Russia blames space launch failures on employee negligence

The loss of the Express-AM4 satellite and the Progress freighter was caused by negligence by the employees of Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, the Prosecutor General's Office said Tuesday. "Both incidents happened due to negligence of the employees of the state enterprises under Roscosmos during the inspections and because of the lack of Roscosmos' control over decision-making," the prosecutor's spokeswoman Marina Gridneva was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. The Prosecutor's Office asked Roscosmos to take disciplinary measures against those responsible for these failures and to reimburse the damages. On Aug. 18, a Proton-M carrier rocket failed to deliver a communications satellite, Express-AM4, to the orbit. On Aug. 24, a Progress M-12M cargo ship also failed to reach the orbit due to a rocket malfunction.