Russian Proton-M Rocket Explodes On Take-Off

[ChinaToday]

A Russian booster rocket carrying three satellites has crashed at a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Spectacular footage showed the Proton-M rocket veering off course seconds after its launch in the early hours, before erupting into a ball of flames and unleashing clouds of noxious black smoke.

"It seems something is going wrong," said a television commentator during the live coverage of the launch.

"Something is wrong. It seems it will be a catastrophe," said the presenter, his voice trembling, shortly before the rocket exploded.

The rocket was supposed to take three Russian Glonass-M navigation satellites into space.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos said there appeared to be no casualties, adding it could not immediately say whether areas near the crash site were being evacuated.

"A rocket carrier fell to the ground and exploded on the territory of the (Baikonur) cosmodrome," the space agency said in a statement.

Kazakh officials said the fumes from the rocket fuel consisting of 600 tons of highly poisonous kerosene, heptyl and amyl might present a danger to the local population.

Residents of several nearby towns were told to stay indoors and keep their windows shut.

The Russian space programme has been a source of national pride in the country since it sent the first man into space in 1961 after launching the first Sputnik satellite four years earlier.

But, more recently, Russia has suffered several major setbacks, notably losing expensive satellites and an unmanned supply ship to the International Space Station.

Russia suffered a disaster at the same cosmodrome in 1960 when a prototype rocket exploded on the launch pad and released the highly poisonous rocket fuel known as the "devil's venom".

The Russian space agency referred to that tragedy as a veritable "inferno" - 126 people were burned alive or vaporised altogether, while others died of noxious fumes or succumbed to burns later.

The Soviet Union, which was then locked in an arms race with the US, imposed total secrecy over the disaster and the files were only declassified in the 1990s.

Russian Proton-M Rocket Explodes On Take-Off

 

[Chanakyaa]

Rocketry is Complex...... Justifies why we use the term...ITS NOT A ROCKET SCIENCE.... To...... Blah Blah...

There could hv been some component malfunction/manufacturing defect.

 

[Bobby]

Very bad news...hope nobody is and will hurt

 

[ephone]

Quality of russan-made rockets is really questionable.

 

[Bobby]

ya..so many failures in a row

 

[gambit]

It looks like there was a booster rocket failure at time stamp 00:11. A dark stream of smoke appears and that is where the rocket begin to deviate from its course. By time stamp 00:20 the rocket is mostly horizontal and begins to spiral, hinting at imbalance thrust from the boosters. Because a booster is obviously mounted off rocket's centerline, asymmetric thrust is inherent, so at least two boosters must be used to balance out the asymmetric thrust.

 

[gambit]

Quality of russan-made rockets is really questionable.

You might want to reconsider that comment...

Russia's 'made-in-China' Proton-M explodes during launch - English pravda.ru

Russia's 'made-in-China' Proton-M explodes during launch

"Russia staked on commercial space launches. I do not know the details, but I have a feeling that this was a typical commercial launch. Only commerce can lead to this. What upsets me most is that we receive spare parts from abroad, from China. It is clear that they work well for themselves. What is space equipment? It's when only two or three from a hundred devices can fly into space. The rest have to go to other areas."

"Russia is currently unable to create equipment that can work in space for a long time. We buy it from China, where they can not make such equipment either, so we get what we can witness today. We can not make satellites without spare parts from the West or from China. That's what the danger is about. Of course, there will be such accidents.

"The infamous launch of Mars Grunt, an accident on board the Proton rocket, and then suddenly it turns out that it all happened because of a failure in the electronic computing unit, which was delivered from China, and the unit was not designed to operate in space. What kind of reform in science can we talk about?

 

[indoPunjabi]

lol i hope Russians learnt the lesson... Next time don't buy made in China products

 

[East Asia United]

lol i hope Russians learnt the lesson... Next time don't buy made in China products

Typical. Only a Yindoo will find this a time to be joking.

 

[oFFbEAT]

^^^^
And a Mullah will keep licking Chinese a**......no matter what......

 

[neehar]

nothing is 100% ideal.wish them all the success next tym.if the products are the problem then they should find alternate supplier..

 

[Archdemon]

Typical. Only a Yindoo will find this a time to be joking.

What time is that? nobody got hurt, only Russian reputation
Shוt happen, even to the best.

 

[Invincible INDIAN]

You might want to reconsider that comment...

Russia's 'made-in-China' Proton-M explodes during launch - English pravda.ru

You nailed him.....

 

[ephone]

At least, China-made rockets have a much better success rate.

As for its claim that some parts are made in China, I do not know. However, the reality is that we have more russian rockets exploded. Our China-made rockets seem to perform quite well.

You might want to reconsider that comment...

Russia's 'made-in-China' Proton-M explodes during launch - English pravda.ru

 

[oFFbEAT]

nothing is 100% ideal.wish them all the success next tym.if the products are the problem then they should find alternate supplier..

The problem is, there is not much alternative, if the Russians can't do it then it is bad news....'cause apart from Russia there is only America, who is very fussy about sharing its technology...