ANOTHER Soyuz rocket just crashed in Siberia AGAIN. Keep counting....

Seriously... Is it what?? The 3rd or 4th Soyuz Russian carrier this year, to crash in Siberia right after be launched??

ARKHANGELSK, Russia – A Russian military communications satellite crashed in Siberia on Friday shortly after launch, the Interfax news agency reported.
The Meridian-series communication satellite was launched aboard a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket earlier Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome based at Arkhangelsk in northern Russia, RIA Novosti reported.
"Early information suggests that the Soyuz-2 suffered a malfunction during the third stage and the satellite came down in Siberia,” a source told the news agency. “The exact site is currently being established."
The satellite was designed to provide communication between ships, planes and coastal stations on the ground. It reportedly failed to reach orbit and crashed in Siberia.
The incident caps a difficult 12 months for Russia's space program. Three Glonass navigation system satellites launched in December last year veered off course and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Reuters reported, costing Moscow around $160 million and setting back the program to develop a rival to the U.S. GPS.

Read more: www.foxnews.com...

Not to mention the Phobos-Grunt which is dead, 100% irrecoverable and going to crash any time. Is unexplainable, why NASA pays Russia $50 million per seat for US astronauts hitch a ride on Soyuz. I don't know... Every time I read something about a new failure of Russia space agency, in times when USA and Russia are exchanging hostile speeches, I have this feeling that something BIG is going on...

If I recall correctly, didn't Russia have a very good record with the Soyuz system? If it is all of a sudden going down hill, then something may certainly be up. I suppose the first question is, what has changed.

reply to post by Skewed


Well for one thing, and in my opinion, prior to the collapse of the USSR failures were not reported unless foreign news services were made aware of them. It's a great way of keeping your delivery record golden.
Since then a combination of funding issues and freer press has made for an apparent drop in effectiveness of their systems.

reply to post by Skewed


I don't know about Russia space agency stats but surely these sequential crashes in 2011, are not casual.

And precisely when the shuttle program is gone... interesting timing...
and they risk flying astronauts with them? I wouldn´t unless I know for sure is safe...

Russian rocket scientists must be unreasonably pressured under tight smallish budgets. Does anyone else find it odd it required a third stage to reach orbit on the huge Soyuz-2 lifter?

Originally posted by mastercanto
And precisely when the shuttle program is gone... interesting timing...
and they risk flying astronauts with them? I wouldn´t unless I know for sure is safe...

Nothing about it is safe.

They can do everything they can to prepare but at the end of the day, we are at the mercy of the cosmos. Too many parts, too many variables something can and will always go wrong.

Originally posted by Skewed

Too many parts, too many variables something can and will always go wrong.

I don't know what the Russian Space budget is, but I wonder if they are getting any parts from china. I remember some headlines a few months back where chinese electronic parts were used USA millitary equipment and later many of these parts were found to be not up to specs or were salvaged from older equipment and reworked to pose as new technology.

Below is a link from the telegraph.

Telegraph News Article

US weapons 'full of fake Chinese parts'

Thousands of United States' warplanes, ships and missiles contain fake electronic components from China, leaving them open to malfunction, according to a US Senate committee.

Here's my count of failures.
Russia 5 failures
US 2
China 1
Iran 1

All using different rockets and all the failures were for different reasons.

But then I don't suspect a conspiracy when I get out of bed in the morning.

Not surprised...didn't the former soviet union have like over ten failed missions to mars?

Area Denial.

They tried adding a 3rd Stage to push past the hand holding their missiles down.

Russia is essentially no longer a sovereign country since they can't get assets into Space so their military can be used.

reply to post by Pervius

Russia is essentially no longer a sovereign country since they can't get assets into Space so their military can be used.

Short sighted and just plain silly.

reply to post by 1AnunnakiBastard


I completely agree with your comments regarding the post. Russia is having so many problems with there launches/rockets that I am starting to think that the USA has a secret weapon/tech that they are using on Russia launches for various reasons. None of the luanches that have Astronauts aboard have any problems, only the others... seems strange...

I read somewhere a year or so ago that competent engineers are for some reason leaving Russian space program and thus it has a dark future ahead.

reply to post by TheBigDuke

None of the luanches that have Astronauts aboard have any problems, only the others... seems strange...

I suspect it's a combination of two things.
1 Better QC on human launches.
2 Slower rate of change on human rated launch vehicles. You can afford to try several new things at the same time when humans are not at risk.