SAN DIEGO, Feb. 21, 1996 – On 19 February 1996, at 11:19 a.m. Moscow time, a Proton rocket launched the “Raduga” Russian communication satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Preliminary indications from the mission indicated that the first three stages of the Proton and the first burn on the Block DM upper stage were nominal. However, after ground controllers received indications of a problem with the second burn of the upper stage, they began an analysis of the telemetry to determine the nature of the anomaly.
