Early Tuesday morning local time, at 02:38 UTC on July 2, an uncrewed Russian Proton M rocket crashed and exploded just seconds after takeoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a spaceport in Kazakhstan.
There’s been no official statement about what caused the failure. The rocket starts to wobble almost immediately after launch, losing stabilization. It pitches over, and the upper section of the rocket comes off, most likely due to aerodynamic stress; that part is not designed to withstand a fierce sideways wind. Moments later, the entire rocket crashes to the ground and explodes.
The rocket was carrying three navigation satellites called GLONASS, similar to GPS satellites. These were upgrades to the currently operating fleet of satellites that have been in place for a few years now.
Full story here at Slate.com