Russia loses control of Earth-monitoring satellite

Russia has lost control over a satellite designed to monitor weather and the Earth's surface, Roskosmos space agency said on Wednesday, reporting the second satellite problem this month.
A rocket launcher built by Russia's state space research and production centre, Khrunichev, also failed to put a $165-million European Space Agency Cryosat satellite into orbit.
"This is already a second major failure for Khrunichev," Roskosmos said in a statement on its website. Roskosmos said the Monitor-E, developed by Khrunichev and launched in August, had failed due to problems during its manufacture and operation in orbit.
Russia's lucrative commercial space launch industry, a spin-off from its nuclear weapons programme, is responsible for putting a large proportion of the world's satellites in orbit.