After reaching low Earth orbit, but before separation of the spacecraft from the rocket, communication with the vessel was lost. Ground controllers only received brief telemetry shortly after that confirmed spacecraft separation as well as the deployment of the solar panels, but were not able to confirm the deployment of rendezvous antennas of the KURS system. Initially controllers tried to fall back to the plan of making a 2-day rendezvous with the ISS, but this was also abandoned after ground stations were not able to communicate with the spacecraft during the next 3 orbits.