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Space Agency Denies Report of Covered Up Lost Satellite

The Federal Space Agency has denied a newspaper report that one of the satellites launched for the Defense Ministry's intelligence agency in January was lost.

Anatoly Shilov, the agency's deputy head, told Interfax that the media report about the loss of a GRU military intelligence satellite “doesn't correspond with reality.”

He was referring to the Izvestia report on Wednesday that alleged the Federal Space Agency covered up the loss of a GRU military intelligence satellite in January.

According to the newspaper, which cited an unidentified senior Federal Space Agency official, while the agency reported in January that all three satellites were successfully launched on Jan. 15, they all reached a higher orbit than planned.

The agency was able to reposition two of the satellites, but efforts with the third one failed and communication with it was lost.

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