Soyuz with 19 satellites lost

mxaxai · Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:48 pm

The Soyuz with a Fregat upper stage was carrying its prime payload, environmental and weather satellite Meteor M2-1, and 18 smaller satellites. It launched this morning from Vostochny, the second Soyuz to launch there. However, communications with the satellite could not be established and it is currently unclear whether it was placed in a wrong orbit or crashed. Primary suspect for the failure currently is the Fregat upper stage.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/meteor-m2-1.html

Let's hope they did make it into orbit. Even a wrong orbit is probably better than nothing. Usually the Soyuz system is quite reliable, I wonder if this might be related to the new launch site.

Launch trajectory:

Soyuz carrying the Meteor M2-1 at Vostochny Space Port:

KarelXWB · Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:00 pm

The payload may have ended up in the ocean:

The official Russian media then reported that one of the first two firings of the Fregat upper stage had not taken place as planned, possibly leaving the stack in a wrong orbit. There was also early confirmation that the Fregat did begin its first firing, but it was unclear whether it had been concluded as planned.

In the early afternoon Moscow Time, the Interfax news agency reported that preliminary data had indicated that a human error in the pre-programmed flight sequence could have placed the Fregat upper stage into wrong orientation during its first maneuver, sending the space tug and its payloads into the Atlantic Ocean.

Ref http://www.russianspaceweb.com/meteor-m2-1.html

JetBuddy · Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:01 pm

Wow that really sucks. Soyuz is really reliable and dependable, but that doesn't help if a human programmed it wrong.

WIederling · Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:01 pm

JetBuddy wrote:
Wow that really sucks. Soyuz is really reliable and dependable, but that doesn't help if a human programmed it wrong.

I do wonder about the stark disparity of manned and unmanned missions.

Is sabotaging of manned mission too problematic?

JetBuddy · Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:55 pm

WIederling wrote:
JetBuddy wrote:
Wow that really sucks. Soyuz is really reliable and dependable, but that doesn't help if a human programmed it wrong.

I do wonder about the stark disparity of manned and unmanned missions.

Is sabotaging of manned mission too problematic?

What do you mean? That this was sabotage, and that it would happen to manned missions as well if it wasn't for the loss of life?

WIederling · Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:16 pm

JetBuddy wrote:
That this was sabotage, and that it would happen to manned missions as well if it wasn't for the loss of life?

Essentially YES. It is a possibility that should not be excluded in accessing these "mishaps".

Phosphorus · Sun Dec 03, 2017 5:32 pm

Scrap that "sabotage" hypothesis. Manned Soyuz is basically the same design as inherited by Russia from Korolev and USSR. They are designed to survive any stupidity an incompetent operator throws at them. Extra quality control helps too, and the design is robust enough to cope with run-of-the-mill issues. The fact that there are only four of them annually, allows quality control to be thorough enough to make a difference.
Now these "extra stages" like Fregat are designed in the same era of underfunding and mismanagement, and manufactured by the same underpaid and undertrained workforce, that's dropping Phobos-Grunt into the ocean, leaving caps and waste in fuel tanks, etc. Without extra oversight -- all the hell breaks loose.

Soyuz with 19 satellites lost

Soyuz with 19 satellites lost

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