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Major Proton launch failure

Kryten

By Kryten
in Science & Spaceflight

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Kryten

Kryten

Posted
Posted (edited)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAnM-1Ch8Y

This is breaking, I actually just watched it happen on Roscosmos' livefeed. We're not even sure there aren't casualties yet; it came down close to the pad and has extremely nasty propellants. Just terrible...

Edited by Kryten
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Bunsen

Bunsen

Posted
Posted (edited)

DAMN YOU ASAS!

Um, I mean, hope nobody was hurt. That visible stream from one side made me think engine failure at first, but it almost looks like it's coming from between two of the side-mounted UDMH tanks and the color is consistent with N2O4, which is stored in the central body. I'm starting to think that's a secondary consequence of a failure that started right at launch -- it looks to me like the rocket is beginning to yaw even as it leaves the first camera's field of view. I don't see how a pure guidance failure would damage a tank that quickly, so my wild-ass guess is something went sideways with an engine's gimbal or support structure and the guidance system went crazy trying to correct for it.

edit: I'm now reading references to a normal nitrogen tetroxide purge that happens soon after launch, so that plume may be entirely unrelated to the failure. In that case, I'll just blame ASAS.

Edited by Bunsen
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Tommygun

Tommygun

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Russia Today is reporting a "nuclear fuel" leak.

http://rt.com/news/proton-m-rocket-takeoff-crash-514/

Probably a typo, but if not, this may end up going to hell in a handbasket really quickly.

It does have cesium clocks for the three Global Navigation Satellites it was carrying.

I don't imagine they hold a lot of it thought.

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Bunsen

Bunsen

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It does have cesium clocks for the three Global Navigation Satellites it was carrying.

I don't imagine they hold a lot of it thought.

Those use cesium-133, which is stable. Atomic clocks are based on microwave-frequency transitions of nuclear spin states, not on nuclear reactions or decay. I can't imagine any reason there would be nuclear material on board that rocket, so I'm chalking that up to RT's usual standard of reporting.

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Kryten

Kryten

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From the video, looks like one of the boosters failed / had a leak.

Just before it burst into flames, there was a shot of the engines; all six were definitely still thrusting.

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Kryten

Kryten

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We now have reports that glonass-m satellites contain RTGs for backup power.

False alarm, sorry everyone, only first-gen glonass sats have it, not the -m models on this launch.

Edited by Kryten
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Bunsen

Bunsen

Posted
Posted
We now have reports that glonass-m satellites contain RTGs for backup power.

:0.0:

Why the hell would... I guess the old Soviet "NEEDS MOAR RADIOISOTOPES" design philosophy is still going strong?

Edit: Just read Kryten's edited post. Heh.

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