RT NewsA Russian Proton-M rocket carrying three GLONASS navigation satellites crashed soon after takeoff from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome.
Seventeen seconds after takeoff, the rocket swerved to one side, tried to correct itself, but instead veered in the opposite direction. It then flew horizontally and started to come apart with its engines in full thrust.
Making a huge arch in the air, “the rocket plummeted back to the territory of the cosmodrome “Boykonur”, about 2.5 kilometers from the launch site,” said spokesperson of Roskosmos, Anna Vedishcheva. The rocket exploded on impact close to another launch pad used for Proton commercial launches
The crash was broadcast live across the country and fears of a possible toxic fuel leak immediately surfaced following the incident. While no such leak has been confirmed, the rocket was initially carrying over 600 tons of toxic propellants.
There have reportedly been no casualties to surroundings structures and the town of Baikonur was not affected.
Taking into account the Proton-M rocket and three GLONASS satellites, the failed launch has potentially cost the Russian space industry around $200 million, reported Rossiya24 TV channel.
An accident board headed by Aleksandr Lopatin, deputy head of Russia’s space agency Roskosmos, has been created to investigate the crash.
At first, the emergency ministry of Kazakhstan has warned that toxic fuel from the rocket could pose an ecological threat to the surrounding area. The Federal Medical-Biological Agency said the crash currently poses no threat to the population.
622,000 Kilograms of very toxic propellants are aboard a three-stage #Proton at Liftoff. #Glonass pic.twitter.com/p2SI4kP2NX
Spaceflight101 LIVE @S101_Live
Experts point to engine failure as the likely cause of the crash.
“It’s either the control system or the engine that has caused the accident. If the accident occurred in the first 10 to 20 seconds, than the engine is likely to be the cause,” a source in the space agency told RIA.
“There was an emergency engine shutdown. Most of the fuel was expended before the rocket hit the ground. Naturally the explosion formed a toxic cloud, but due to windy weather it fell as rain in the cosmodrome “Boykonur” and it is not dangerous for people and communities at all,” said spokesperson of Roskosmos, Anna Vedishcheva.
An Interfax-Kazakhstan source at the cosmodrome said the rocket was out of control from the moment it took off from the launch pad.
“In line with its program, once a malfunction was detected, the rocket boosted to take itself away from the launch pad and fell about one kilometer from it,” the source said, adding that initial telemetry data suggests that the problem occurred in one of the stability guidance jet engines.
There will be no launches from Baikonur for about two-three months, a source in Russia’s space industry told RIA Novosti news agency.
“There will be no launches of Proton-M rockets while the investigation is underway. In two-three days we will know what exactly happened to the rocket. This is a well-known rocket, and the reason for the crash is the human factor and a production failure,” the source said.
“We’ve had similar accidents at Baikonur before. After the area is cleaned up, launches will resume – in two-three months,” the source continued.
Screenshot from YouTube user Spaceflight101
Igor Marinin, Editor-in-Chief of Russia’s Cosmonautics News magazine told RT that there have not been any rocket crashes during the first seconds of flight for at least ten years in the Russian space industry.
“This is a phenomenal accident,” he said.
The Proton-M uses highly toxic heptyl fuel, the expert said, but “it is burning out right now so the consequences will be minor. The major threat is poisonous fumes from the burning fuel and the major task now is to make sure that nobody gets into the heptyl smoke.”
The crashed Proton-M rocket employed a DM-03 booster, which was being used for the first time since December 2010, when another Proton-M rocket with the same booster failed to deliver yet another three GLONASS satellites into orbit, crashing into the Pacific Ocean some 1,500 kilometers from Honolulu.
After the 2010 crash, the investigative commission concluded that technicians miscalculated the amount of fuel needed for the DM-3 rocket booster.
Tuesday’s incident was the fifth launch of a Proton-M rocket in 2013 and the 388th overall launch of a Proton rocket.
The Proton-M booster rocket with a DM-03 (RIA Novosti / Roskosmos Press Service)
The next Proton-M launch is scheduled for July 21, though it will likely be delayed pending an investigation. It is supposed to deliver a commercial ASTRA 2E broadcast satellite for Europe into orbit.
GLONASS is a network of Russian navigation satellites designed to ensure global positioning, and is viewed as a direct rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS). Its worldwide operation requires 24 working satellites.
There are currently 28 GLONASS satellites in orbit, 23 of which are in operation, four in reserve and one next generation GLONASS-K satellite undergoing tests.
By 2020 Russia intends to spend over 300 billion rubles ($9 billion) on Glonass.
Russia has already conducted 15 launches from Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes in 2013 and 23 more launches are expected to be made by the end of the year.
Failed Russian space launches
The Russian space industry has suffered from a series of launch failures over the last several years.
On December 5, 2010 a Proton-M rocket with a DM-03 booster failed to deliver three GLONASS-M satellites into orbit.
In February 2011 a Geo-IK-2 geodesic satellite with military applications was lost after a Briz-KM booster unsuccessfully delivered the satellite into orbit.
On August 2011 a Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M booster and Express-AM4 satellite aboard lost communication with the control center.
On August 24 a Soyuz-U rocket carrying a Progress M-12M spaceship as cargo launched from Baikonur but did not reach orbit after failing in the first stage.
The Soyuz-U rocket and the Progress M-12M cargo spacecraft are launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 24, 2011. (RIA Novosti / Oleg Urusov)
On November 9 a Zenith rocket launched from Baikonur delivered into orbit for the first time in 30 years Russia’s Mars probe Fobos-Grunt. But the probe’s engines failed to start in time and it subsequently plummeted back to Earth, partially burning in the atmosphere.
In December 2011 a launch of a Meridian military telecommunication satellite from Plesetsk cosmodrome was reportedly unsuccessful due to engine failure.
On August 6, 2012, the launch of a Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M booster failed to deliver two communication satellites – Russian Express-MD and Indonesian Telkom-3 – into orbit. Officially the booster failed to perform the fourth crucial thrust.
On December 8, 2012 another Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M booster delivered a Yamal-402 communication satellite to off-nominal orbit – again due to a Briz-M booster failure. But later the satellite reached the desired orbit using its own orbit correction engine.
With Tuesday’s Proton-M failure, three accidents have already beset Russia’s space industry in 2013.
On January 15 the secret launch of a rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome partially failed as three military Strela-3M communication satellites were delivered to non-nominal orbits. The military later reported that all the satellites we taken under control and functioned properly. The media however, said that only two of them were ultimately brought under control.
On February 1 a Zenith-3SL rocket – a joint project between the Russian and Ukrainian space agencies – with an Intelsat-27 communication satellite failed to reach orbit. Launched from the Odyssey platform, which belongs to the international Sea Launch program, the rocket fell into the Pacific some 30 seconds after takeoff. The crash was caused by a malfunction of the first stage of the Zenith rocket, which was designed and built in Ukraine.
Bad Engineering or ‘Boston Brakes’?
I thought rocket failures were North Korea’s specialty.