Errors in launches plague Russians

RUSSIA: Russia’s latest space launch failures have prompted authorities to take a closer look into the nation’s struggling space industry.

A Russian weather satellite and nearly 20 micro-satellites from other nations were lost following a failed launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome in the Far East on November 28. And in another blow to the Russian space industry, links with a Russian-built communications satellite for Angola, the African nation’s first space vehicle, were lost following its launch on Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said yesterday that authorities warrant a thorough analysis of the situation in the space industry.

Amid the failures, Russian officials have engaged in a round of finger-pointing.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s military industrial complex and space industries, said the November 28 launch from the new Vostochny launch pad in Russia’s Far East failed because the rocket had been programmed to blast off from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan instead of Vostochny. He accused the Russian space agency Roscosmos of ‘‘systemic management mistakes.’'

Roscosmos fired back yesterday, dismissing Rogozin’s claim of the flawed programming. It did acknowledge some shortcomings that led to the launch failure and said a number of officials were reprimanded.

Rogozin quickly riposted on Facebook, charging that Roscosmos was ‘‘trying to prove that failures occur not because of mistakes in management but just due to some ‘circumstances’.’' –