Putin informed about crash of rocket Proton-M at Baikonur

Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the crash of the rocket Proton-M at the Baikonur spaceport, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “The president was informed about it,” he said. The rocket Proton-M with three satellites Glonass-M was launched at 06:38 Moscow time from the launching site number 81 at the Baikonur spaceport. Right after the takeoff from the launching pad the rocket deviated sharply from the flight trajectory, at first began breaking up in the air and fell down not far from the launch site and exploded. The Federal Space Agency reported that the incident occurred on the 17th minute of flight over the emergency activation of the engines. After the blast a smoking cloud of burning heptyl was formed. The launching site and the launching team were not affected.