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According to Itar-Tass on June 2^nd, Russian Space Agency said the Russian Proton-M rocket veered off its trajectory just 17 seconds after its launch from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on July 2^nd. Currently, Russian Space Agency has set up a committee to investigate the accident.

According to spokesperson of the department, the rocket plummeted back to the territory of the cosmodrome "Boykonur", about 2.5 kilometers from the launch site. Fortunately, the accident caused no damage or casualties.

On July 2^nd, CNS reported that a Russian Proton-M rocket carrying three GLONASS navigation satellites crashed soon after takeoff from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome. Only seventeen seconds after takeoff, the rocket swerved to one side, tried to correct itself, but instead veered in the opposite direction. It then flew horizontally and started to come apart with its engines in full thrust.

Based on the current information provided by Russian Space Agency, the rocket was launched at Moscow time 6:38 a.m. on July 2^nd. The crash was broadcast live across the country. The images from the local TV station showed the Proton-M rocket erupted into a ball of flames, at the same time released highly toxic rocket fuel into the air.

Russian Space Agency hasn't given any explanation about the explosion so far.  

The crashed Proton-M rocket employed a DM-03 booster, which was being used for the first time since December 2010, when another Proton-M rocket with the same booster failed to deliver another three GLONASS satellites into orbit, crashing into the Pacific Ocean 1,500 kilometers from Honolulu.

Proton-M is a Russian carrier rocket derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. GLONASS, acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System, is a radio-based satellite navigation system operated by the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. It both complements and provides an alternative to the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the only alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.