Giant European Satellite Plunges into Pacific

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Giant European Satellite Plunges into Pacific

A huge European communications satellite sank into the Pacific Ocean Tuesday, two weeks after a Russian booster rocket failed to put it into the planned orbit, the Russian Space Forces said.

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A huge European communications satellite sank into the Pacific Ocean Tuesday, two weeks after a Russian booster rocket failed to put it into the planned orbit, the Russian Space Forces said.

The European mission control has ordered a braking impetus to the Astra-1K satellite to push it back into the earth's atmosphere and plunge it into the southern Pacific Ocean, the Space Forces told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The French-made Astra-1K was rendered useless following its Nov.26 launch on a Russian-made Proton rocket, when a booster unit failed to push the satellite into its orbit.

The six-ton satellite, the largest communications satellite ever built, was designed to handle signals for radios, televisions, mobile telephones and the Internet.

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