Dnepr launch fails
Posted: Wed, Jul 26, 2006, 8:14 PM ET (0014 GMT)
The launch of over a dozen small satellites on a converted Russian ICBM failed shortly after liftoff late Wednesday. The Dnepr booster lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:43 pm EDT (1943 GMT) Wednesday. However, according to initial reports, the rocket's engines shut down 86 seconds after liftoff, causing the vehicle to crash about 25 kilometers downrange from the launch site. What led to the engine shutdown is not immediately clear. The rocket was carrying 18 satellites, with its primarily payload a Belorussian remote sensing satellite called BelKA. The rocket was also carrying three smaller satellites from Russia and Italy, as well as 14 one-kilogram "CubeSats" primarily built by universities in the US and other countries. The launch was the first failure in over a half-dozen orbital launches for the former SS-18 ICBM; another Dnepr successfully launched the Genesis 1 spacecraft for Bigelow Aerospace just two weeks earlier, from a missile base in southern Russia.
The launch of over a dozen small satellites on a converted Russian ICBM failed shortly after liftoff late Wednesday. The Dnepr booster lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:43 pm EDT (1943 GMT) Wednesday. However, according to initial reports, the rocket's engines shut down 86 seconds after liftoff, causing the vehicle to crash about 25 kilometers downrange from the launch site. What led to the engine shutdown is not immediately clear. The rocket was carrying 18 satellites, with its primarily payload a Belorussian remote sensing satellite called BelKA. The rocket was also carrying three smaller satellites from Russia and Italy, as well as 14 one-kilogram "CubeSats" primarily built by universities in the US and other countries. The launch was the first failure in over a half-dozen orbital launches for the former SS-18 ICBM; another Dnepr successfully launched the Genesis 1 spacecraft for Bigelow Aerospace just two weeks earlier, from a missile base in southern Russia.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
NASA to launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in September
Posted: Sat, Apr 25 10:54 AM ET (1454 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, April 26
OCCAM Space and The Exploration Company Partner on Separation System for Nyx Capsule
Occam Space — 11:55 am ET (1555 GMT) New simulations reveal the cold, dusty reality of galaxy formation
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy — 11:55 am ET (1555 GMT) MDA Space unveils space control platform MDA Midnight™, designed to defend and protect the space domain
PR Newswire — 11:54 am ET (1554 GMT) Voyager Unlocks Satellite Propulsion Production at Scale
Voyager Space — 11:53 am ET (1553 GMT) Sceye Completes Historic 12-Day, 6,400 Mile Stratospheric Flight, Advancing a New Layer of Infrastructure for Humanity
PR Newswire — 11:51 am ET (1551 GMT) |
