Progress ISS launch fails!

In article Hv-
hdakotatelephone,
says...

Today's launch of a Progress cargo ship to the ISS has failed:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110824prog44p/
The upper stage malfunctioned and the cargo ship reentered the atmosphere.
You know, if SpaceX can get that Dragon launch sped up, it would be pure
gold as far as positive publicity for them.

I was just going to post about the loss of Progress 44. The article
makes it sound like the upper stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle shut
down early causing the Progress to reenter and be destroyed.

The Russians aren't looking very reliable these days. Just one week
ago, the failure of a Proton-M Briz-M upper stage caused loss of
Russia?s Ekspress-AM4 communications satellite.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

Today's launch of a Progress cargo ship to the ISS has failed:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110824prog44p/
The upper stage malfunctioned and the cargo ship reentered the atmosphere.
You know, if SpaceX can get that Dragon launch sped up, it would be pure
gold as far as positive publicity for them.

Pat

On 8/24/2011 10:07 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
Today's launch of a Progress cargo ship to the ISS has failed:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110824prog44p/
The upper stage malfunctioned and the cargo ship reentered the atmosphere.
You know, if SpaceX can get that Dragon launch sped up, it would be pure
gold as far as positive publicity for them.

Luckily, the ISS got a big altitude boost from the final Shuttle flight:
http://www.heavens-above.com/IssHeig...alt=0&t z=CET
So it's lucky they added that last Shuttle flight to the launch
manifest, and there's no immediate danger of it reentering due to the
failed Progress launch and its orbit boost capability.
They are also lucky they have the water reclamation toilet working, as
they are probably going to need that to tide them over for a while as
far as oxygen production goes... are they drinking water from it yet?

Pat

In tatelephone Pat Flannery writes:

On 8/24/2011 1:57 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

This one may delay the next Soyuz launch, that was expected to occur in
two weeks and uses an identical upper stage.

Make that four weeks; it's scheduled to launch on Sept. 22.

I noticed the next Progress launch had been scheduled for late
October. Is there any particular significance to the monthlong pause
between planned launches, or it is just a matter of, well, that's
plenty of time for the full launch sequence without rushing and with
some margin for unexpected delays?

--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 8/24/2011 7:25 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:

Today's launch of a Progress cargo ship to the ISS has failed:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110824prog44p/
The upper stage malfunctioned and the cargo ship reentered the atmosphere.
You know, if SpaceX can get that Dragon launch sped up, it would be pure
gold as far as positive publicity for them.

I was just going to post about the loss of Progress 44. The article
makes it sound like the upper stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle shut
down early causing the Progress to reenter and be destroyed.

Apparently they noticed dropping pressures in the propellant tank before
the engines shut down; it only did about 1/4 of its expected burn
duration and fell near the town of Karakoksha,in the Altai Republic,
generating a huge explosion: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/
(that would be quite the blast; LOX, kerosene, hydrazine, and nitrogen
tetroxide all going up at once.)which broke windows up to 100 km away
LOX overpressure vent valve stuck in the open position? Some rupture in
the propellant feed plumbing?

The Russians aren't looking very reliable these days. Just one week
ago, the failure of a Proton-M Briz-M upper stage caused loss of
Russia?s Ekspress-AM4 communications satellite.

This one may delay the next Soyuz launch, that was expected to occur in
two weeks and uses an identical upper stage.
They intend to keep the ISS crew at six, rather have three return to
reduce expendables usage.
I didn't realize that this is the first Progress launch failure ever,
since it entered service way back in 1978.

Pat

On 8/24/2011 1:57 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

This one may delay the next Soyuz launch, that was expected to occur in
two weeks and uses an identical upper stage.

Make that four weeks; it's scheduled to launch on Sept. 22.

Pat

On 8/24/2011 2:01 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 8/24/2011 1:57 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

This one may delay the next Soyuz launch, that was expected to occur in
two weeks and uses an identical upper stage.

