Arianespace CEO Confirms Emergency With Soyuz' Third Stage At EgyptSat-A Launch

Stephane Israel, the CEO of Arianespace commercial launch service provider, confirmed Friday that the third stage of Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket failed during the EgyptSat-A launch

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2019) Stephane Israel, the CEO of Arianespace commercial launch service provider, confirmed Friday that the third stage of Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket failed during the EgyptSat-A launch.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said Thursday that EgyptSat-A had been successfully delivered to the designated orbit and was operating in normal regime.

However, Russian space industry sources told Sputnik that the third stage of the Soyuz rocket failed to bring the Egyptian satellite to a target orbit, and the Fregat booster was used to compensate for the orbiting error.

"Arianespace has postponed transfers of OneWeb VS21's Soyuz and payload to the launch zone. Decision taken after a successful Soyuz mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome, but with non-nominal third-stage behavior. New VS21 launch date to be announced ASAP," the official tweeted.