Fregat failure causes loss of 19 satellites on a Soyuz rocket
Posted: Sun, Dec 3, 2017, 8:58 AM ET (1358 GMT)
Nineteen satellites launched on a Soyuz rocket Tuesday were lost due to a problem with a Soyuz rocket's upper stage. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 12:41 a.m. Eastern Tuesday carrying the Meteor-M No.2-1 polar-orbiting weather satellite and 18 smallsat secondary payloads. While the launch initially appeared to go according to plan, Roscosmos announced several hours later that it was unable to contact the Meteor-M satellite "due to its absence in the target orbit." The agency later said that the Fregat reentered over the north Atlantic, apparently because of a problem that caused the upper stage to orient itself in the wrong direction. The cause the failure is under investigation.
Nineteen satellites launched on a Soyuz rocket Tuesday were lost due to a problem with a Soyuz rocket's upper stage. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 12:41 a.m. Eastern Tuesday carrying the Meteor-M No.2-1 polar-orbiting weather satellite and 18 smallsat secondary payloads. While the launch initially appeared to go according to plan, Roscosmos announced several hours later that it was unable to contact the Meteor-M satellite "due to its absence in the target orbit." The agency later said that the Fregat reentered over the north Atlantic, apparently because of a problem that caused the upper stage to orient itself in the wrong direction. The cause the failure is under investigation.| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, January 11
China applies to put 200,000 satellites in space after calling Starlink a crash risk
South China Morning Post — 8:27 am ET (1327 GMT) FCC Clears SpaceX For Starlink Expansion
Aviation Week — 8:25 am ET (1325 GMT) A Starlink lab exposed unsuspecting workers to toxic chemicals. Records show SpaceX didn't act until the state got involved
InvestigateWest — 8:24 am ET (1324 GMT) The FCC is letting SpaceX launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites
The Verge — 8:22 am ET (1322 GMT) SpaceX gets FCC approval to launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites
TechCrunch — 8:21 am ET (1321 GMT) |
