A bad start from the East blamed for a discrepancy of 20 years ago

Alexander Ivanov

The first Deputy head of Roscosmos Alexander Ivanov called the cause of the unsuccessful launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome rocket “Soyuz-2.1 b” with the upper stage “Fregat” and 19 satellites, reports RIA Novosti.

“NPO Automatics produces a control system of the launch vehicle, and the school npcap control system of the booster units. They have different things, this discrepancy founded 20 years ago,” Ivanov said, and I noticed that in this case, the experts “ran into the difference in the two schools.”

The official pointed to “the imperfection of the software algorithms of the control system upper stage”. “The algorithm of operation of the control system resulted in incorrect determination of the orientation of the block after separation from the booster when you incorrectly set the initial azimuth of the launch vehicle and upper stage at the launch complex. While existing methods of mathematical modeling could not identify such mistakes,” — said Ivanov.

At the moment of separation of the booster from the carrier error in the rotation was 363 degrees, said the representative of Roscosmos. The frigate began to turn, but don’t have time to work because, according to cyclogram flight, including cruise engine, which gave an impetus for an incorrectly oriented unit. After this began the fall of the head of the rocket into the ocean.

According to him, Roscosmos has no objections to the work of the Vostochny space launch centre, launch vehicle “Soyuz” and the upper stage “Fregat”.

Commission to identify those responsible for the accident will be headed by the head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov. The announcement of the results of its work should occur before the end of the month.

The third launch from the spaceport, earlier scheduled for December 22, 2017, extended to the end of January 2018. By this time it is planned to solve a software error associated with the launches on the East. The problem will not affect the launch of the rocket “Zenit” from Baikonur, scheduled for December 26, 2017.

Rocket “Soyuz-2.1 b” with the upper stage Fregat and payload (19 satellites, including 17 foreign) started on 28 November with East at 08:41 Moscow time, but because of the problems with the upper stage, the head part of the carrier were lost. Shortly after the launch of Rogozin congratulated the staff of the cosmodrome with the successful start-up.

The next day a disastrous start, with the main spaceport of the country Director of the branch of state Corporation “Roscosmos” on the East Konstantin Chmarov called “flight tests”.

The main load, three-ton satellite “meteor-M”, was insured for a total amount of 2.6 billion rubles, burned up in the atmosphere, and its fragments sank in the Atlantic ocean. The cost of start “Union-2.1 b” with the East is estimated at three billion rubles. After the accident, “Roskosmos” has reduced the number of planned launches from the new cosmodrome in the next few years.

Comments

comments