Russia launches Shuttle demonstrator

[scottb50]

You can get those from ACME. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[ace5]

I think Kittinger was a very courageous man. And he was in a mission with the USAF, I suppose. All mission was well-prepared and he was of course well aware of the risks he was going to face. Cheers to him and his remarkable feat.

 

[spacefire]

<font color="yellow">I still think MOOSE is a good idea.</font><br /><br />The devil's in the details: just how hard/time consuming would it be for the astronaut to position himself "just right" before firing the gun? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[shoogerbrugge]

Does somebody know if they actually found the shuttlec*ck or not?<br /><br />Thanks in advance

 

[syndroma]

No. Recovery operation is halted. The vehicle is considered lost.

 

[nacnud]

<img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" />

 

[nyarlathotep]

Russian vehicles lose 3/3 balutes, and the planetary society's solar sail. <br /><br />I bet Elon Musk is ecstatic.

 

[tap_sa]

<font color="yellow">"and the planetary society's solar sail."</font><br /><br /><i>Two</i> of them (remember 2001). And CryoSat into the sea too. There sure is demand for <i>reliable</i> and cheap small payload launcher.

 

[syndroma]

http://www.laspace.ru/rus/news.php#048 (Russian)<br /><br />Some facts from that page in English:<br />- Volna performed nominally, D-2R separated at altitude and speed close to planned.<br />- All systems were online (navigation, video recording, telemetry), the vehicle spinned up for stabilization.<br />- At H = 238 km, T = 356 sec the main cone was inflated.<br />- At H ~ 100 km the vehicle entered atmosphere and telemetry was lost.<br />- After re-entry telemetry resumed and lasted for 25 sec.<br />- The telemetry is being analyzed.<br />

 

[nyarlathotep]

>>http://www.laspace.ru/rus/news.php#048 (Russian) <br /><br />I'll take your word for it, it's rendering on my browser as squarese.<br /><br />I guess that makes it only two failed in the last month. Elon Musk is probably only mildly ecstatic.

 

[spacefire]

aren't all these cheap Russian rockets made from old ICBMs? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[shoogerbrugge]

The Volna is a direct conversion. Its a R-29R with a different flight software package. Of the 4 recent launches 3 have been succesive. The single failure with the planetary solair probe was indeed a launch failure. The most recent launch with the IRDT-2R seems to be a problem with the communication of the probe during re-entry.<br /><br />The Rockot failure seems to be a software failure, between the newly build Breeze KM upperstage and the re-used first two stages of the SS-19 ICBMs. It was the first failure of the Rockot LV in 6 launches. <br /><br />The other failure this year of a Russian LV was a molinya which had a 3rd stage failure during the launch of a military sattelite.<br /><br />Its regretable, nothing else can be said.

 

[syndroma]

Claus Reimers, the IRDT project manager, said that initial telemetry data revealed that the Demonstrator’s trajectory may have been more shallow thus extending its flight. If true, then the device may have overshot Kamchatka and landed in the Pacific Ocean, Reimers told SPACE.com.