Russia HUMILIATED over botched space launch, Putin's men demand 'culprits' punished
HEADS must roll in the Russian space industry after the latest botched launch, Vladimir Putin's prime minister has demanded.
By William Stewart
PUBLISHED: 14:02, Tue, Dec 5, 2017 | UPDATED: 15:10, Tue, Dec 5, 2017
A furious call for punishment of the "culprits" came from Dmitry Medvedev after the loss of 19 satellites in a Soyuz-2.1b mission last week from the country's expensive new cosmodrome in eastern Siberia.
Space chiefs are not even certain whether the Meteor-M satellite – the largest part of a payload powered by a Fregat booster – burned up in the atmosphere or fell in the northern Atlantic and reports suggest the botched launch came about because scientists forgot to programme the rocket so it knew it had blasted off from Russia rather than the Baikonur launch site Kazakhstan.
"We cannot bear such costs," fumed Mr Medvedev.
"It's not even about finance.
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These are reputational problems for the space industry
Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev
"These are reputational problems for the space industry.
"We need to submit proposals on how to fix the situation, and about who will answer for this."
He called for the "culprits" to be identified.
He demanded that space chiefs "draw all the necessary conclusions" from the latest failure, insisting on a "radical correction of the situation" once conclusions of a state commission into the loss are known.
Mr Medvedev rebuked vice premier Dmitry Rogozin, in charge of the space industry, saying he hoped his deputy realised the scale of the crisis.
Vostochny is located in the Amur region, which borders north-eastern China
Mr Rogozin said that he did.
"A special commission was set up, which is now checking the entire manufacturing quality control system of rocket and space equipment and its preparation for launch," Mr Rogozin told him.
"It will work in parallel with the state commission.
"I will report back to you as soon as the conclusions are ready."
President Vladimir Putin and PM Dmitry Medvedev
The launch was aimed to put the Meteor-M weather satellite and 18 other payloads into orbit.
Clients from Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Norway had equipment on the launch.
Immediately before the launch Mr Medvedev boasted that that such contracts would help Russia modernise its space industry.
Russian losses alone on the launch exceed £40 million.
The first launch from Vostochny spaceport took place in April 2016, with President Vladimir Putin overseeing the take-off, but it was postponed at the last minute before a successful second attempt.
Vostochny is intended to reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome
The third launch from Vostochny is scheduled for 22 December but likely to be postponed.
Vostochny, located in the Amur region, which borders north-eastern China, is intended to reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Moscow leases in the former Soviet, Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
However the space port has been dogged by corruption and cost overshoots.
Russia has suffered a series of glitches with other launches but previous warnings from senior officials including Putin have failed to improve matters.
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