Russian Rocket Lost; Crash Is Suspected

Ground control lost contact with a Russian Proton booster rocket launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and space officials at the base said it appeared that the rocket had crashed. A crash of a Proton in July onto Kazakh territory caused a huge row between Russia and the Central Asian state, souring the two nations’ normally cordial relations. A spokesman for the Khrunichev Space Center in Moscow said the Proton-K rocket, which was supposed to put in orbit a communications satellite, had gone out of control.