Launch News (FAILURE) Progress M-12M, Soyuz-U, August 24, 2011

[Cosmic Penguin]

A good paper on the gas generator and turbo-pumps on the RD-0110 (and the new generation RD-0124) engines, which describe the making of the gas generator of the engines:

Link

 

[Wishbone]

Progress-M13M is officially postponed till October 30 (industry folks have been writing about that unofficially for a week, citing slippage to November). Parliamentary hearings on high failure rate are scheduled for October 7.

 

[orb]

Florida Today - The Flame Trench: Russia Ramps Up Inspections After Probe

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=17857

Progress M-13M - October 30th
Soyuz TMA-22 - November 12th
Soyuz TMA-03M - December 20th
Progress M-14M - January 26th, 2012

 

[N_Molson]

Russia sets Nov. 12 for next manned Soyuz rocket launch

BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: September 13, 2011

Alleviating concerns the International Space Station could be temporarily abandoned late this year, the Russian space agency has set Nov. 12 for the next crewed flight of the Soyuz rocket after an unmanned launch of the normally-reliable booster failed last month.

File photo of a Soyuz rocket launching to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls/Carla Cioffi

The Nov. 12 blastoff would come after at least one unmanned flight of the Soyuz rocket third stage responsible for an Aug. 24 mishap that destroyed a Progress cargo craft bound for the International Space Station.

The next Progress spacecraft, the disposable vehicle's 45th supply run to the space station, is now scheduled for liftoff Oct. 30, according to Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency.

If that flight goes as planned, the next three-person crew will depart the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 12 heading for the space station. NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will fly aboard the Soyuz TMA-22 capsule for their long-duration mission on the orbiting complex.

Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin had been scheduled to launch Sept. 22 before last month's Soyuz rocket failure.

Space station commander Andrey Borisenko, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA flight engineer Ronald Garan now aboard the space station are scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday night. Three more residents will remain on the space laboratory until mid-November.

The Nov. 12 launch date would allow the space station to remain partially-staffed with a crew of three until another trio of fliers blast off Dec. 20. That flight would restore the outpost to a full crew of six international astronauts and cosmonauts.

Officials initially feared the space station may have to be temporarily abandoned if Soyuz rockets were not ready to fly by mid-November. After the retirement of the space shuttle, the Soyuz is the only vehicle capable to carrying astronauts to and from the station.

The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, the next capsule to launch to the space station, is undergoing processing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Energia

The Aug. 24 Soyuz rocket anomaly was blamed on contamination inside a supply line leading to the gas generator of the booster's third stage RD-0110 engine. The gas generator powers the turbopump of the kerosene-fueled engine.

Investigators concluded the defect was "random" and recommended more stringent quality control procedures.

The engine responded to the problem with an emergency shutdown, and the rocket and Progress payload crashed in southern Russia a few minutes into flight.

The failed Progress launch used the Soyuz-U configuration of the historic rocket, which has flown nearly 1,800 times since the dawn of the Space Age. The Soyuz-FG rocket used on manned missions uses an identical third stage as the one at fault last month.

Further Soyuz rocket missions will be cleared for flight after thorough inspections of hardware awaiting launch, according to Roscosmos.

The launch of a Soyuz 2-1a rocket with six Globalstar commercial communications satellites is being delayed from early October due to the inspections, according to Globalstar.

A report from the Interfax news agency said Russia tried to convince U.S.-based Globalstar to keep the flight on track for October, but the company declined in favor of additional quality checks.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=207848

Gorno-Altaysk, September 14th. INTERFAX.RU - A small aluminium container with sign "Food Ration" on it and a little piece of rocket body were found this Wednesday in the course of search for debris of crashed space freighter Progress M-12M in Altai Republic, as search group of Roscosmos told Interfax-Siberia news agency.

According to the leader of the search group, the findings have been reported to Roscosmos staff. Now it is to be established whether the found debris relate to the lost Progress.

