In announcing this news on Tuesday, however, Popovkin couldn't resist deflecting the blame for the mission's failure, suggesting with an exquisite lack of subtlety that the mission may have been sabotaged by another country (America, we're looking at you), using an antisatellite weapon. "We don't want to accuse anybody," Popovkin said, accusing somebody, "but there are very powerful devices that can influence spacecraft now." In case you were wondering, that's Russian for "I'm just sayin'."
OK, so what exactly is Popovkin's claim? It's true that when Russian spacecraft fail very early in their missions just as they're getting their footing in orbit the problem often occurs when the craft is flying over the Western hemisphere, where any imagined skeet-shooting from the U.S. would take place. "The frequent failure of our space launches," he told the newspaper Izvestia, "which occur at a time when they are flying over the part of the Earth not visible from Russia, where we do not see the spacecraft and do not receive telemetric information, are not clear to us."
In case you were wondering, that's Russian for "I'm just sayin'."
I can't believe we're working with those assholes on the ISS. I also can't believe that we're dependent on them to launch our astronauts. I weep for America.
Is this the one where Optimus Prime found Sentinal Prime and the Ukranians stole their reactor?
"Never screw with a morherfucking Ukrainian."
is this really the direction of modern journalism? i had more respect for Time before i read this article.
I can't believe we're working with those assholes on the ISS. I also can't believe that we're dependent on them to launch our astronauts. I weep for America.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2104251,00.html?hpt=hp_t3
Nice.
Didn't realize the Russian record for Mars probes was 0 successful out of 19 though.
MOSCOW The Russian president threatened to punish those responsible for the country's recent space failures, which included the botched launch of a Mars probe earlier this month.
Dmitry Medvedev warned that the space officials responsible could face heavy fines or even criminal penalties, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.
"The latest failures [in the space industry] seriously harm Russia's competitiveness," he said. "This means that we need to conduct a serious analysis and punish those responsible."
Russian space agency Roscosmos faced several mishaps over the past 11 months.
Last December, a rocket failed to put three Glonass-M satellites into orbit, costing the state 4.3 billion rubles ($138.1 million).
Several space officials were fired after another mishap in February, in which a booster rocket carrying a military satellite failed to launch.
There were a further two space mishaps in August -- a rocket lost a prized satellite designed to provide digital TV and secure government communications, and a week later, a malfunction prevented a cargo spacecraft from reaching orbit. Its debris fell in south Siberia.
Earlier in November, Roscosmos admitted that it had given up hope of regaining contact with the Mars probe Phobos-Grunt, which was placed in the wrong orbit after a botched launch, and feared that it might crash back down to Earth in January. The European Space Agency later announced it had established some contact with the probe.
is this really the direction of modern journalism? i had more respect for Time before i read this article.
I think Russia instituted severe punishments for space failures a few months back.
EDIT: here it is: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...atens-to-punish-officials-for-space-failures/
Its an editorial, an opinion piece. Not a 'hard' news article.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2104251,00.html?hpt=hp_t3
Nice.
Didn't realize the Russian record for Mars probes was 0 successful out of 19 though.
Its very easy for the media is blow this out of proportion. Popovkin did not accuse US or anyone of any wrongdoing, all he just said that its possible. And he is right, it is possible to jam a satellite, but it makes little sense for anyone to do it on a space exploration mission. Previously, there were a bunch of different reasons brought up and examined of why Fobos-Grunt has failed, and "foreign interference" seems to be one of those last possible but unlikely scenarios.
My conspiracy theory is that Roscosmos could not fully complete Fobos-Grunt by the launch window so someone decided to launch it anyway and screw the insurance company. On the other hand, in recent years Russia had so many space launches (more than US and EU combined), that it put a major stress on its space workforce and just increased the chances to fail. They have a space launch like every couple of weeks, sometimes even more often.
Russia's success in space seems to be an all or nothing affair. They have a horrible track record with mars and various other well publicized launch failures. Yet the Soyuz series of rockets and spacecraft has proven to be amazingly successful.