Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev revealed of their duties Vyacheslav Filin, vice-president at RKK Energia, and Victor Remishevsky, deputy head of Roscosmos, accusing them of the lost of three Glonass-M satellites.

Besides, Anatoly Perminov, who heads Roscosmos, the state agency for space exploration, was reprimanded, but saved this position.

This is a result of the investigation that the Russian president ordered to launch into the case of December 5, when the upper rocket stage of the Proton launch vehicle put three Glonass-M satellites into a wrong orbit. Eventually, the satellites did not reach assigned orbit and became useless. Launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, the satellites fell into Pacific waters near Honolulu.

Earlier the investigators looking into the satellite loss found out that the primary cause was excessive amount of oxygen pumped into the launch vehicle’s upper rocket state (boosting block). The necessary amount was exceeded as a result of miscalculations during flight preparations.

Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System, is a Russian analogue of the US NAVSTAR system also referred to as the GPS, or Global Positioning System. Fully fielded Glonass constellation should have 24 satellites. Glonass should have attained the full strength this month.

Meantime, Roscosmos says replenishment satellites for Glonass constellation will be launched within three months, in order to restore the system’s signal coverage.