the piece that hit near Australia.

Tass said the Proton rocket was launched Wednesday, “but because of a malfunction in this unit the sputniks could not be placed on the required orbit.”

Tass said the rocket placed the separation unit holding the satellites on an interim orbit, but the system then malfunctioned and the satellites fell from orbit.

“On Feb. 18, the sputniks entered dense layers of the atmosphere and ceased their existence,” it said.

Soviet rockets each year carry dozens of satellites into orbit for national use and for foreign contractors, primarily from Kremlin-allied nations.