Russian satellite rocket crashes

[cello]

last night russian launcher carrying 18 (!) satellites exploaded 86 seconds after liftoff<br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5219468.stm<br /><br />bum. what a bad luck.<br />somebody have a pictures with fireworks?

 

[qso1]

Lucky the Bigelow module rode up on a Dnepr that didn't have any trouble. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[subzero788]

Agreed, but it's likely that Genesis 2, which was also scheduled for a Dnepr launch, will be delayed as the failure is investigated.

 

[syndroma]

AFAIK Dneprs from Baikonur and Yasniy are different mods of SS-18. Not sure if this failure affects Yasniy launches.<br /><br />Speaking of the failure, I expect officials to blame 20 years since manufacture and, as usual, Ukraina (where it was manufactured).

 

[j05h]

Anyone know if this rocket had a load of CubeSats onboard?<br /><br />Josh <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div align="center"><em>We need a first generation of pioneers.</em><br /></div> </div>

 

[nacnud]

Yeah I think it did, from NSF<br /><br /><font color="yellow">On board was:<br />BelKA-1<br />Baumanets<br />UniSat-4<br />PICPOT<br />and CubeSats:<br />AeroCube-1<br />PolySat 1<br />PolySat 2<br />ICEcube-1<br />ICEcube-2<br />ION<br />HAUSAT-1<br />KUTESat<br />Merope<br />Ncube-1<br />Rincon 1<br />Sacred<br />SEEDS<br />Voyager</font>

 

[askold]

This rocket was actually an old SS-18 balistic missile.<br /><br />Good thing the Russians never got into a shooting war with the US if this is any indication of the effectiveness of the Soviet arsenal.<br />

 

[edkyle98]

"AFAIK Dneprs from Baikonur and Yasniy are different mods of SS-18. Not sure if this failure affects Yasniy launches. "<br /><br />I hadn't heard that. My impression was that R-36M2 Voyevoda ICBMs were being used for Dnepr launches at both sites.<br /><br />Interestingly, there were problems with the first missile set up for this flight, so it was pulled out of the silo and replaced with another, causing a one-month delay. <br /><br /><br />"Speaking of the failure, I expect officials to blame 20 years since manufacture and, as usual, Ukraina (where it was manufactured)."<br /><br />The engines were manufactured in Russia, I believe. As for the cause of the failure, I saw a report that blamed the failure on hydraulic controls in the first stage engine, which allowed the vehicle to fly out of control after T+73 seconds . <br /><br /> - Ed Kyle

 

[edkyle98]

"This rocket was actually an old SS-18 balistic missile.<br /><br />Good thing the Russians never got into a shooting war with the US if this is any indication of the effectiveness of the Soviet arsenal. "<br /><br /><br />This was only the first Dnepr failure in seven attempts, and was the first R-36M2 failure since 1988, a period that saw 21 consecutive successes.<br /><br /> - Ed Kyle

 

[edkyle98]

"Speaking of the failure, I expect officials to blame 20 years since manufacture and, as usual, Ukraina (where it was manufactured)."<br /><br /><br />Sure enough, that is exactly where officials are laying blame, before even having recovered hardware for inspection!<br /><br />http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060730/52028942.html<br /><br />"Now a commission led by academician Nikolai Anfimov from the Russian Academy of Sciences is studying together with Ukrainian and Belarusian colleagues several versions of the crash," Igor Panarin said. "All of the versions are linked, this way or another, with the work of the rocket's equipment produced at Ukrainian enterprises."<br /><br />Nevermind that the rocket engines, and probably a lot of the control components, were made in Russia!<br /><br /> - Ed Kyle

 

[syndroma]

It wasn't R-36M2, it was R-36MUTTH. See interesting Podvig's blog entry for analysis:<br />http://russianforces.org/blog/2006/07/everything_has_limits.shtml<br />

 

[syndroma]

> <i>Nevermind that the rocket engines, and probably a lot of the control components, were made in Russia!</i><br /><br />Control system was designed and prepared for launch by Ukrainian NPO Khartron. The one which holds half of the responsibility for the last year Rockot failure. Not surprisingly, rumors are spreading that the failure was caused by software errors in attitude control.<br /><br />Anyway, it was too hard to resist blaming U. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br />Also, be aware that Panarin is a PR guy, even a propaganda guy, not a neutral reporter.

 

[edkyle98]

"It wasn't R-36M2, it was R-36MUTTH. See interesting Podvig's blog entry for analysis:<br />http://russianforces.org/blog/2006/07/everything_has_limits.shtml "<br /><br />Hmmm. According to this site<br />http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060730/52028942.html<br /><br />"The Dnepr, a civilian version of the heavy R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile, was launched around midnight Wednesday (8 p.m. GMT), and would have orbited 18 Russian and foreign-made mini-satellites."<br /><br />Other sources say the same, but I'm not sure what to believe right now.<br /><br /> - Ed Kyle

 

[syndroma]

Well, Russian media is in its infancy, it doesn't pay attention to details. Check out the pictures attached to the first news articles about the failure:<br />http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_main.main?p_news_title_id=91784&p_news_razdel_id=4<br />http://www.vz.ru/society/2006/7/27/43097.html<br />http://top.rbc.ru/index.shtml?/news/incidents/2006/07/27/27012702_bod.shtml<br /><br />First one - state TV channel - shows manned Soyuz.<br />Second one - a business magazine - shows Proton.<br />Last one - popular news agency - shows Energiya. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[publiusr]

Energiya? "I guess with all those satellites--they thought they needed it.<br /><br />R-36M is about Titan II class IIRC.<br /><br />Bigelow must be living right. <br /><br />Still, I think more of Dnepr than those smaller liquid fueled SLBMs.<br /><br /> Now that is just asking for trouble. <br /><br />Not only did the gnords at the Planetary Society fail once--but twice with those.<br /><br />And they presume to tell Griffin his business.<br /><br />Idiots.

 

[edkyle98]

Now Roskosmos director Perminov has said that the cause of the accident was a combustion chamber failure. NOT Ukraine's fault after all! <br /><br />http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10699502&PageNum=0<br /><br /> - Ed Kyle