The Russian Space Agency Roskosmo declared that a failure has occurred on the most recent ascent mission of a Briz-M Vehicle carrying two communications satellites to geostationary orbit after successfully being launched by a Proton-M launch Vehicle at 19:31 GMT on August 6, 2012.

One of the satellites, the Telkom-3 satellite — a $200 million communications satellite built by Russia for Telekomunikasi Indonesia, went missing from its planned orbit shortly after taking off from the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Telkom Indonesia released a statement on August 8 confirming the failure of the launch, citing “an anomaly in the Telkom-3 launching, particularly on the Briz-M rocket operation”. The release states that the satellite could only reach intermediate orbit and investigations, headed by First Deputy General of Designer and General Director of ISS-Reshetnev Russia, the main contractor of the satellite, are underway.

Telkom Indonesia further informs investors that the company has insured the satellite and “hence there will be no significant financial impact once the lost occurred. Accounting wise, we (Telkom Indonesia) recorded it as the advance payment and will be offset by the insurance claim receipt if the lost occurred”. The company further assures investors that “this condition has no impact to the company’s operation and services”.

According to Telkom Indonesia, the Telkom 3 is a Geostationary Communications Satellite with a capacity of 42 active transponders to enhance its “broadcast capacity as well as providing valuable support for enterprises services and IP backbone”.  The satellite is based on the Express 1000N Satellite Platform and hosts 32 C-Band and 10 Ku-Band Transponders. The Spacecraft will be operated by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk and will operate from geostationary orbit for at least 15 years.