MOSCOW, Russia, May 16, 2015.- The disintegration in the atmosphere of satellite communications Mexican Centenario is a notch in the recent series of failures of the Russian space program, once one of the greatest prides of this country.
Less than ten minutes after being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Mexsat-1 deviated from the planned orbit and lost contact with Earth, which disintegrated after reaching the dense layers of the atmosphere .
“The accident occurred at an altitude of 161 kilometers. The third stage of the engine block and the spacecraft have disintegrated almost completely in the atmosphere,” the Russian space agency, Roscomos, in a statement .
The Mexsat-1 satellite, which was to provide telecommunications services to Mexico and much of Latin America, could not be separated from the third stage of the carrier rocket Proton-M, of what has already been informed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“At the moment, we have not seen the fall of the fragments that have not been burned,” he said Roscomos.
However, the authorities sent helicopters emergency in the region of Lake Baikal, where residents thought they heard a loud explosion.
The Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev ordered to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the fault and settle liabilities also asked with names, according to his spokesman.
The launch, which should have put the device in geostationary orbit at 113 degrees west longitude, took place at 00.47 on Saturday (local time from central Mexico , 05.47 GMT) and was broadcast live.
Mexican representatives had especially traveled to Baikonur to assist the operation, which aimed to modernize the communications infrastructure and put the country at the forefront of technology satellites.
The Mexican government was swift to ensure the project’s Centennial, which is named after the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, is guaranteed one hundred percent, so it will recover the investment.
The launch of the Centenary was initially scheduled for April 29, but was postponed at the request of Boeing Satellite Systems International.
The Mexican satellite had a lifespan of 15 years, an antenna 26 meters in diameter and should be fully operational 10 months after being released.
Fortunately, stricken apparatus is identical in size and technical capabilities to Morelos III, since both are designed to provide mobile communications services via satellite to people, cars, ships and planes.
The Morelos III, which provides key information to ensure national security, it will be released in October from Cape Canaveral (USA).
This is the second failure of the Russian space program in the last 24 hours, after the space freighter Progress was unable this morning to correct the orbit of the International Space Station.
The Progress M26-M, which is docked to the orbital outpost, failed to activate their engines for unknown reasons, although no station crew it has been affected by it.
In addition, last April 28, another failure caused the destruction of another cargo ship Progress, in its second accident in 35 years, carrying food and oxygen for tenants the orbital platform.
For this reason, Roscosmos was forced to postpone for two months to send the next manned Soyuz, the only link for astronauts between Earth and the station.
As in the case of Mexican satellite, the fault was in the third stage of the carrier rocket, which caused the Progress will be placed in the wrong orbit.
The committee chairman Industry Duma or lower house, Sergei Sobko, insisted that the problem is the lack of cadres between 30 and 50, because, due to financial problems, many emigrated abroad after the fall of the USSR.
In this way, the staff of the Russian aerospace industry would comprise experts these days veterans of the Soviet school and inexperienced specialists trained in Russia so far this century.
“It seems Russian cosmonautics that disintegrates the speed of light. In the space sector not only does not develop anything new (…), but Soviet technology that had more than proven validity stops working, “said Yuri Karash, an expert with the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, told Interfax .
The Government had launched a purge and introduced three years ago large-scale reform of the sector to prevent further failures, representing a cost of billions of dollars to a Russian economy that entered this year recession.
MLV
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