Hello All,

Spectacular launch failures, once common events, are rare sights today, but today a Russian Proton rocket produced an expensive fireworks display during its approximately 30-second flight (see: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1307/01proton/ and www.space.com ).

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NAR #54895 SR

Yep, I think they broke that one; they won't be able to buff the scratches out of it.

Almost cartoonish in it's oscillations back and forth before it finally just pitched totally out of control.

Seems there have been a somewhat mounting number of failures with the Proton rocket in general the past few years......more so than it seems used to be the case.


Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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The sound and the fury! Not to mention the Kaboom! The earth-shattering Kaboom!

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I watched the replay...

I've experienced a few bad-hair-days just like that.

Thankfully, I didn't include the "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" in any of mine...

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SAM 0044
AMA 352635

In the past, Fleet Ballistic Missiles were even more entertaining, especially the early Polaris tests... There are several videos of old Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident flight test films on YouTube. Also:

Regarding the Proton failure, this and other recent Russian launch failures make me wonder if they just don't have enough funding and "cultural continuity" (between older engineers & technicians and [possibly fewer] young incoming ones) to keep their programs viable. That is one criterion that the Russians use to determine if a program is irretrievably dead--if they can't re-organize the original team, they consider it so--that is one reason why they consider Energia-Buran dead (its cost is also an issue, of course), and why they go to such pains to maintain Soyuz rocket and spacecraft production, even at low unit production levels. The knowledge required to build, test, and flight-qualify those vehicles goes far beyond what can be recorded in blueprints and manuals; it is passed along from one generation of engineers to the next via shared experience and wisdom, and if that chain is ever broken, they would have to start again almost from scratch, which they can ill-afford to do--especially in today's economic climate in Russia. In addition:

Even in the USA, rocket and spacecraft production is conducted--culturally speaking--in a manner not unlike that of the medieval guilds, as much of it is an art as well as a science. This is particularly true in areas such as solid rocket motor engineering, in which not all of the required knowledge can be generated using mathematical formulas; some of it is empirical.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

The Russians had been planning to drop the Proton as a launcher, wanting to replace it with the Angara. Funding has been a big issue, and the Angara is still a "work-in-progress". I think the Orbital "Antares" launcher is related to the Angara program somehow, one of the smaller developmental versions, IIRC.

Perspective: The Proton is slightly more powerful (1st stage power) than a Sat1B. That makes it an important load lofter.

Imagine the tears if that had been a beerloft...

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SAM 0044
AMA 352635

The Russian quality control system is haphazard at best... that's been a major issue in their program from the very beginning... insufficient funding is also a problem, hand in hand with the qc issue and a large cause of it...

Later! OL JR

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They forgot to swing test it before putting it on the pad...


Bill

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: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Ya know, I bet that's it. They all caught launch fever and no one wanted to go fetch the big spool of cord for the swing test; just rush, rush, rush!

I bet they won't skip it on the next one!


Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

This just in from someone on the Northwest Rocketry e-mail list.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013...ket-to-explode/

Angular velocity sensors installed upside down meant the flight control system tried to control the rocket based on false data.

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