MOSCOW - Russia's space program suffered another embarrassing failure Wednesday, when a booster rocket failed to put an Arab commercial satellite to a designated orbit, officials said.

The Arabsat 4A telecommunications satellite owned by the Saudi ARABSAT company was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was atop a rocket equipped with an additional booster stage, the Russian Federal Space Agency said in a statement.

The rocket successfully delivered the satellite to a preliminary orbit, but the booster failed to function properly and could not deliver the satellite to a designated orbit, the agency said.

注释：

1、booster rocket：推助火箭
2、commercial satellite：商业卫星
3、designated orbit：指定轨道
4、telecommunications satellite：通信卫星
5、launch：v. 发射（导弹、火箭等）
6、cosmodrome：n. 人造卫星发射基地
7、Russian Federal Space Agency：俄罗斯太空总署
8、preliminary orbit：最初轨道
9、booster：n. 推进器