Another Russian Rocket Failure

[Eric Mc]

This is getting embarrassing -

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/05/16/proton-crash-...

[perdu]

Eric Mc said:

This is getting embarrassing -

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/05/16/proton-crash-...

very bad news for the Russian space bods

I saw in the paper today that this MAY be why Sarah B is going to wait quite a lot longer for her Starship Trooper

But there is no fun in having unexpected debris dropping near a city

[Eric Mc]

The rocket that failed today was a Proton - which is not the rocket used for launching the manned Soyuz craft.

[anonymous-user]

Funny that all the recent failures have been upper stage failures on well proven launch systems? I guess that's the nature of probability, in that it's not that improbable that certain failures can occur in groups ;-)

[Eric Mc]

A lot of it seems to be with a poorly trained workforce and poor quality control.

[perdu]

Eric Mc said:

A lot of it seems to be with a poorly trained workforce and poor quality control.

Which would certainly make ME think again about trusting my future with them...

[Beati Dogu]

Looks like Russia's endemic graft and corruption is damaging their space program:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/25/technology/russia-...

Workers building the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian far east went on hunger strike recently over the conditions and unpaid wages.

[isee]

perdu said:

Which would certainly make ME think again about trusting my future with them...

Having a cursory glance on this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-r...

If you were going to go to space, Russians are still by far the safest choice...

[SpeedyDave]

Still a little way to go but SpaceX will own manned launch soon enough.

[Eric Mc]

Owned?

Why do you say that?

[SpeedyDave]

I just think SpaceX will continue to crush their competitors on cost & development pace as they have done.

[isee]

SpeedyDave said:

I just think SpaceX will continue to crush their competitors on cost & development pace as they have done.

I hope so. Really like what they did in the space industry as well as what tesla is doing in the energy storage industry. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here, this is just a baby step in the right direction and is a far cry from decades of experience and track record of NASA or Roscosmos.

[Mojocvh]

isee said:

SpeedyDave said:

I just think SpaceX will continue to crush their competitors on cost & development pace as they have done.

I hope so. Really like what they did in the space industry as well as what tesla is doing in the energy storage industry. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here, this is just a baby step in the right direction and is a far cry from decades of experience and track record of NASA or Roscosmos.

[Eric Mc]

There's room for them all. Nobody is out to "crush" anybody.

[MartG]

Latest news on the Proton - seems they are blaming it on a turbopump component in the 3rd stage engine

http://rt.com/news/263377-proton-crash-design-flaw...

[SpeedyDave]

Eric Mc said:

There's room for them all. Nobody is out to "crush" anybody.

Well its not like there's any love lost for ULA & the cronyism between them & parts of the military...

As for room for all, its not an unlimited market it *is* a zero sum game - everything one wins another loses & they are a commercial enterprise.

The support & partnership with NASA is because NASA are more a customer than a competitor.

[Eric Mc]

Are you saying that after 60 plus years of rocket designing and building in the US the end result will eventually only be one manufacturer? Or, if a "zero sum game" do you mean none at all?

At the moment there are at least five manufacturers in the US - which is more or less where we were in the early 1960s.

[MartG]

More on the Proton failure

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/06/01/roscosmos-des...