http://en.rian.ru/science/20110824/166120459.html Russian space agency Roscosmos said the Progress M-12M space freighter failed to reach the designated orbit on Wednesday due to a rocket engine failure. A source in the Russian space industry earlier said the spacecraft had sent a breakdown report while separating from the Soyuz-U carrier rocket on Wednesday. The Mission Control was unable to receive any telemetry data from the spacecraft so far. "We received a short telemetry report of a breakdown before the Progress M-12M left the radio coverage zone. That's all information we have for the moment, but more data may come an hour after the Progress makes an orbit pass," the source said. The Soyuz-U carrier rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan and was scheduled to separate at 5:09 p.m. Moscow time [13:09 GMT]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is sort of sad news. The first freighter per 30 years of succesful launches. Something is wrong with Roskosmos.
Russia has only few good specialists, most of good engineers are either retired or emigrated or became beggars. I bet that in ten years Russia will can not produce even bicycles.
I really missed you, my beloved troll and stool pigeon. Sorry Ostap, but this is not going to happen. Of course some ....hm...interesting persons were saying this sort of things for hundreds of years before you...and look what happened. We are still where we are and these persons are feeding worms with their bodies worldwide. Just curious, are you Pole or colbasnik?
good thing it was unmanned. for as long as they've been in use, it was due for a failure. the more complicated a system is, the more likely it is to fail.
It is really sad that we (meant humans) have only one type of spaceships to support ISS and only one type of ships to deliver crews to ISS. And only one type of missile to put these ships into orbit. I guess it would be much better, if we (meant Russians) have a competitor just like the old fashion times. Humanity can't stay forever on Earth. It is sad but nobody is intersted in research and development of spece industry for now.
KGB_Agent,... This is not about competition, although I understand your little *snap* at the Americans. But, please, we both know that when it should come down to a "competition", Russia would lose terribly. NASA's budget is far higher than Roskosmos. Also, seems to me you never have heard of ESA's ATV (= Automated Transfer Vehicle). The ATV is 3x the size of Russia's Progress and it's launched with ESA's Ariane5 rockets -- the most powerful commericial rockets available. Just saying. Also, I hope you realize astronauts and kosmonauts are friends? We're all friends in outer space!
Oh, please. Deliver me from "USA strong!!!111" sort of statements. For now NASA budget is higher, then Roskosmos budget....but I can't see any NASA-made manned spaceships anyway. Budget size isn't the key factor. Anyway, that would be one more reason to increase Roskosmos budget. "and each ATV spacecraft costs about $300 million, not including launch costs." (c) Wikipedia Entire launch of Progress spacecraft by Soyuz missile costs 100$ million. You are still owned by 60-th tech Strange claim. No, we are enemies. Kosmonauts should kill astronauts. >sarcasm<
Considering ATV is 3x bigger than Russian Progress, I think it's fair the price is 3x higher as well. Not to mention that these ATV's are made in EU where labor costs are far higher than in Russia...
It is 3x bigger, but you also have to pay for Ariane 5. (220 million) Moreover in these sort of products labor cost is practically nothing to the unit cost. Well, if Ariane 5 and ATV are that effective, why did ESA build a launch pad for our missiles in French Guiana? Just admit it, both ESA and NASA is still owned by our 60-th tech =) Not sure about China, though. You have to work harder to be as efficient as we are =)
