…especially if it is the stoopid Russians. Not just one satellite but three in this rocket. That’s smart! I wonder who was the chief engineer of this launch?
Russian rocket takes a nosedive after launch in Kazakhstan
A Russian Proton-M rocket upended itself less than a minute after launch Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, exploding in a fireball of toxic chemicals.
The rocket was supposed to put three of Russia’s Glonass global positioning satellites into orbit, but during its ascent, it rolled over and blasted its way back downward toward the Kazakh steppes, breaking apart just before hitting the ground.
Russian news media said there were no immediate reports of injuries, but a toxic cloud of rocket fuel drifted toward the city of Baikonur, about 40 miles (64 miles) downwind. Residents were told to stay indoors and close all windows. The Interfax news service reported that areas of the Baikonur launch complex were evacuated.
“A bad failure in the highly politically sensitive program in the days of political crisis,” Igor Lissov, an editor for Russia’s Cosmonautics News, wrote in a posting on the independent NASASpaceflight.com discussion forum. “Pretty bad, even without casualties.”
The cause of the failure was not immediately determined: The flaw could lie in the rocket hardware, or in the launch guidance software.
Russia’s Nauka laboratory module is due to be launched on a Proton-M rocket late this year as an addition to the International Space Station. If the investigation of Tuesday’s failed launch identifies a problem with the Proton’s first stage, that mission may well have to be delayed.
[QUOTE=“c.captain;113867”]…especially if it is the stoopid Russians. Not just one satellite but three in this rocket. That’s smart! I wonder who was the chief engineer of this launch?
DOH![/QUOTE]
One day Karma is going to blind side you like a run away Mac truck with no brakes going downhill.
who suspended the Navstar program because of some o rings that didnt work, how simple is an o’ring
and you have to hand it to them first satellite and first man in space adn i’l bet your DGPS decoder is using Glonass as well as Navstar, so they are keeping you safe while you sleep
as for their driving
[QUOTE=RubberRhib888;113948]One day Karma is going to blind side you like a run away Mac truck with no brakes going downhill.[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah…I’m ready for Karma to do its worst. It has been trying pretty hard to send me reeling over all these years but I am still spitting nasty invective back in its face!