Wiring blamed for Proton failure
Posted: Wed, Oct 10, 2007, 6:08 AM ET (1008 GMT)
Russian investigators have identified faulty wiring as the cause of the launch failure of a Proton rocket last month, officials said Tuesday. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said a "faulty control wire" prevented the second stage of the Proton from separating properly from the first stage, causing the vehicle to plummet to Earth, crashing 40 kilometers from the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan. Perminov said engineers have developed a way to prevent the problem from occurring in future launches. Russia plans to use a Proton to launch three GLONASS navigation satellites in late October, depending on the ability of Russia to work out compensation to Kazakhstan for the failure; the Kazakh government is asking for $60 million in reparations for the accident. It is not certain when the Proton will resume commercial missions. The September 6 failure destroyed a US-built Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-11.
Russian investigators have identified faulty wiring as the cause of the launch failure of a Proton rocket last month, officials said Tuesday. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said a "faulty control wire" prevented the second stage of the Proton from separating properly from the first stage, causing the vehicle to plummet to Earth, crashing 40 kilometers from the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan. Perminov said engineers have developed a way to prevent the problem from occurring in future launches. Russia plans to use a Proton to launch three GLONASS navigation satellites in late October, depending on the ability of Russia to work out compensation to Kazakhstan for the failure; the Kazakh government is asking for $60 million in reparations for the accident. It is not certain when the Proton will resume commercial missions. The September 6 failure destroyed a US-built Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-11.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Starship explodes during preparations for static-fire test
Posted: Sun, Jun 22 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, June 22
Detection of semi-heavy water ice around young sunlike star
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy — 5:10 pm ET (2110 GMT) New Global Research Center a Rosetta Stone for Understanding the Universe at All Scales
Institute for Advanced Study — 5:09 pm ET (2109 GMT) A New GPS for the Intergalactic Medium: Astronomers Have Found the Home Address for Universe's "Missing" Matter
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics — 5:08 pm ET (2108 GMT) ESA’s Proba-3 mission captures first images of the solar corona using an artificial eclipse created by two satellites
Sener — 5:06 pm ET (2106 GMT) Spaceport America and the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance Join Forces Through a Collaborative MOU
Spaceport America — 5:04 pm ET (2104 GMT) |
