Goddammit: Another Soyuz rocket launch fails - Polidicks

[release] [B]Russia's recent poor launch record has continued with yet another Soyuz rocket failure.[/B] This time, a Soyuz-2 vehicle failed to put a communications satellite into orbit after lifting away from the country's Plesetsk spaceport. Debris is said to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere near the western Siberian town of Tobolsk. In August, a Soyuz failure on a mission to resupply the space station led to a six-week suspension of flights. Friday's rocket was carrying a Meridian-5 satellite, designed to provide communication between ships, planes and coastal stations on the ground, according to RIA Novosti. It was a Soyuz-2.1b, the most modern version of the rocket that has been in service in various forms since the 1960s. The failure is said to have occurred seven minutes into the flight. Sources being quoted by the Russian media talk of an anomaly in the rocket's third stage. "The satellite failed to go into its orbit. A state commission will investigate the causes of the accident," the spokesman of Russia's space forces, Alexei Zolotukhin, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. August's botched launch involved a Soyuz-U. An inquiry into that incident eventually traced the problem to a blocked fuel line, again in the third stage of the vehicle. But the U and 2.1b Soyuz variants use different engines in this segment of the rocket, so no immediate parallels between the two incidents can be drawn. Friday's failure now puts a major question mark against the next Soyuz launch, scheduled for 28 December from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This flight is intended to put in orbit six satellites for the Globalstar satellite phone company. And it will raise concern again among the partners on the International Space Station (ISS) that there may be systematic problems in the Russian launch sector. Following the retirement of the American space shuttle in July, the Soyuz rocket is the only means of getting astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS. August's failure saw manned flights stand down even longer than the six weeks for unmanned Soyuz rockets, and the hiatus put a severe strain on the operation of the space station. Russia has experienced a number of launch mishaps in the past 13 months. On 18 August, the week before the loss of the space station mission, a Proton vehicle failed to put a communications satellite in its proper orbit. Back on 1 February, a Rokot launch also underperformed with a similar outcome. And on 5 December last year, a Proton carrying three navigation spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean. This particular failure is widely believed to have contributed to the decision of the Russian government to replace the then space agency chief, Anatoly Perminov. Vladimir Popovkin took over as the head of Roscosmos in April. The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades. It became stuck in Earth orbit after its launch in November and will probably fall back to Earth next month.[/release] [URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16317099[/URL] NASA should work with the russians to improve on rockets.

it's okay nasa still has their ro- oh yeah right.

I know the Soyuz platform is usually reliable but I really cannot wait till a replacement for the shuttle comes along from NASA or the ESA. NASA and friends should defiantly help them sort it out, seeing as the ISS relies on it. Or EADS or Space X should hurry up and get something that can launch humans into space.

Yeah. Doesn't this mean that the ISS is currently practically unreachable by humans because NASA doesn't have rockets, and Russia can't fucking launch a rocket.

Aren't NASA working on an Orion capsule? not sure if it can do anything with the ISS though. Space X will save us otherwise.

NASA should just start dumping money into SpaceX to get their manned capsules up and running. We don't need to be paying the Russians massively inflated prices to ride in their outdated and increasingly unreliable shit.

[QUOTE=LordCrypto;33878998]Yeah. Doesn't this mean that the ISS is currently practically unreachable by humans because NASA doesn't have rockets, and Russia can't fucking launch a rocket.[/QUOTE] No need to get all testy because a Soyuz failed.

[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/SpaceX_Falcon_9_with_Dragon_COTS_Demo_1_during_static_fire_test.jpg/399px-SpaceX_Falcon_9_with_Dragon_COTS_Demo_1_during_static_fire_test.jpg[/IMG] I am the hero this city needs.

Why is everyone bowing down to SpaceX, they're not promoting innovation or new technologies. They're a corporate business who intends to make money by stealing from NASA.

[QUOTE=ripple3000;33879424]Why is everyone bowing down to SpaceX, they're not promoting innovation or new technologies. They're a corporate business who intends to make money by stealing from NASA.[/QUOTE] Maybe it's because it's a lean, efficient company that is producing affordable and reliable rockets while NASA is off smoking its budget like a cigar and producing designs that will never fly in space.

[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;33879481]Maybe it's because it's a lean, efficient company that is producing affordable and reliable rockets while NASA is off smoking its budget like a cigar and producing designs that will never fly in space.[/QUOTE] Then leave? If you hate your countries government agencies so much.

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[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;33879481]Maybe it's because it's a lean, efficient company that is producing affordable and reliable rockets while NASA is off smoking its budget like a cigar and producing designs that will never fly in space.[/QUOTE] NASA is not "off smoking its budget like a cigar". They're coming up with new stuff all the time, which is really impressive considering how limited their budget is to begin with and has been since the last presidential administration. The SLS rocket design is set to fly in 2017, and the X-37b shuttle has already been tested and was a success.

Shove it up their penis holes.

So why did they cancel the space shuttles again?

Russia has the best underwater satellite coverage.

[QUOTE=ripple3000;33879424]Why is everyone bowing down to SpaceX, they're not promoting innovation or new technologies. They're a corporate business who intends to make money by stealing from NASA.[/QUOTE] Because they're too busy marveling at the ideas and concepts they're touting to notice that they're not as sincere in their intentions as they claim to be. Government of the United States, take note: if you're going to be giving corporations jobs for developing this kind of stuff, then make sure first that they work FOR you, not that they're just cooperating WITH you on their terms and conditions. I would support funding SpaceX and similar private developers provided they did that.

[QUOTE=ripple3000;33879549]Then leave? If you hate your countries government agencies so much.[/QUOTE] sure thing let me just pack up my things and convince norway to let me in i assume you'll be paying for my plane ticket and first month's housing while i search for a job?

[QUOTE=Kopimi;33879903]sure thing let me just pack up my things and convince norway to let me in i assume you'll be paying for my plane ticket and first month's housing while i search for a job?[/QUOTE] [B]Canada[/B] awaits.

[QUOTE=MightyMax;33878335]it's okay nasa still has their ro- oh yeah right.[/QUOTE] NASA has plenty of other launch vehicles. The shuttle was just the showboat.

Why can't all the aerospace agencies work together, that would ease the transition to "peace in space".

[QUOTE=teslacoil;33886661]Why can't all the aerospace agencies work together, that would ease the transition to "peace in space".[/QUOTE] B-b-but Russians! And the Cold War! [B]AND COMMUNISM![/B]

[QUOTE=teslacoil;33886661]Why can't all the aerospace agencies work together, that would ease the transition to "peace in space".[/QUOTE] Yeah, it's not like protecting military secrets is really important anymore. I'm pretty sure at least half of Lockheed Martin's employees are working for the Chinese government.

I think the Russian Space Agency has been playing too much Kerbal Space Program.

russia was first in space yet now they cant even launch a simple uav drone wtf