Another Russian launch failure


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This time a Soyuz-2 (upgraded systems) rocket launching a Meridian communications satellite. Yet another 3rd stage failure. The Meridian crashed into Siberia.

Russian Space Agency General Director Vladimr Popovkin:

"This is a significant failure, this proves this area of the space industry is in sort of a crisis?"

I really feel sorry for their teams- their morale has really taken a major hit the last 18 months and this isn't going to improve the environment.

Gawd - this is going to cause a s***storm, both in Russia and in Congress.

RIA Novosti....

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True, but it really needs to be established what the problem is...fast. There's another launch scheduled for Dec. 26. Plus this -

At the news conference a reporter asked if this would effect Soyuz & Progress flights. Popovkin scowled, got up and walked out.

That's not going to inspire confidence :p

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Sounds like 1 of the 4 thrust chambers in the upper stage engine burned through, causing a large fuel leak and explosion. One large piece crashed through the roof of a house in Siberia and other flaming pieces fell in populated areas. No injuries reported - yet.

Z71.jpg

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So we (the US) mothball the Space Shuttle, and our ONLY way back into space can't launch a god damned satellite? Might as well have the crew of the ISS use their emergency capsule and have it burn in reentry, no one will be going back there for quite a while.

Who knows maybe the Chinese will let us mooch a ride or two once they leapfrog everyone else in space Tech.

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After Columbia the Shuttle was a dead man walking - no launch abort from ignition to T+ 3 minutes, an unrealiae thermal protection system on re-entry, unaffordable operational costs etc.

All the more reason to fully fund Commercial Crew and get Dragon, CST-100 and Dream Chaser in operational service ASAP. The Russia train is derailing.

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So we (the US) mothball the Space Shuttle, and our ONLY way back into space can't launch a god damned satellite? Might as well have the crew of the ISS use their emergency capsule and have it burn in reentry, no one will be going back there for quite a while.

Who knows maybe the Chinese will let us mooch a ride or two once they leapfrog everyone else in space Tech.

how about ISRO get the contract next time,

They can

a) do it

b) for cheaper too :D

ISRO aims at 45 to 50 launches

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/isro-aims-at-45-to-50-launches/212988-60-123.html

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ISRO doesn't have a crew vehicle close to flight, nor do they have a human rated booster (no black zones during launch) or a qualified launch abort system. You just can't cobble these together - rockets & spacecraft aren't LEGO's. SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 are the closest.

China's doesn't count because they're not an ISS partner.

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Not in this story, but there is now concern that Russia may have difficulty obtaining insurance for new commercial launch contracts. If so this would be an unmitigated disaster for their efforts.

Link....

Russian satellite hits 'cosmonaut street' in Siberia

A fragment of a Russian satellite that crashed into Siberia in the latest setback for Russia's space programme hit a residential house on a street named after cosmonauts, officials said Saturday.

The Meridian communications satellite failed to reach orbit Friday due to a failure with its Soyuz rocket, raising new concerns over the Russian space programme which has now lost over half a dozen satellites in the last year.

Its fragments crashed into the Novosibirsk region of central Siberia and were found in the Ordynsk district around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the regional capital Novosibirsk.

"A sphere was found, around 50 centimetres (20 inches) in diameter, which crashed into the roof of a house in the village of Vagaitsevo" in the Ordynsk district, an official in the local security services told the Interfax news agency.

In an extraordinary irony, the official said that the house was located on Cosmonaut Street, named after the heroic spacemen of the Soviet and Russian space programme.

There were no reports of casualties while officials said that radiation was within normal limits.

The owner of the house Andrei Krivoruchenko, who was at home with his wife at the time, said that he heard a huge noise and a crash as the satellite hit his roof.

"I climbed up onto the roof and could not work out what had happened. Then I saw a huge hole in the roof and the metal object," he told Russian state television.

The head of the Ordynsk district, Pavel Ivarovksy, told Interfax that the damage was being examined by specialists and the owner of the property would receive compensation.

The failure of the Soyuz-2.1B rocket to deliver its payload is a particular worry as it comes from a member of the same family that Russia uses to send multinational manned crews to the International Space Station (ISS).

