In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

CBC reports today that the Soyuz accident was caused by a faulty sensor.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/r...unch-1.4784356

A Soyuz rocket and spacecraft blast off on Oct. 11, 2018. The rocket
failed two minutes into the launch, forcing the spacecraft carrying two
astronauts to make an emergency landing. The failure has been traced to
a collision between two rocket stages caused by a faulty sensor. (Dmitri
Lovetsky/Associated Press)

From what I read on Twitter (posted by Katya Pavlushchenko a self
professed "Space exploration enthusiast"), "He said, the cause of the
sensor failure is a mistake in assembling process on Baikonur". Also,
"He said the other Soyuz rockets booster packs, that are already
assembled, will be reassembled to exclude the repeat of the failure".

We'll see how the space news press presents this over the next few days.

So, the bent pin theory, and all the premature blame assigned to
westerners to poor quality control and bad culture etc may have been
premature.

From what I read, they tried to duplicate the issue with the bent pin
and crane but couldn't get the oxygen valve (which causes the tumbling)
to become damaged. So they did look into this possibility. Still, the
fact that such shoddy assembly practices even happened in the first
place absolutely supports the "poor quality control and bad culture"
assertion.

It could very well be the Russians claiming it was a sensor problem to
hide bad quality control and bent pin. or not.

If what I read on Twitter is an accurate translation from Russian to
English, this was still caused by "a mistake in assembling process on
Baikonur". Again, this also supports the "poor quality control and bad
culture" assertion.

The news conference was only a few hours ago (according to the time
stamps on Twitter).

Forgot the cites. Searching for a primary source... Wow, it doesn't
get any more "primary" than this:

State Corporation ROSKOSMOS
https://www.roscosmos.ru/25664/

Of course, it's in Russian. Oh well, we have the technology. From
Google Translate:

Roscosmos. Press conference on the results of the work of the
State Commission to determine the causes of the emergency
situation that occurred on October 11, 2018
....
The reason for abnormal separation is the failure to open
the lid of the nozzle cover of the oxidizer tank of the "D"
block due to the deformation of the sensor of the separation
contact sensor (bending to 6 degrees 45') allowed when
assembling the "bag" at the Baikonur cosmodrome. The cause
of the RN accident is operational in nature and extends to
the groundwork collected in the ?package? of the Soyuz type
LV.

Well, there you go. The guys assembling the launch vehicle absolutely
effed it up. They bent the contact sensor to more than six degress
during assembly. And, of course, no one reported it, no one caught it
in an inspection, nothing to see here, just launch it and hope for the
best.

These are signs of a screwed up quality control culture, IMHO.

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.