Posted on 08/07/2012 10:41:17 PM PDT by neverdem
MOSCOW — A Russian booster rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites malfunctioned during a launching early Tuesday, failing to deliver the satellites into their proper orbit and rendering them useless and unsalvageable.
The mishap was another blow to Russia’s space program, which has been plagued by malfunctions, crashes and failed launchings. The failure was particularly glaring because it came just hours after NASA’s successful landing of a research probe on Mars.
Acknowledging the starkly different outcomes, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri O. Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s military industry, suggested in a Twitter post that the national space agency, Roscosmos, was struggling because of aging leadership. “As long as the youngest Roscosmos director is 62, we can only dream of Mars rovers,” Mr. Rogozin said.
The cause of the failure is under investigation, officials said.
The satellites, worth about $45 million, were intended to provide telecommunications services for Indonesian and Russian customers. They were carried by a Proton rocket, with a Briz-M booster, launched from Russia’s Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
During the launching, the Briz-M booster activated as scheduled but switched off after only seven seconds instead of the more than 18 minutes needed to propel the satellites into the proper orbit, Roscosmos said in a statement.
The booster and the two satellites have “not been detected on the transition orbit,” the space agency said, but rather “from the interim emergency orbit,” indicating a failure.
A Roscosmos spokesman said that space experts worldwide would monitor the lost satellites and that at least for the moment, they posed no danger to the International Space Station. “We have many years of successful experience in ensuring the safety of the station,” the spokesman said.
A similar malfunction with the Briz-M booster last August resulted in the loss of another communications satellite, which floated in...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They should sell it to Iran.
As a sixty three year old, I resemble that inclination. And, as a sixty three year old, I would hope that the engineering staff was a lot younger. Are they? Or maybe it's nothing to do with age, but rather with institutional vitality based on freedom of thought and action, which is absolutely necessary for the motivation, and even the ability, to succeed.
They must be using parts made in China.
Pretty gutsy statement by Mr. Rogozin. Wonder how Putin feels about such honesty? SC - Of interest to science ping??
This to me sounds like a safety system shutdown.
The rocket booster’s monitor computer detected an unsafe condition and shutdown the booster after 7 seconds.
This could be something like a valve that failed to fully open in its allotted time of a bad temperature sensor.
And talking about a bad sensor could be they are buying Chinese parts.
Mmmmm. Well, as a matter of policy, one should never gloat!
Thanks for the link, but are our American astronauts now using a Proton rocket, with a Briz-M booster when they go to the International Space Station?
Nah, they buy them from Walmart.
Oh, that's right, never mind :^)
So as individuals gloating okay then, right.
So let me be the first.
Ha Ha
>> Wonder how Putin feels about such honesty?
Doesn’t seem to care much for honest pussy.
I heard from a 'good source' that Vlad Putin has 'contributed' about $1 Million Dollars to Obama's reelection campaign. And not though some PAC, but directly 'to Obama'!Obama HAS TO ANSWER these serious charges and PROVE that Putin did NOT 'contribute'!
I bet he CAN'T!!
Right. Nothing like age and experience to cause a malfunction.
As you get old, at last half of what you know no longer matters. Bert
Likely Russian reality:
The old men could not have possibly kept up and their vehicles while working, are relics.
“They must be using parts made in China.”
Wish FR had a like button.
Russia’s space program, which has been plagued by malfunctions, crashes and failed launchings
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I bet that inspires confidence in the Astronauts on their taxi-cab ride to the Space Station.
NEWS FLASH: Russian scientists mysteriously disappear!
On the space jobs the Russkis handle for us, they only charge us $65 Million per delivery. Comrade, for that kind of chump change you don't get the new Lincoln Town Car, OK? You get the 1958 Checker with the leaky water pump. Igor will be taking care of that as soon as he gets back from dialysis. He grew up with it. He knows that Checker like the back of his hand!
Of course, in Obamanomics, this saves us a fortune as compared to maintaining our own space program, not to mention doing wonders for our Carbon Footprint.
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