An unmanned Progress supply ship bound for the ISS crashed into Siberia in August after its launch by a Soyuz, forcing the temporary grounding of the rockets and as well as a wholesale re-jig of the station's staffing.

The loss of the Meridian satellite caps a disastrous 12 months for Russia that has already seen it lose three navigation satellites, an advanced military satellite, a telecommunications satellite, a probe for Mars as well as the Progress.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said the satellite came down due to third stage rocket failure just seven minutes after the launch.

"This again shows that the (Russian space) industry is in crisis," admitted Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Roscosmos, in comments broadcast on state television. "It is deeply unpleasant."

>

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please stop posting these bad news Doc :cry: this is terrible, but we have to keep it in perspective, as i think this was a semi-experimental launch, and just a few days earlier Soyuz faithfully delivered folks to the ISS with no incident.

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The news is what it is neo.

They were supposed to launch the big SES-4 satellite on a Proton yesterday, but had to postpone 25 days because the Breeze-M upper stage started sending odd telemetry late in the countdown. Now they have to take apart the whole rocket & payload to change out the avionics packages.

A very close call as this kind of Breeze-M failure is whats thought to have killed a Proton launch a few months ago. At least this time they weren't stuck in their usual Gung-Ho mode.

They have some very serious problems.

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As noted; the problems are not just funding but generational, and a serious series of problem with procedures, quality conteol and their outdated electronics. This isn't going to get fixed overnight.,

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So we (the US) mothball the Space Shuttle, and our ONLY way back into space can't launch a god damned satellite? Might as well have the crew of the ISS use their emergency capsule and have it burn in reentry, no one will be going back there for quite a while. Who knows maybe the Chinese will let us mooch a ride or two once they leapfrog copy everyone else in space Tech.
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This has just been a bad year for the Soyuz. It's normally been a very safe, reliable launch vehicle and capsule. The latest one which put 6 satellites in orbit was a great success. No need to press the alarm buttons just yet. It will do the job.

That being said, it is aging, probably aged, technology, and a raft of upgrades or a whole new vehicle may be in order soon.

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Russia had two new launcher families in development;

Rus-M: a Soyuz replacement for crew up to 18.8 tons and cargo to 23.8 tons, including a new crew vehicle that looked a bit like Dragon (high sodewall angle)

Angara: an entire family of launchers for cargo from 2 tons to 40.5 tons, with a possible upgrade to 75 tons later.

Rus-M was canceled a few months ago.

Soyuz-2 has been an intermediate upgrade of Soyuz with several good launches until it suffered an upper stage explosion in Dec 2011, sending debris and the Meridian satellite parts crashing into a Siberia town and some poor guys house. Fortunately, he wasn't inside.

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man and i thought Siberia was like the safest place on Earth, except for that whole Tonguska thing and the Chimera invasion if you're a PS3 gamer!

it's time to bring back the N1, Moscow, you know it! (although i do love the name Angara, it sounds pretty badass).

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Aerojet is now testing a US upgraded version of the N-1's NK-15 engine; a US upgrade of the NK-33 called the AJ26, and they are also working on the 1/3 larger AJ26-500 (500,000 lb-ft thrust) so you get a bit of what you want but on the wrong side of the pond. ;)

AJ26 will be used in the first stage of Orbital Sciences Antares launcher - the new name of their Taurus II. AJ-26-500 will be for heavier lift launchers.

AJ26 hotfire test at NASA Stennis in Mississippi

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China's program is at an early state of development, and the whole idea of the US CCDev program is to minimize cost and not have a Russian launch failure or political issue limit our access to space.

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Doc, that Orbital Sciences AJ26 is awesome news, had no idea it was going on! :woot: but how did we get our Russian friends to license it out?

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$$$$

The Russians had 30+ NK-33's rusting in a storage building. Orbital Sciences bought them and the license to produce more for their COTS cargo entrant. They then contracted the upgrades and production to Aerojet and Teledyne Brown.

NK-33 may yet fly in a Russian bird - the Soyuz 2.1v.

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