KAZAKHSTAN (AP)
A Russian rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned
Saturday shortly after its launch — the latest mishap to hit Russia's troubled
space industry, whose Soviet-era glory has been tarnished by a series of launch
failures.
The rocket, a Proton-M, was launched from the Russia-leased
Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency,
said a problem involving steering engines occurred in the rocket's third stage
about eight minutes into its flight, 161 kilometers (97 miles) above the Earth.
The agency said the rocket and Boeing-constructed satellite did not reach their
planned orbit and almost all of the debris from the two burned up in the
atmosphere.
Problems occurred about eight minutes into the Proton-M
flight, which was broadcast live by Russia's space agency Roscosmos.
"There has been a malfunction on board the booster
rocket. This broadcast is now over," the presenter said.
Roscosmos said that "an emergency situation took place
when the Proton-M rocket launched with a MexSat-1 satellite".
"The reasons are being identified," the agency
said in a statement (in Russian).
A search for possible debris was conducted in the
Zabaikalsky region of eastern Siberia bordering Mongolia and China after people
there reported hearing loud claps at the time of the launch. The federal agency
leading the search said no debris had yet been found.
The last failed launch of a Proton-M occurred exactly a year
ago, also caused by a problem in the rocket's third stage. Since then, there
have been six successful flights.
The Interfax news agency quoted industry sources saying the
failure could result in the suspension of all upcoming Proton-M launches,
including the next one in June for a British satellite.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a commission
be set up to determine the cause of the rocket failure.
Mexico's secretary of communications, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza,
stressed that the satellite was completely insured and that the country would
not suffer any financial losses. Another launch would be planned, this time
from Cape Canaveral in Florida, to send up a telecommunications satellite that
would provide the same services as the one lost.
In a separate space failure Saturday, Roscosmos also
reported that a Progress spaceship attached to the International Space Station
failed to ignite its engine, thus failing to adjust the orbit of the space
station. The agency said it was looking into why that happened, but added that
the space station's crew was not in any danger from the incident.
Russia's space program has seen a string of launch failures
in recent years. Space experts say the program has been hampered by a brain
drain and a steady erosion of engineering and quality standards.
"It seems that the Russian space industry is
disintegrating with cosmic speed," Yuri Karash, a leading space scientist
and member of the Russian Academy of Space Science, told the Interfax news
agency. Due to low pay and a lack of new projects, those working in the space
industry are "far from the best specialists and have no interest in
cobbling together cosmic stools such as rockets developed a half-century
ago."
In April, an unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 3 tons of
supplies failed to dock with the International Space Station after it went into
an uncontrollable spin after the launch.
That failure prompted Roscosmos to delay both the landing of
some of the space station's crew and the launch of their successors. Roscosmos
space agency chief Igor Komarov said the April 28 launch failure was caused by
a leak of fuel tanks in the Soyuz rocket's third stage. Left in low orbit, the
Progress cargo spaceship fell to Earth over the Pacific on May 8.
Due to that failure, a Russian official said three of the
orbiting space station's six-person crew, who had been scheduled to return to
Earth in early May, were asked to stay in orbit until early June and the launch
of their replacement crew was pushed back from late May to late July.
Analysis: Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News
Russia used to be a byword in reliability for space technology, but its reputation has taken a hammering recently. Proton rockets now fail with alarming regularity. Officials will try to find the cause of the latest mishap, but confidence is waning, and many commercial satellite operators have already started to take their business elsewhere.For those who still have contracts with Proton, this failure is a major headache, in particular for London-based Inmarsat. The world's largest mobile satellite services operator is in the midst of rolling out Global Xpress, its next-generation constellation of satellites. This is the largest single commercial space project in Britain, worth more than $1.57bn (£1bn), and will provide enhanced communications to ships, planes, the armed forces and broadcasting companies.
Two of the three satellites in Global Xpress have been launched successfully on Protons. The third was due to be launched next month.
This will not happen now, and the anticipated September inauguration of global services on the new constellation will likely be pushed back several months as a consequence.
It is rumored that Putin said ебать when he heard of the latest failure of the rocket.
Source: bbc.com