Copyright 2011, The Associated Press
In this image provided by Space Center Yuzhny on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011, the Proton-M booster rocket with Express-AM4 satellite is lifted for a blast off at the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Monday, Aug. 15, 2011. Russia's space agency said it lost contact with a communications satellite shortly after its launch Thursday, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged the nation's space program. (AP Photo/Space center Yuzhny)