NYTimes: Russian Booster Rocket Fails to Deliver Satellites (Again?)

[kawaraj]

By ANNA KORDUNSKY
Published: August 7, 2012

MOSCOW — A Russian booster rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites malfunctioned during a launching early Tuesday, failing to deliver the satellites into their proper orbit and rendering them useless and unsalvageable.

The mishap was another blow to Russia’s space program, which has been plagued by malfunctions, crashes and failed launchings. The failure was particularly glaring because it came just hours after NASA’s successful landing of a research probe on Mars.

Acknowledging the starkly different outcomes, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri O. Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s military industry, suggested in a Twitter post that the national space agency, Roscosmos, was struggling because of aging leadership. “As long as the youngest Roscosmos director is 62, we can only dream of Mars rovers,” Mr. Rogozin said.

The cause of the failure is under investigation, officials said.

The satellites, worth about $45 million, were intended to provide telecommunications services for Indonesian and Russian customers. They were carried by a Proton rocket, with a Briz-M booster, launched from Russia’s Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

During the launching, the Briz-M booster activated as scheduled but switched off after only seven seconds instead of the more than 18 minutes needed to propel the satellites into the proper orbit, Roscosmos said in a statement.

The booster and the two satellites have “not been detected on the transition orbit,” the space agency said, but rather “from the interim emergency orbit,” indicating a failure.

A Roscosmos spokesman said that space experts worldwide would monitor the lost satellites and that at least for the moment, they posed no danger to the International Space Station. “We have many years of successful experience in ensuring the safety of the station,” the spokesman said.

A similar malfunction with the Briz-M booster last August resulted in the loss of another communications satellite, which floated in space until March, when Russian scientists redirected it into the Pacific Ocean.

Aleksandr Zheleznyakov, a scientist with the Federation of Russian Cosmonautics, said the latest mishap was “a considerable blow to the industry’s image, particularly taking into account our many setbacks in the last couple of years.”

One of the lost satellites, called the Telekom-3, was the first Russian-made satellite bought by Indonesia. In May, a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner crashed in Indonesia during a demonstration flight for potential buyers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/w...-rocket-fails-to-deliver-satellites.html?_r=1

Indonesia must be disappointed by Russia tech.

 

[anarchy 99]

They messed up a mission to mars recently aswell. Russia is turning into a laughing stock.

 

[ptldM3]

They messed up a mission to mars recently aswell. Russia is turning into a laughing stock.

Look at the amount of launches Russia has conducted and the amount of launches China has contucted before opening your mouth. I would like to see China conduct 3,000 more launches and not have any failures.

 

[Martian2]

Look at the amount of launches Russia has conducted and the amount of launches China has contucted before opening your mouth. I would like to see China conduct 3,000 more launches and not have any failures.

China's launch record is TEN times better than Russia's

China only had 1.5 failures in the last 15 years. That's one failure per DECADE (see second citation below).

I think Russia had 7 failures (including this one) in the last three years alone. That's 2 failures per YEAR (see first citation below).

Chinese space technology is clearly superior and more reliable. You can't use the number of rocket launches as an excuse. China launches roughly as many rockets as Russia per year in recent times.

When you divide the number of Russian failures by the number of rocket launches, Russian rockets fail roughly 10 times more often than Chinese rockets.

----------

Russia suffers another embarrassing failure in space

"Russia suffers another embarrassing failure in space
By Vladimir Isachenkov

Associated Press
Posted: 08/07/2012 05:31:40 PM PDT
Updated: 08/07/2012 05:31:40 PM PDT

MOSCOW -- Russia's space pride suffered another blow Tuesday when a booster rocket failed to place two communications satellites into target orbits, a mishap that came a day after NASA successfully landed a robotic vehicle on Mars.

Russia's Roscosmos space agency said the Proton-M rocket was launched just before midnight Monday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The booster's first stages worked fine, but the upper stage intended to give the final push to the satellites switched off prematurely.