The "Food Ration" piece at the location of finding:

Maybe if they had looked up, they could notice a painting of Shilov, hanging on the pine branch? :lol:

upd: elevation of the spot above sea level is, reportedly, 2073 m.

 

[Notebook]

Some posters on Russian web forums characterized the destruction of paintings as “the only good news coming out of the accident.”

Some sarcasm there I think?

N.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Some sarcasm there I think?

N.

You can make your judgment.
http://www.salonjanr.ru/jivopis/257.html

 

[N_Molson]

Well, I doubt that the malfunction came from a food ration :lol:

 

[Notebook]

You can make your judgment.
http://www.salonjanr.ru/jivopis/257.html

Quite pleasant landscapes, is he the Russain Bob Ross?

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross"]Bob Ross - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

N.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Quite pleasant landscapes, is he the Russain Bob Ross?

Bob Ross - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

N.

No, from what I gather, Russian Bob Ross is Sergey Andriyaka. And in my taste, these paintings are pretty much at the same artistic level as ones you can buy in the road crossing tunnel near Gorky Park for approx. 3000 roubles.

 

[Notebook]

Looks good to me!, and I have no artistic content at all. I'm told that water colour is much more difficult than oils?

Either way, 3000 R seems cheap to me, especially as I'll never get to Gorky Park

N.

 

[SiberianTiger]

By the way, here's more information on the food ration's finding location found at NK forum.

The approximate place is SW of Teletskoye lake, on the border of Turochaksky and Ulagansky districts:

The searcher posted a picture of surroundings:

He said they searched ground on the mountain top thoroughly, but nearby chasm presents a natural limit to the search area, posing a threat to the team.

Engine parts are expected to deposit somewhat farther to East, as they had lesser drag coefficient.

 

[Tychonaut]

The collection was reportedly sent to the station for the “psychological support” of the crew

Seems to me all the visual "psychological support" one would need on the ISS could be found by hanging out in the Cupola. Paintings would just be one more thing to take up valuable space. Did any of the crews actually ask for these?

 

[Wishbone]

Dunno, it is nice to have little artefacts like that on the wall/floor/ceiling, the Cupola doesn't show the actual trees down there. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse, if Zurab Tsereteli ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurab_Tsereteli"]Zurab Tsereteli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) were involved.

 

[orb]

Aviation Week: Russia Says Crash An Isolated Glitch:

Russia’s space agency chief told lawmakers Oct. 7 that safety checks showed a rocket failure that led to the crash of an unmanned cargo craft was an isolated problem but said it had highlighted deeper concerns.

With the NASA space shuttles retired this year, the failed launch last month exposed the vulnerability of having only one way for crews to fly and raised fears about the future of the International Space Station.

Roskomos head Vladimir Popovkin said an inspection of rockets similar to the one that caused the crash of the Progress cargo ship had found no production faults, opening the way for launches to be renewed to the space station.

An earlier investigation blamed a fuel pipe blockage.

“We tested all the engines so we can say that the clogged pipe that brought down the Progress is an isolated incident,” Popovkin said in a televised address to parliament.

{...}

 

[garyw]

Hearing: The International Space Station: Lessons from the Soyuz Rocket Failure and R

Hearing: The International Space Station: Lessons from the Soyuz Rocket Failure and Return to Flight

Category: Government

Event Format: Hearing

Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, US

Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee - Hearing

The International Space Station: Lessons from the Soyuz Rocket Failure and Return to Flight

Witnesses

Mr. William H. Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford, USAF (Ret.), Chairman, NASA Advisory Council Task Force on ISS Operational Readiness

Vice Admiral Joseph W. Dyer, USN (Ret.), Chairman, Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

Archived webcast now online discussing the lessons learnt from the progress failure.

http://science.edgeboss.net/wmedia/science/sst2011/101211b.wvx

 

[N_Molson]

NASA review clears way for manned Soyuz flights

NASA review clears way for manned Soyuz flights

BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: October 13, 2011

A top NASA official told Congress on Wednesday an independent engineering team agrees with Russia's findings in an investigation into a failure of a Soyuz rocket's third stage in August, affirming plans to resume crewed flights to the International Space Station in November.

