Two communications satellites were missing from their planned orbit shortly after taking off from the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, space authorities said Tuesday. The satellites took off on board a Proton-M rocket Monday, but the Briz-M booster stage and its payload "have not been detected on the transition orbit," the federal space agency Roscosmos said on its website. The booster appeared to have fired for only seven seconds rather than the programmed 18 minutes and 5 seconds, placing the satellites in a low and deteriorating orbit, space agency officials said, according to the news agency Interfax. The satellites will likely crash to Earth in six to eight weeks, they said. Future launches of Proton rockets were suspended until the cause of the incident was clarified, news agency RIA-Novosti reported, citing space command officials.
