Russia says satellite launch failure due to programming…

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday the failed launch of a 2.6 billion-rouble ($44.95 million) satellite last month was due to an embarrassing programming error.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly-launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East.

Eighteen smaller satellites belonging to scientific, research and commercial companies from Russia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Japan, Canada and Germany, were on board the same rocket.

 

Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly-launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East.  The rocket carrying the satellites had been programmed with the wrong coordinates, he said, saying it had been given bearings for take-off from a different cosmodrome – Baikonur – which Moscow leases from Kazakhstan.

WHAT HAPPENED? 

Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly-launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East. 

The rocket carrying the satellites had been programmed with the wrong coordinates  – for take-off from a different cosmodrome – Baikonur – which Moscow leases from Kazakhstan.

Speaking to Rossiya 24 state TV channel, Rogozin said the failure had been caused by human error.

The rocket carrying the satellites had been programmed with the wrong coordinates, he said, saying it had been given bearings for take-off from a different cosmodrome – Baikonur – which Moscow leases from Kazakhstan.

“The rocket was really programmed as if it was taking off from Baikonur,” said Rogozin. 

“They didn’t get the coordinates right.”

The Vostochny spaceport, laid out in the thick taiga forest of the Amur Region, is the first civilian rocket launch site in Russia.

In April last year, after delays and massive costs overruns, Russia launched its first rocket from Vostochny, a day after a technical glitch forced an embarrassing postponement of the event in the presence of President Vladimir Putin.

The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit

The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit

The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit

Russian news agencies initially reported the likely cause was the failure of the booster’s final stage, the Fregat. 

The Roscosmos website earlier said: ‘During the first planned communication session an attempt to establish connection failed due to the spacecraft’s absence on the target orbit. Currently all information is being analysed.’ 

The booster also carried 18 micro satellites built in Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. 

The unmanned Soyuz-2.1b rocket was sent into space with a Fregat booster but contact was lost with the Meteor-M spacecraft after it reached its intermediate orbit. 



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