The third stage engine of the Soyuz rocket pictured here was responsible for the launch failure Aug. 26. Credit: Energia

During the Aug. 24 launch, which was hauling an unmanned Progress resupply ship bound for the space station, the Soyuz-U rocket's third stage engine was turned off early in an emergency shutdown. The rocket and its cargo crashed back to Earth in southern Russia.

Piloted Soyuz spacecraft launch on top of the Soyuz-FG version of the rocket, which uses a nearly identical third stage as the one that failed in August.

Russian investigators identified a "low fuel feed" to the gas generator of the third stage's kerosene-fueled RD-0110 engine as the cause of the emergency shutdown.

"The most likely cause of this anomaly is contamination in the fuel lines to the gas generator or in the stabilizer valve," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA's human exploration and operations division. "The contamination was most likely introduced in the post-engine hotfire test inspections."

Gerstenmaier was testifying to a subcommittee of the House Science Committee on Wednesday.

"NASA is confident that our Russian partners identified the most likely failure cause and has a sound return to flight plan," Gerstenmaier said. He added that Russian officials kept NASA "well-informed" during its engineering inquiry.

Gerstenmaier and Mike Suffredini, the space station program manager, traveled to Russia and met personally with the chairman of the Russian investigation.

Russia recommended a plan to validate engines for upcoming launches, such as improving quality control processes, adding inspectors and video-taping critical actions related to rocket assembly.

NASA engineers reviewing Russia's inquiry briefed their findings to agency leaders Wednesday.

"The NASA independent team agrees with the Russian commission conclusions regarding the likely cause of the engine shutdown and the corrective actions," Gerstenmaier said.

NASA officials previously said they would not put U.S. astronauts on a Soyuz rocket until the agency was comfortable with the cause of the failure and solutions.

Officials returned 18 Soyuz upper stage engines for inspections and test firings at their factory at TsSKB Progress in Samara, Russia. Engines for the next two manned Soyuz flights and the Progress 45P cargo mission were built with new quality control procedures and were not among the 18 engines returned to Samara, according to Gerstenmaier.

Russia has scheduled the first flight of the Soyuz-U rocket since August for liftoff Oct. 30. If the flight goes well, the space station's next three-person crew would launch Nov. 14 and another group of residents would begin their mission around Dec. 26.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://en.rian.ru/science/20111018/167801426.html

Space industry workers’ negligence caused Russian spacecraft loss - prosecutors

11:27 18/10/2011
MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti)

Negligence by space industry enterprises’ employees was the reason for the loss of an Experss AM-4 telecommunications satellite and Progress M-12M space freighter earlier this year, Russian Prosecutor General’s Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said on Tuesday.

“Both incidents were the result of negligence by employees of state space industry enterprises subordinate to [Russian space agency] Roscosmos, [negligence] during control procedures, as well as the absence of proper control by Roscosmos of decision-making by authorized persons,” Gridneva said.

On August 18, a Russian Proton-M rocket lost the Express-AM4 satellite that was designed to provide digital television and secure government communications for Siberia and the Far East. The satellite failed to separate from the carrier rocket and could not reach its designated orbit.

Six days later, the Progress M-12-M freighter fell in south Siberia after failing to separate from the Soyuz-U booster as a result of a rocket engine failure. The cost of the lost spacecraft production is estimated at 650-700 million rubles ($21-22 million).

The accidents triggered serious concerns about the state of Russia’s space industry, prompting the country’s authorities to order massive checks into the production and operation of spacecraft.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has proposed introducing criminal punishment for employees of commercial organizations found guilty of causing serious damage to the country’s space industry, Gridneva said.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has also demanded that those responsible for the loss of the Express and Progress spacecraft are fined and reprimanded.

A "case of rocket scientists"?

 

[Wishbone]

Yawn... When seismologists are tried for the government's fault, anything can happen. The "VREDITELI" are out there.