Russian mission control loses contact with Progress cargo ship heading to the ISS
7 replies, posted
[IMG]https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/progms04_quick.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]
An automated spaceship carrying nearly 5,400 pounds of rocket fuel, food, water and a new Russian spacesuit blasted off from Kazakhstan on Thursday aboard a Soyuz booster on the way to replenish supply stocks on the International Space Station, but the mission may have run into trouble minutes after launch.
The Russian Progress MS-04 cargo craft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1451:52 GMT (9:51:52 a.m. EST; 8:51 p.m. Baikonur time) Thursday, roughly the moment the Earth’s rotation brings the remote Central Asia spaceport in line with the space station’s flight path. The three-stage kerosene-fueled Soyuz booster heaved the cargo ship northeast from Baikonur and dropped its four strap-on boosters around two minutes after liftoff. An aerodynamic shield covering the Progress spacecraft jettisoned a few minutes later, followed by separation of the Soyuz core stage and ignition of the rocket’s third stage RD-0110 engine.
But Russian mission control lost stable contact with the rocket and its cargo payload soon after, and engineers were unable to confirm the success of the launch... “ratty” telemetry from the spacecraft left ground controllers struggling to verify the status of the Progress cargo freighter. Rob Navias, a NASA TV commentator covering the launch, reported there was some indication the Soyuz third stage and Progress supply carrier may have prematurely separated.Signals from the Progress spacecraft did show the vehicle deployed its navigation antennas after reaching space, but engineers were unable to confirm the spaceship unfurled its solar array wings.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, tweeted that mission control lost telemetry with the vehicle at about T+plus 6 minutes, 23 seconds, more than two minutes before the Progress spacecraft was to have arrived in orbit.
Navias later said that the telemetry link was restored, at least intermittently.
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[URL]https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/12/01/progress-ms04-launch/[/URL]
[URL]https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/804344051201875968[/URL]
Although it's possible the ship has already crashed in China
[URL]http://tass.com/science/916235[/URL]
It's confirmed the ship crashed in Siberia
[URL]http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russian-cargo-spaceship-crashes-en-9375246[/URL]
[URL]https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/804382663469596673?lang=en[/URL]
Also possible video
[QUOTE][video=youtube;J-KXBFvGLm0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-KXBFvGLm0[/video][/QUOTE]
Chris almighty...
The ISS can't catch a break - 2 cargo losses in 2 years.
At least it doesn't appear to be another separation issue, those things plague the Soyuz.
Space remains hard.
gotta wonder if the soyuz based spacecraft could use another redesign
[QUOTE=Sableye;51458098]gotta wonder if the soyuz based spacecraft could use another redesign[/QUOTE]
Actually they're planning on moving to the new Angara family of carriers, but it's still under testing, and the heavy and superheavy variants haven't even made their maiden flights yet. Also it's obvious the new rockets may easily be plagued with a lot of teething problems as well.
Should've applied a holy buff for +17 to basic protection on launch.
[img]http://esquire.kz/img/6/620.png[/img]
that launch platform looks sick
For a second I thought ISIS was in space or captured a rocket
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