The agency said that the engine's malfunction stranded the Russian Express MD-2 and Indonesia's Telkom-3 satellites in a low orbit where they can't be recovered.

"The satellites can be considered lost," Roscosmos spokeswoman Anna Vedishcheva said on Rossiya television.

The failure comes a day after NASA managed to land a roving laboratory the size of a compact car on Mars after an eight-month, 352-million-mile journey.

A Russian robotic probe designed to study a moon of Mars got stranded in Earth orbit after its launch in November and eventually came crashing down in January.

A few months before, a Soyuz booster rocket similar to those ferrying crews and cargo to the International Space Station failed, prompting officials to consider leaving the space outpost unmanned. Russian space officials eventually tracked down the reason, saying it was caused by "accidental" manufacturing flaws and the Soyuz launches resumed.

Those mishaps followed other failures. Russia lost three navigation satellites in December 2010, then a military satellite in February 2011 and a telecommunications satellite in August of that year.

Officials blamed the botched launches on the post-Soviet industrial meltdown that stymied modernization of a once-proud space program, which put the first satellite in orbit and sent the first human into space. Despite a steady increase of funding thanks to oil revenues, Russia's space industries continue to rely on obsolete equipment and an aging workforce, and production standards have degraded.

"It's very difficult to get out of the pit the Russian space industries have fallen into," said Igor Marinin, the editor of the Novosti Kosmonavtiki monthly magazine that covers space industry news.

Russia's space agency chief Vladimir Popovkin has ordered the establishment of quality inspection teams at plants that produce rocket parts. The inspectors have the authority to halt production if they see that a plant is struggling to maintain quality standards.

Popovkin's predecessor, Anatoly Perminov, who lost his job after previous launch failures, also said that the latest failure had likely been rooted in a manufacturing flaw."

----------

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/08/chinas-third-launch-week-long-march-2c-fails/

"With official Chinese media reports being tight-lipped – as is usual for China in the event of a problem – the exact cause of the failure is unknown. However, given the failure is now official, this would be the first time the Long March 2C has failed in its 35 launch career, and only the second Chinese failure since February, 1996."

 

[LeGenD]

Mishaps can happen.

No need to underestimate Russians due to such incidents.

 

[ptldM3]

China's launch record is TEN times better than Russia's

No it isn’t. Don’t lie.

3280753China only had 1.5 failures in the last 15 years. That's one failure per DECADE (see second citation below).

Another lie. China has had at least 7 failures from 1995-2011.


http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/czfail.txt


But please continue pounding your chest.

I think Russia had 7 failures (including this one) in the last three years alone. That's 2 failures per YEAR (see first citation below).

It‘s 6 not 7 and Russia has conducted far more launches than China.

Chinese space technology is clearly superior and more reliable[/B]. You can't use the number of rocket launches as an excuse. China launches roughly as many rockets as Russia per year in recent times.

Talk about delusional. Russian rockets still maintain some of the highest success rates per launch. Most platforms have well over a 90 percent success rate with a few at .97-.98. And do not lie Russia conducts far more launches than China, more launches means more chances of failures.



Russia China

2012 15 11
2011 31 15
2010 31 15
2009 32 6
2008 27 11
2007 26 10
2006 24 6
2005 25 5
2004 22 8
2003 21 6
2002 23 4
2001 23 1
2000 34 5
1999 28 4

Total 362 181

So in just 13 year Russia has had 181 more launches than China. This is not substantial? Lets see China launch an additional 181 rockets than talk.

When you divide the number of Russian failures by the number of rocket launches, Russian rockets fail roughly 10 times more often than Chinese rockets.

Already proven to be a lie. Russia has had problems, there is no one denying it but people like you seem to relish at other ‘s failures. When Chinese rockets fail you will almost never see Russians in any forum mock or laugh. When it happens to Russians we see Chinese jumping for joy. I though my old Chinese professor was joking when he said that Chinese view themselves as to superior race but the guys was telling the truth.