Make that four weeks; it's scheduled to launch on Sept. 22.

Here's the crew for that flight, which has a a NASA astronaut aboard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_29
Remember a few weeks back when the Russians were bad-mouthing the
Shuttle compared to their "reliable" Soyuz?
Well, if NASA wants revenge, here's the opportunity:
"We couldn't risk one of our astronaut's lives to a unreliable rocket
like that; a complete investigation is needed... get back to us in a
year or so."
"I do not fear death!" said Satoshi Furukawa, as he tied the hachimaki
around his head and put on his belt of 1,000 stitches.
"More surety in these than any escape tower!"
Sergey Volkov sipped vodka thoughtfully...he put more faith in his liver
than any belt or escape tower. Still, a small icon of Saint Christopher
might not hurt... ;-)

Pat

On 8/24/2011 11:40 AM, Joseph Nebus wrote:

Make that four weeks; it's scheduled to launch on Sept. 22.

I noticed the next Progress launch had been scheduled for late
October. Is there any particular significance to the monthlong pause
between planned launches, or it is just a matter of, well, that's
plenty of time for the full launch sequence without rushing and with
some margin for unexpected delays?

Could be a scheduling thing regarding the production rate of the vehicles.
Also, they do give an orbital altitude boost to the ISS during the
flights, though nowhere near as much as the Shuttle did.
By keeping the altitude high with periodic small boosts you eliminate
the big boost it would need if it got lower and air drag started to
become higher.
With Shuttle no longer flying, this is when the Russians could have
really used their TKS module to deliver cargo and give a big altitude
boost to the station, but I assume that the cost of it and its Proton
booster was considered too high:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/tks.html
The attached VA reentry modules would have made a dandy lifeboat also,
eliminating the need for one of the two Soyuz spacecraft while the
module was attached for cargo unloading and altitude boosting.
You could just keep it attached as a spare room until the the next one
arrived, put anything you wanted to return to Earth in the VA and any
trash you wanted to get rid of in the TKS before jettisoning it.
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/tksva.htm

Pat

On 8/24/2011 1:07 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:
Today's launch of a Progress cargo ship to the ISS has failed:
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp28/110824prog44p/
The upper stage malfunctioned and the cargo ship reentered the atmosphere.
You know, if SpaceX can get that Dragon launch sped up, it would be pure
gold as far as positive publicity for them.

Pat

Wow, that's two failed launches in a row. Didn't the Russians have a
Proton go astray the other day?

On Aug 24, 3:39*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 8/24/2011 2:01 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

On 8/24/2011 1:57 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

This one may delay the next Soyuz launch, that was expected to occur in
two weeks and uses an identical upper stage.

Make that four weeks; it's scheduled to launch on Sept. 22.

Here's the crew for that flight, which has a a NASA astronaut aboard:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_29
Remember a few weeks back when the Russians were bad-mouthing the
Shuttle compared to their "reliable" Soyuz?
Well, if NASA wants revenge, here's the opportunity:
"We couldn't risk one of our astronaut's lives to a unreliable rocket
like that; a complete investigation is needed... get back to us in a
year or so."
"I do not fear death!" said Satoshi Furukawa, as he tied the hachimaki
around his head and put on his belt of 1,000 stitches.
"More surety in these than any escape tower!"
Sergey Volkov sipped vodka thoughtfully...he put more faith in his liver
than any belt or escape tower. Still, a small icon of Saint Christopher
might not hurt... ;-)


All humor aside, we're really G--damn lucky that this failure didn't
occur on the manned Soyuz flight. Can you imagine the impact to the
ISS program, if the next expedition crew had been put through the
harrowing trauma of a launch abort. That most certainly would have
grounded the program for a while, perhaps might have resulted in the
de-crewing of the station. I'm just thankful those smart people that
managed to push through STS-135. It was really damn smart, otherwise
we might be seeing a downgrading of the crew to 3 until the next ATV
launch in March.
-Mike