Launch News (Failure!) Triple GLONASS-M atop Proton-M / Block-DM03 on December 5, 2010

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.rian.ru/science/20101210/306994864.html

17:16 10/12/2010

Moscow, Dec 10 - RIA Novosti. As we were informed by chairman of the interdepartmental investigation committee, head of TSNIIMash Gennady Raikunov this Friday, exceeding the nominal fueling of DM-03 upper stage which caused loss of the GLONASS-M satellites is most probably explained by an error in operational documentation, while the personnel who performed tanking, is not to blame.

"According to preliminary data, the calculation for the propellants components volumes to fill was incorrect. We cannot exclude that the error crept into operational documents prepared for the upper stage by RKK Energia. The crews responsible for the upper stage's tanking are not to blame, they simply acted according to the documentation received," - said Raikunov.

"The work of the interdepartmental investigation committee is not over yet. All the assumed caused will be checked and verified, and so long all the above is only preliminary in nature", stressed Raikunov.

Go on, keep creating circumstances when only idiots would agree to seek a job of a rocket engineer, and you receive just a bunch of idiots and no rockets. :facts: :dry:

 

[Wishbone]

That's how oligophrenocracy works - from the top down.

 

[jinglesassy]

Ok so they crashed a rocket because they loaded to much fuel in it?

 

[Wishbone]

Into the orbital tug that was to deliver the sats. The rocket was all right...

 

[SiberianTiger]

Into the orbital tug that was to deliver the sats. The rocket was all right...

Seeing difference between the upper stage and the whole rocket might be strange for our foreign friends...

 

[Urwumpe]

Seeing difference between the upper stage and the whole rocket might be strange for our foreign friends...

Only for Europeans, who think of it like "One launcher, one upper stage"... the USA also have the habit to strap strange upper stages on traditional rockets. :lol:

 

[orb]

RIA Novosti: Probe shows manufacturer responsible for Glonass loss:

The recent loss of three Glonass-M satellites in space was the result of a series of mistakes made by the Russian Energia rocket corporation, the head of the Russian state commission probing the incident said on Friday.

"The preliminary results of the investigation commission indicate that Energia miscalculated how much fuel needed to be loaded into the DM-3 rocket booster," said investigation commission head Gennady Raikunov, who also leads the Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building.

"The amount of oxidant exceeded the norm by 1-1.5 tons and excessive weight prevented the Proton-M rocket from putting the satellites into calculated orbit," the official said.

{...}

 

[Wishbone]

:hail:

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://kremlin.ru/news/9950

A report on GLONASS satellites loss is submitted to President of Russia.

December 29, 2010, 12:50 MSK

Upon reviewing the report on report of Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov, President Dmitry Medvedev decided to discharge from the occupied posts Vyatcheslav Filin, Vice President of RKK Energia Corporation and Chief Designer of Launch Vehicles department of RKK Energia, and Victor Remishevsky, Deputy Head of Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for mistakes introduced into calculation of DM-3 upper stage's tanking. Head of Roscosmos Anatoly Perminov is officially reprimanded.

Following Dmitry Medvedev's direction, additional executive discipline measured shall be introduced in Roscosmos.

Biography reference:

http://www.buran.ru/htm/filin2.htm

Vyatcheslav Mikhailovich Filin

Deputy Chief Designer of Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, Head of the Scientific and Technical Center for Launch Vehicles, Ph.D., Professor, Member of the Academy of Astronautics and the International Informatization Academy, Honored Designer of the Russian Federation
Vyatcheslav Mikhailovich Filin was born in 1939 in Ryazan' region.

In 1963 he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and was assigned as engineer to OKB-1 Design Department. Participated in the development of the lunar spacecraft during the lunar manned program.

From 1982, the very beginning, he was involved as the Deputy Chief Designer for the Coordination of work and Experimental testing in developing of "Energia-Buran" program.

http://www.informprom.ru/person.html?426

Victor Petrovich Remishevsky

Deputy Head of Roscosmos Victor Petrovich Remishevsky was born on September 4, 1952 in town of Kozel'sk in Kaluga territory. His father was a serviceman.

In 1970 he enrolled to study at the Kharkov Higher Military Command School, from which he graduated in 1975, as a military engineer specializing in radio engineering. After graduation he served in the Trans-Baikal region. From 1979 to 2001 he served in various positions at Titov Main Test & Control Centre of Space Assets.

