Another Russian Rocket Crashes

[Dah-Henny]

Well, since Charlie uses the Russians to launch a lot of his satellites, I thought this would be the appropriate place to post.

A Russian Proton-M rocket with an advanced satellite on board crashed outside of Kazakhstan's territory on Friday, about nine minutes after lift-off. The Express-AM4R would have been Russia’s most advanced and powerful satellite.

http://rt.com/news/159304-proton-rocket-crashed-kazakhstan/

 

[navychop]

I'm not sure Echostar will have that option much longer, the way things are going.


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[HDRoberts]

I'm pretty sure after the last launch (E16), they've switched to Arianespace for future launches. E17 (a Hughesnet internet bird) already used them 2 years ago.

http://www.arianespace.com/news-press-release/2012/11-26-2012-EchoStar-launch-contract.asp

 

[nelson61]

EchoStar 18 (110 West) is scheduled for next year using Arianspace.

 

[nelson61]

Well, since Charlie uses the Russians to launch a lot of his satellites, I thought this would be the appropriate place to post.
http://rt.com/news/159304-proton-rocket-crashed-kazakhstan/

The press reports covering the rash of failures over the past couple years talk about how most of the old experts (from the Soviet Union days) have died or retired taking their knowledge with them. Then they consolidated manufacturing (either to cut costs or to improve reliability which does not seem to have fixed their problem).

Add that in with their northern launch pads which require the satellite to carry extra fuel (weight) to move from their inclined launch orbit and it sure does not look good for their launch business.

But, most of the Arlene launches also Russian motors for their launch vehicle.

The satellite lost was a big one, comparable in features to the latest EchoStar or Directv satellites.

 

[jpmarto]

It was taken out by a UFO. Really, it must be true, the Internet never lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVQ5SJhUQg

 

[HDRoberts]

EchoStar 18 (110 West) is scheduled for next year using Arianspace.

And Echostar 19 and 20 (no idea where they are going) in 2016.

Only Russian launch is called Echostar T2, formerly Terrestar 2. Echostar bought Terrestar in 2012 off bankruptcy, and this launch was probably already contracted for. Nothing to do with the TV or Hughesnet sats.

 

[navychop]

Anybody know if the failed 3rd stage was a Breeze (Briz-M or other variant)?



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[nelson61]

Anybody know if the failed 3rd stage was a Breeze (Briz-M or other variant)?

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3rd stage is last stage of Proton rocket. Breeze is stage 4 and 5.

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[navychop]

Thank you. So much for Proton reliability. Manufacturing defect is my guess.


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[mike123abc]

But, most of the Arlene launches also Russian motors for their launch vehicle.

I thought that was only for lighter loads.

 

[navychop]

Well, Arlene is kinda thin......


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