Proton M 3rd stage explodes, leaving MexSat-1 unusable

[Scotius]

According to polish radio, Proton M rocket scheduled to launch Mexican telecom satellite from Baikonur crashed 9 minutes after launch. As of now i can't find any outside confirmation of this, but...yeah.

Edited May 17, 2015 by B787_300
remade the title to be more descriptive of what actually happened

[Lime]

Diden't the third stage explode?

[Scotius]

I have no idea. Report was three lines uttered by a bored presenter Do you have any more information?

EDIT: I found confirmation on media website. Indeed - it was (unspecified as of now) failure of the third stage.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Scotius

[K^2]

From what I've read out of Russian media, third stage engines shut down a minute early, resulting in the stage and payload crashing back to Earth. It fel in unpopulated area. No damage or casualties.

Interestingly, it's a year, almost to the day, since the last Proton failure.

[xenomorph555]

It seems that Russia is reverting back to the 60's in hardware quality.

[J.Random]

UK has no space program. Does it mean it's still back in '30s?

Jokes aside, there were two probable causes in preliminary reports: incorrect assembly and/or 3rd stage steering engines failure.

[Frida Space]

Rocket had reached a height of 160 km and crashed 3400 km down range of Baiknour.

[xenomorph555]

UK has no space program. Does it mean it's still back in '30s?

Jokes aside, there were two probable causes in preliminary reports: incorrect assembly and/or 3rd stage steering engines failure.

Oh sorry, I was talking about the Proton, not your whole country. What I meant was in the 60's Protons were very unreliable, however from the 70's-00's they have become much better but seem to be slipping back for some reason.

[Kryten]

Looks similar to the incident last year, except without ending up far enough downrange to cause an international incident.

[K^2]

UK has no space program. Does it mean it's still back in '30s?

UK is a member to ESA. Besides, Russia is leaning towards '60s in far more way than just the technology.

[J.Random]

What I meant was in the 60's Protons were very unreliable, however from the 70's-00's they have become much better but seem to be slipping back for some reason.

It certainly looks like that, but I don't think the reasons are the same. First Protons may have been unreliable because it was still in R&D phase. Proton-M is 15 years old. NPC Khrunichev has a history of freak accidents with unreliable assembly to blame (remember the sensors connected upside-down?).

Russia is leaning towards '60s in far more way than just the technology.

Keep believing in whatever you are believing.

Edited May 16, 2015 by J.Random

[Kryten]

The previous Proton failures have mostly been on government flights; they buy them nearly at cost and seem to get what they pay for for in terms of quality control. This was an ILS flight, and will heavily erode their cost advantage through increased insurance payments. If this keeps up they could suffer Sealaunch's fate.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Kryten

[Elthy]

Did they change something in the hardware in the last years?

[K^2]

Did they change something in the hardware in the last years?

Nothing substantial in hardware. Just the people.

By the way, Progress M-26M has also had a malfunction less than 24 hours prior, preventing ISS orbit correction. Hopefully just a glitch, though. These things happen, of course, but the recent string of problems is certainly starting to look like more than a coincidence.

Edited May 16, 2015 by K^2

[J.Random]

The previous Proton failures have mostly been on government flights; they buy them nearly at cost and seem to get what they pay do for in terms of quality control. This was an ILS flight, and will heavily erode their cost advantage through increased insurance payments. If this keeps up they could suffer Sealaunch's fate.

Proton has to survive 5 more years, give or take. Then there will be Vostochny and Angara. Hopefully.

[sgt_flyer]

Yup, there was a lot of russian stuff misshaps recently.

Refurbished NK-33s which lead to antares crash (though it was fairly predictible - even during recent tests several NK-33 failed during static fire tests)

the problem with Fregat failure on ESA's galileo launch

progress M-27M which fell back to earth after, apparently, a soyuz Block I fuel leak & explosion,

and today, progress M-26M planned ISS reboost which could not be carried out (they'll consult with nasa, and might retry in 1 week)and the proton-M third stage failure.

Guess nasa will be even more eager to limit dependancy from russian hardware for ISS launches than they are now.

[Frida Space]

Rocket reached 160 km of height and crashed approx. 3400 km downrange of Baikonur. Russia has sent a MI-8 helicopter to investigate after reports of explosions and sounds and stuff

[Kryten]

Proton has to survive 5 more years, give or take. Then there will be Vostochny and Angara. Hopefully.

Angara is still Krunichev-any structural issues with the QC system will remain.

[K^2]

There are forest fires in the area. Local authorities suggest that debris from Proton could have caused it, but EMERCOM denies any evidence of this. Treat it as speculation.

[J.Random]

Angara is still Krunichev-any structural issues with the QC system will remain.

There's a difference: sanity checks/self checks before launch. If software feels that something is wrong with the rocket, it scrubs the launch without human intervention. Hopefully, it will greatly reduce the "sensors are upside down" factor.

[K^2]

There's a difference: sanity checks/self checks before launch. If software feels that something is wrong with the rocket, it scrubs the launch without human intervention. Hopefully, it will greatly reduce the "sensors are upside down" factor.

Isn't that basically what Soyuz 2-1 was supposed to do? The one that launched Progress M-27M?

Oh, and if Vostochny gets built at all, it's going to be a miracle. Last I've heard, workers were protesting again over not being payed.

[J.Random]

Oh, and if Vostochny gets built at all, it's going to be a miracle. Last I've heard, workers were protesting again over not being payed.

That's what happens when you only listen to bad news. They're finishing the power station and cooling station at the moment. Railway is almost finished, the final checkup block (kinda VAB-looking building which splits in half) is coming into shape. Launchpad itself should be finished in July. Regarding the payment - management is fixing the issues, slowly but surely (there's still 10mil unpaid for 100 workers, but money is already wired, not sure why the local management is lagging). Some fatcats are under investigation, which some people may also consider good.

[rtxoff]

*.... Last I've heard, workers were protesting again over not being payed.

You heard wrong. They not protesting about not being payed. They protesting because the work is stopped and they loosing their jobs. Everyone got payed for work he had done the problem is just that the work has stopped.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/workers-at-russian-cosmodrome-protest-conditions-with-rooftop-sos-to-putin/519108.html

BTW funding is a problem with all major space agencies worldwide.

I have the feeling this thread is getting somewhat political, please stop that bull**it.

[J.Random]

No, he heard right, just not the whole story. There were issues with paycheck delays (and significant at that), made possible by a subcontractor's management (the one who also stopped the work because all the money became yachts and such). There's an investigation under way, and the payment issues are getting fixed.

[K^2]

Well, I hope it gets resolved. The guys deserve their money, and another space center wouldn't be a bad thing. Although, I find it a great shame that disputes over Baikonur could not be settled to everyone's satisfaction.