 

[KRAIT]

These guys relish when others fail. And many Chinese on this forum outright hate Russians, Martian advocated going to war with Russia he than stated he would gladly kill Russian. Other members here have called me subhuman, a rapist, a murderer, a skinhead Nazi, a vodka guzzler, and a bunch of other nasty names. Like I said I did not believe my Chinese professor when he said that Chinese people view themselves as superior to others but now it's clear.

Your professor is right. Welcome to our club, constantly mocked by these few people.

 

[twocents]

These guys relish when others fail. And many Chinese on this forum outright hate Russians, Martian advocated going to war with Russia he than stated he would gladly kill Russian. Other members here have called me subhuman, a rapist, a murderer, a skinhead Nazi, a vodka guzzler, and a bunch of other nasty names. Like I said I did not believe my Chinese professor when he said that Chinese people view themselves as superior to others but now it's clear.

Visitors to defence forums tend to be a special breed. You ought to be aware of it and take their comments in stride. (Incidentally, I have not come across the sort of name-calling directed at Russians from Chinese members as you allege)

Chinese space experts still think highly of Russian space capabalities. They rank Russia ahead of Europe, China and Japan. At the same time they also point out that reduced funding and the loss of suppliers in former Soviet republics have negatively impacted Russian space industry.

 

[isro2222]

Russian rocket failed due to spare parts and not technology.... Russia far ahead then other nation in technology. The problem lies on faulty spare parts.... Even india used russian spare parts and our rocket blown up.... Its the spare parts. No doubt about Russian Technology. They are far best then china or indian technology....

 

[ptldM3]

Visitors to defence forums tend to be a special breed. You ought to be aware of it and take their comments in stride. (Incidentally, I have not come across the sort of name-calling directed at Russians from Chinese members as you allege)

Chinese space experts still think highly of Russian space capabalities. They rank Russia ahead of Europe, China and Japan. At the same time they also point out that reduced funding and the loss of suppliers in former Soviet republics have negatively impacted Russian space industry.

Many of the guys have been banned. Still I find it funny how some members disregard the disparity in launches. Russia has had a string of issues the last couple of years but than again the amount of launches Russia conducts is staggering, Russia still doubles, triples or quadruples the launches of many countries so naturally it would be expected that they have more failures. There is a certain members here they keeps spewing misinformation and twisting reality, he lied with the figures and than he tries to claim that the amount of launches do not matter and that the amount of launches Russia and China conducts is about equal, which in reality is incorrect. 181 more launches in significant, it took China 13 years to launch that many rockets, but phfuuu what’s 181 launches and 13 years, close enough according to one guy.

It should also be noted that other countries such as the US use Russian engines to power some of thir rockets.

 

[Martian2]

No it isn’t. Don’t lie.

Another lie. China has had at least 7 failures from 1995-2011.

http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/czfail.txt

But please continue pounding your chest.

It‘s 6 not 7 and Russia has conducted far more launches than China.

Talk about delusional. Russian rockets still maintain some of the highest success rates per launch. Most platforms have well over a 90 percent success rate with a few at .97-.98. And do not lie Russia conducts far more launches than China, more launches means more chances of failures.


Russia China

2012 15 11
2011 31 15
2010 31 15
2009 32 6
2008 27 11
2007 26 10
2006 24 6
2005 25 5
2004 22 8
2003 21 6
2002 23 4
2001 23 1
2000 34 5
1999 28 4

Total 362 181

So in just 13 year Russia has had 181 more launches than China. This is not substantial? Lets see China launch an additional 181 rockets than talk.

Already proven to be a lie. Russia has had problems, there is no one denying it but people like you seem to relish at other ‘s failures. When Chinese rockets fail you will almost never see Russians in any forum mock or laugh. When it happens to Russians we see Chinese jumping for joy. I though my old Chinese professor was joking when he said that Chinese view themselves as to superior race but the guys was telling the truth.

