Russian Rocket Carrying Advanced Satellite Crashes Shortly After Lift-Off

The rocket's launch and initial descent looked good, but an unspecified failure during the third stage of flight resulted in a crash, according to NASA Space Flight. In the video, at about 1:50 after lift-off, unusual bursts of flames can be seen shooting out, before it eventually falls.

Onboard the downed spacecraft was an advanced Express-AM4R satellite, which RT noted was Russia's "most-advanced and powerful satellite."

It is capable of providing television and radio broadcasting, broadband Internet access, multimedia services, telephony, and mobile communications.

This is developing and will be updated as we learn more.