This weekend in space.... things go wrong!

[GeneCash]

Those two new Galileo navsats?? Wrong orbit. What is this? Kerbal Space Program??

Instead of a 23,500km orbit, they've got a 13,700km perigee. I guess Arianespace doesn't know how to use MechJeb.

http://spaceflightnow.com/soyuz/vs09/140822anomaly/

SpaceX vertical landing test rocket explodes. Yup, this is Kerbal Space Program, alright!

Apparently it was the safety abort system firing off, but no telling yet what triggered it.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1408/22falcon9r/

[Javster]

Jeb!!!! What have you done??

[cantab]

Ah well, the Galileo sats can circularise on the monoprop right. Right?

[Kryten]

Ah well, the Galileo sats can circularise on the monoprop right. Right?

Delta-V to circularise from that orbit would be about 700m/s. They're not in the right inclination either, which brings it to about 1000m/s for needed orbit. They only have about 300.

EDIT:

Instead of a 23,500km orbit, they've got a 13,700km perigee. I guess Arianespace doesn't know how to use MechJeb

Arianespace was only operating the rocket. As far as we can tell, the fault lies with the manufacturer of the stage, NPO Lavochkin.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Kryten

[K^2]

Yup. Who's better to get your satellites to correct orbit than people responsible for Fobos-Grunt?

[Justy]

Yup. Who's better to get your satellites to correct orbit than people responsible for Fobos-Grunt?

During the webcast, I thought I heard the Arianespace presenter proudly proclaim that while the first three stages of the Soyuz-ST were Russian-made, the Fregat upper stage was European. This surprised me, and doesn't seem correct...

Do note that while Lavochkin seriously kerballed Fobos-Grunt, they did successfully return samples from the Moon with a robot, and only one (Hughes Aircraft's Pioneer 13 night-side lander) of the 11 Venus landers that survived functional on the surface wasn't a Lavochkin product. They had plenty of hiccups there (lenscaps popping off as designed but ending up right where surface tools needed to poke), but holy cow, they built stuff that survived to the surface of Venus.

[Nibb31]

Yup. Who's better to get your satellites to correct orbit than people responsible for Fobos-Grunt?

Especially when those people are launching Galileo satellites that compete with their own Glonass system...

[Nuke]

and another

http://www.adn.com/article/20140825/army-rocket-exploded-seconds-after-lift-kodiak-site

it was more of a hypersonic weapon test, but the rocket still blew up on the pad and damaged the launch complex.

[Sky_walker]

and another

http://www.adn.com/article/20140825/army-rocket-exploded-seconds-after-lift-kodiak-site

it was more of a hypersonic weapon test, but the rocket still blew up on the pad and damaged the launch complex.

Really beautiful photograph there.

SpaceX vertical landing test rocket explodes. Yup, this is Kerbal Space Program, alright!

Apparently it was the safety abort system firing off, but no telling yet what triggered it.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1408/22falcon9r/

Interesting that they don't seem to be bothered by that and no large investigation is going on for the cause of that accident. They already announced that next Falcon 9 launch will take place no matter what, even though this rocket used the same engines as next launched Falcon will.

During the webcast, I thought I heard the Arianespace presenter proudly proclaim that while the first three stages of the Soyuz-ST were Russian-made, the Fregat upper stage was European. This surprised me, and doesn't seem correct...

You must have misheard something. I watched that webcast and don't recall any claim of that sorts.

And as Kryten mentioned - Arianespace Soyuz Fregat upper stage is build by NPO Lavochkin.

Do note that while Lavochkin seriously kerballed Fobos-Grunt, they did successfully return samples from the Moon with a robot

As they say - .... happens. Doesn't mean that guys in Lavochkin are unable of completing any projects what so ever.

Important question though is how it'll affect relationship between Arianespace and Roscosmos along with future plans for Ariane 6. Current Ariane 6 PPH is too powerful to replace Soyuz but perhaps this accident will push ESA ministers to develop Ariane 6.2 or some other Ariane 6 variant that will replace Soyuz after 2019.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Kryten]

We now have a cause for the galileo failure. Somebody installed some plumbing incorrectly, a hydrazine pipe got too close to a helium pipe, the hydrazine froze, and the rest is history.

[Streetwind]

Plumbing on the Soyuz or on the satellites themselves?

[Kryten]

On fregat. The freeze prevented one set of thrusters from firing, preventing in from properly orientating itself and causing it to the the insertion bun in the wrong direction. A bunch more fregats (1 in 4) in the Lavochkin factory were found to have the same error.

[Streetwind]

Derp. I wonder which poor intern got the blame for that one...