1. My citations for Chinese launch failures are from reputable mainstream sources, such as NasaSpaceflight.com.

Your citation is a text file. Give me a break. That's not a reputable citation. Anybody can create a text file. You lose.

You can't count the two Chinese KT-1 tech demonstration launches in 2002 and 2003. The KT-1 is not a commercial launch vehicle. Those two failed MILITARY tests were prior to China's successful anti-satellite (ASAT) test in 2007.

You are comparing apples and oranges. If you're going to bring in China's two failed KT-1 tests for 2002 and 2003 then I'm going to bring in the numerous Russian Bulava test failures. A comparison is useful only if you compare apples to apples (e.g. civilian rocket launches). You're trying to compare apples to oranges.

2. Try reading my sentence again. I said 7 Russian launch failures in 3 years.

I didn't say Russia had 7 more launches than China. I didn't lie. You can't read.

3. Regarding your last point, my claim that China's launch record is TEN times better than Russia's has already taken into account the larger number of Russian launches.

Russia had 7 launch failures in 3 years. That's 2.3 launch failures per year. Over a ten year period, assuming constancy in Russian launch failures, we expect 23 total launch failures over a decade.

According to your statistic (which looks about right to me), Russia launched twice the number of rockets than China. 23 total Russian launch failures divided by two would equal 11.5 "normalized" launch failures over a decade when we compare to Chinese launch failures.

According to NasaSpaceflight.com and other mainstream sources that I have seen, China had 1.5 failures over 15 years. There was one complete failure and the other semi-failure placed a satellite into the wrong orbit.

By the way, the timeframe under discussion is the last 15 years (which means 1998-2012 inclusive). I have no idea why you are pushing the timeframe back to 1995. That would become an 18 year timeframe. I didn't lie. You can't count.

The satellite was "saved" by using its onboard fuel to place it into the proper orbit. This reduced the satellite's overall life expectancy and hence, it was considered half-a-failure.

Anyway, 1.5 Chinese launch failures over 15 years equal one "normalized" Chinese launch failure over a ten year period.

I stand by my claim that China's "normalized" one CIVILIAN rocket launch failure per decade is ten times better than Russia's "normalized" 11.5 CIVILIAN rocket launch failures per decade.

 

[Damadji]

Russia is a pioneer in the space no one can match them.

Soon they will bounce back.

Best of luck to Russia

Failure of mission hits Mars research: China

BEIJING - The loss of China's first interplanetary probe, attached to an ill-fated Russian spacecraft, has cost scientists the chance to conduct breakthrough research on Mars, a top scientist said.

Failure of mission hits Mars research|National|chinadaily.com.cn

 

[zzzz]

Russia had 7 launch failures in 3 years. That's 2.3 launch failures per year. Over a ten year period, assuming constancy in Russian launch failures, we expect 23 total launch failures over a decade.

According to your statistic (which looks about right to me), Russia launched twice the number of rockets than China. 23 total Russian launch failures divided by two would equal 11.5 "normalized" launch failures over a decade when we compare to Chinese launch failures.

So China had 2 failures in last 2 years according to your statistic. Assuming constant rate of chinese failures we expect China to have 10 failures over ten year period. That is 10 "normalized" launch failures per decade. How is it 10 times better? You are really some funny troll

 

[Martian2]

Self-delete. Computer glitch.

 

[zzzz]

Since you're trying to be a smart aleck, I will prove to you that Russia's civilian rocket launch record is roughly 10 times worse than China's record.

Nope, its me who is going to prove what a fraud you are

Space Launch Report 2012 Launch Stats

Launch Vehicle by Success Rate 

================================================================
                    SPACE LAUNCH REPORT

        ACTIVE LAUNCH VEHICLE RELIABILITY STATISTICS
================================================================
           by Ed Kyle      as of August 7, 2012       
================================================================

Top active space launch vehicles ranked by their predicted 
orbital success rate*.  Failures include incorrect orbits.
   