In 2001 he was appointed Chief of Operations of the Space Force. He was responsible for the organization of operations of spacecraft, launch vehicles, technical and launch complexes, as well as complexes of space and ballistic missile defense.

In July 2004, by decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Deputy Head of Federal Space Agency.

Both of them were the chairmans of the State Committee which cleared the Proton-M's launch.

 

[Urwumpe]

http://kremlin.ru/news/9950
Both of them were the chairmans of the State Committee which cleared the Proton-M's launch.

Not a glorious end of their otherwise pretty good careers, but that is the problem with being responsible as the buck stops at their chairs. Maybe not directly for the miscalculations, but for not controlling properly that all is correct. Maybe this means for the future that the members of the state commission will spend the time reading all reports twice. And not just see the autographs in the distribution lists of manuals and checklists as pure formality (And that not just inside Russia).

I doubt that such a tanking error is easily caught at their level though. They just have to leave as public responsibility, but somebody else will sure have to face some punishment because of professional responsibility.

 

[Grover]

hang on, what happened to this satalite? did the upper stage do the wrong burn to get into orbit, and ended up suborbital, so it just hit the atmosphere and came back, landing "somehwere nead hawaii"?

thats pretty bad, i thought these guys had astronauts and technicians watching it all the way up, not just hitting the AP button then going for a coffee. that sort of error is pretty bad for a professional.

 

[Urwumpe]

hang on, what happened to this satalite? did the upper stage do the wrong burn to get into orbit, and ended up suborbital, so it just hit the atmosphere and came back, landing "somehwere nead hawaii"?

No, the upper stage (Block DM, forth stage) had one ton of fuel too much in its tanks, because the ground technicians used the wrong checklists for the fueling. When it launched, the pitch program (a simple function of target pitch over time, without feedback) that was used for the first three stages was calculated for the lighter upper stage, resulting in a strong deviation from the planned course in the third stage (where the ton extra did really hurt).

Also on another misconception: For all unmanned rockets, if the rocket deviates from its course, the only thing you can do as ground crew is destroy it. Rockets are ALWAYS on autopilot. Even if the Space Shuttle crew switches to manual control, there are one to four computers in the background, turning the RHC deflections into hydraulic commands.

And it doesn't really matter if you would install a joystick there for manual remote control: The rocket will be lost anyway, if you notice an anomaly.

 

[Grover]

maybe thats where space travel is going wrong... were too lazy to work out a way to do it ourselves, then blame the technology when it goes wrong... we really are screwed

 

[Urwumpe]

maybe thats where space travel is going wrong... were too lazy to work out a way to do it ourselves, then blame the technology when it goes wrong... we really are screwed

Maybe.

Maybe you just don't know what technology actually is. Even if you just sit on the throne taking a comfortable dump, you are using complex high technology - technology that needed just 30,000 years for getting to this point.

 

[Wishbone]

The decision not to fire Perminov is a shame. It is not the President's business to go about changing deputies.

 

[Grover]

i say put someone in charge who realises that the only safe way to use technology, it to ALWAYS assume that it will break down at the most inconvenient time, and back up accordingly. and to fire whoever put too much fuel in the tank of that rocket, that was a silly thing to do

 

[SiberianTiger]

i say put someone in charge who realises that the only safe way to use technology, it to ALWAYS assume that it will break down at the most inconvenient time, and back up accordingly. and to fire whoever put too much fuel in the tank of that rocket, that was a silly thing to do

This is turning funny. What is to back up accordingly? When you are driving a car, do you always have another one in tow, to use in case the first breaks?

 

[RisingFury]

maybe thats where space travel is going wrong... were too lazy to work out a way to do it ourselves, then blame the technology when it goes wrong... we really are screwed

I nominate this post for FAIL of the Year 2010!

 

[Sky Captain]

I have an idea. Let's put a small capsule on Proton and have an Orbinaut in there to take over the flight control in case of autopilot failure:lol:.

 

[Wishbone]

Just get the explosive out, and put the LES back on. Wait - are you folks planning to launch /me into GEO to save some lousy insurer's bacon like they did for the AIG? No way!