spacetoday.net: "Production fault" blamed for Soyuz launch failure

Posted: Fri, Sep 9, 2011, 8:11 AM ET (1211 GMT)
Progress M-11M launch (Roscosmos)

Russian officials said Thursday that a one-time "production fault" caused the failure last month of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo spacecraft to the ISS. The Soyuz rocket's upper stage engine shut down during the August 24 launch, causing the Progress M-12M spacecraft to fall to Earth, crashing in a remote region of Siberia. Officials said that a fuel line became clogged because of a unspecified accidental production fault, which led to the engine shutdown. The Russian space agency Roskosmos has not indicated when it expects the launch vehicle to return to flight, although NASA officials said this week they were optimistic it would be able to launch a crewed Soyuz spacecraft before the ISS has to be decrewed in mid-November.