================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================ 
Soyuz-U         741   761x   .97  .97      5    8/24/11  1973-
Soyuz-FG         30    30   1.00  .97     30    None     2001-
CZ-4(A/B/C)      28    28   1.00  .97     28    None     1988-
Kosmos 3M       423   446    .95  .95     22    11/20/00 1964- 
Ariane 5-ECA     35    36    .97  .95     35    12/11/02 2002-   
CZ-2D            16    16   1.00  .94     16    None     1993-
Atlas 5          30    31    .97  .94     21    6/15/07  2002- 
Delta 4M(+)      14    14   1.00  .94     14    None     2002-  
CZ-2(C)(/SD/SM)  35    37    .95  .92      1    08/18/11 1974- 
CZ-2F(T1)        10    10   1.00  .92     10    None     1999-
Soyuz FG/Fregat  10    10   1.00  .92     10    None     2003- 
Minotaur 1       10    10   1.00  .92     10    None     2000- 
H-2A             20    21    .95  .91     15    11/29/03 2001-
CZ-3B/3C         28    30    .93  .91     16    8/31/09  1996-
Proton-M/Briz-M  53    58    .91  .90      0    08/06/12 2001- 
Dnepr            16    17    .94  .89     10    7/26/06  1999-
CZ-3/3A          33    36    .92  .89     23    8/18/96  1984-
Zenit 3SL/DMSL   29    32    .91  .88      8    1/30/07  1999-
PSLV             19    21    .90  .87     17    9/29/97  1993-
Pegasus (H/XL)   36    41    .88  .86     27    11/4/96  1991-
Rokot/Briz/K(M)  15    17    .88  .84      1    02/01/11 1994-
Soyuz-U/Fregat    4     4   1.00  .83      4    None     2000-
Soyuz 2-1a/Fregat 8     9#   .89  .82      6    5/21/09  2006-
Minotaur 4(+)     3     3++ 1.00  .80      3    None     2010- 
Ariane 5ES        3     3   1.00  .80      3    None     2008-
H-2B              3     3   1.00  .80      3    None     2009-
Falcon 9          3     3   1.00  .80      3    None     2010-
Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat 6     7    .86  .78      0    12/23/11 2006- 
Zenit 2(M/SB)    30    38    .78  .77      7    9/9/98   1985-
Zenit 3F/FregatSB 2     2   1.00  .75      2    None     2011-
Shtil'            2     2   1.00  .75      2    None     1998-
Delta IV-H        5     6    .83  .75      5    12/21/04 2004-
Zenit 3SLB/DMSLB  4     5    .80  .71      4(B) 4/28/08  2008-
Soyuz 2-1b        1     1   1.00  .67      1    None     2008-
Vega              1     1   1.00  .67      1    None     2012- 
Safir             3     4    .75  .67      3    8/16/08  2008-
Shavit(-1,-2)     6     9    .67  .64      2    9/6/04   1988-
Taurus (XL)       6     9    .67  .64      0    3/4/11   1994-
GSLV              2     7    .29  .33      0    12/25/10 2001-
Proton-M/DM-03    0     1    .00  .33      0    12/5/10  2010-
Volna             0     1    .00  .33      0    6/21/05  2005-
KSLV-1 (Angara)   0     2    .00  .25      0    6/10/10  2009-
Unha (TD-2)       0     3%   .00  .20      0    1/12/12  2006-
================================================================

Top Russian space launch vehicles have 97% and 95% success rate with hundreds of launches performed. Theres no single Chinese vehicle with more than 50 launches. The only 3 vehicles with at least 30 launches are
CZ-3/3A 33 36 .92 .89 23 8/18/96 1984-
CZ-3B/3C 28 30 .93 .91 16 8/31/09 1996-
CZ-2(C)(/SD/SM) 35 37 .95 .92 1 08/18/11 1974-

And they have a horrible rate of 92%, 93% and 95% success rate