Fusée Proton-M explose peu après le lancement !

Encore ?

An unmanned Russian carrier rocket exploded on takeoff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, releasing 600 tonnes of highly toxic fuel into the air in images broadcast live on television.

Spectacular footage showed the Proton-M rocket veering off its trajectory just seconds after its 6:38 am (0238 GMT) launch, before erupting into a ball of flames and unleashing clouds of noxious black smoke.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos, citing preliminary information, said the accident caused no damage or casualties.

"It seems something is going wrong," said a television commentator during the live coverage of the launch. "Something is wrong. It seems it will be a catastrophe," said the presenter, his voice trembling, shortly before the rocket exploded.

The rocket was supposed to take three Russian Glonass-M navigation satellites into space.

"A rocket carrier fell to the ground and exploded on the territory of the cosmodrome," the space agency said in a statement, adding that the rocket fell on the territory of the Baikonur cosmodrome which Russia leases from ex-Soviet Kazakhstan.

The space agency said that during the accident, which took place 10-15 seconds after takeoff, toxic rocket fuel was released into the air.

Kazakh officials said the fumes that may present a danger to the local population.

A Roskosmos spokesman could not immediately say whether people living near the crash site were being evacuated.

But residents of several towns close to the cosmodrome including Baikonur were requested to stay indoors and keep their windows shut, a spokeswoman for the Kazakh emergencies ministry, Kristina Mohamed, told AFP.

The rocket carried 600 tonnes of kerosene, heptyl and amyl which are highly poisonous components of rocket fuel, said the head of the Kazakh space agency, Talgat Musabayev.

"A smoke cloud has now been formed out of burnt heptyl," head of the emergencies ministry in Kazakhstan, Vladimir Bozhko, told a government meeting in Astana.

"It is now located above the territory of the cosmodrome, the speed of the wind is 2.6 metres (per second)," he said, adding the cloud could move beyond the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Bozhko was quoted as saying that according to preliminary information the accident was caused by a malfunction of a first-stage engine.

Sending the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first sputnik satellite four years earlier are among key accomplishments of the Russian space programme and remain a major source of national pride in the country.

But more recently, Russia has suffered several major setbacks in its space programme, notably losing expensive satellites and an unmanned supply ship to the International Space Station.

The most recent disaster brought to memory a rocket explosion at the same Baikonur cosmodrome in 1960 when a prototype rocket exploded on the launch pad and released the highly poisonous rocket fuel known as the "devil's venom."

During the 1960 accident, which the Russian space agency has called a veritable "inferno," 126 people were burned alive or vaporised altogether, while others died of noxious fumes or succumbed to burns later.

The Soviet Union, which was locked in an arms race with the United States, imposed total secrecy over the disaster, and the files were only declassified in the 1990s.


www.spacedaily.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9saLGcLjjrk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAaXkSXjj9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3PirHpWcDI

Rassurez-moi: on est toujours sur un forum francophone?

  

Un lanceur lourd Proton s'est écrasé quelques secondes après son décollage du cosmodrome de Baïkonour, au Kazakhstan. L'engin, qui emportait un satellite GLONASS servant à la navigation et au positionnement, a dévié de sa trajectoire moins de dix secondes après avoir quitté son aire de lancement, ce 2 juillet à 4 h 38 (heure légale française).

Sur la vidéo ci-dessous, on voit que le système de propulsion annexe, qui sert aux corrections de trajectoire, agit pour redresser la course de la fusée. Mais le lanceur tourne sur lui-même et s'incline dans l'autre sens avec une trajectoire d'abord parallèle au sol puis en direction du sol.

La fusée s'abîme finalement au terme d'un vol de 30 secondes, non loin de la zone de lancement. La panne d'un moteur du premier étage semble être la cause de l'accident qui n'a causé ni dégât ni victime. Toutefois, le carburant dont la Proton était chargée est toxique et le nuage dégagé par l'explosion lord de l'impact au sol a imposé l'évacuation du cosmodrome.

Cet échec d'une fusée Proton, conçue dans les années 1960 pour expédier des hommes autour de la Lune, est le troisième d'une série embarrassante pour l'agence spatiale russe Roskosmos. Le 11 décembre 2012, une autre Proton avait échoué à placer son satellite sur la bonne orbite. Le 6 août 2012, un autre souci avait également empêché la bonne mise à poste de deux satellites. Dans ces deux cas, c'était le dernier étage de la fusée qui était en cause. En 2010, la fusée Proton avait également connu un échec en lançant trois satellites GLONASS, à cause d'une surcharge de carburant. Cette fois, le problème est venu du premier étage ; Roskosmos n'en a pas fini avec ses soucis de fiabilité.


Philippe Henarejos, le 2 juillet 2013

http://www.cieletespace.fr/

En novembre dernier, le directeur général du programme GLONASS a été limogé pour malversations d'argent public destiné à la maintenance du système. Plus de 200 millions de dollars détournés...


Voici encore un coup dur pour Glonass, d'ordre technique cette fois !