Return to flight...
Dec. 13th, 2010 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI had been scheduled to work the current KASAT launch campaign in Kazakhstan, which was supposed to bring participants home (just) in time for Christmas, but got bumped from the list of participants a few weeks before the campaign was scheduled to start.
Just over a week ago, on December 5, a Proton launch vehicle carrying 3 Russian Glonass timing and navigation satellites launched from Baikonur but failed to put its payload into orbit, and as soon as I heard that, I realized that I had dodged a scheduling bullet, because past experience working launch campaigns told me that everything would be put on hold with KASAT until the cause of the Glonass launch failure had been identified and the Proton launch vehicle cleared for a 'return to flight.'
As it turned out, the Proton itself was not at fault for the failure. The cause, however, sounds pretty, um, hard to believe:
And then I think back to the incident a few years ago when the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter gradually flew off-course and the root cause was determined to be a failure to convert between metric and English units.
And I am not so surprised.
Apparently, campaigners are well aware that Santa will be visiting them in Baikonur; the suspense has to do with where they'll greet the New Year. Wherever it is, I wish them all the best. I could easily have been there, too.
Cheers...
Just over a week ago, on December 5, a Proton launch vehicle carrying 3 Russian Glonass timing and navigation satellites launched from Baikonur but failed to put its payload into orbit, and as soon as I heard that, I realized that I had dodged a scheduling bullet, because past experience working launch campaigns told me that everything would be put on hold with KASAT until the cause of the Glonass launch failure had been identified and the Proton launch vehicle cleared for a 'return to flight.'
As it turned out, the Proton itself was not at fault for the failure. The cause, however, sounds pretty, um, hard to believe:
In what appears to have been a remarkable oversight, the personnel fueling the Block DM stage for the Glonass launch did not account for the larger tanks. That led to loading between 1,000 and 2,000 kilograms more propellant on the Block DM stage than what had been planned for the Glonass mission.I like how SpaceNews describes this as a "remarkable oversight," and from my seat in the peanut gallery, I can only agree. (How does one fail to notice that one has loaded a lot more propellant than usual?)
And then I think back to the incident a few years ago when the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter gradually flew off-course and the root cause was determined to be a failure to convert between metric and English units.
And I am not so surprised.
Apparently, campaigners are well aware that Santa will be visiting them in Baikonur; the suspense has to do with where they'll greet the New Year. Wherever it is, I wish them all the best. I could easily have been there, too.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-14 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-14 03:18 pm (UTC)It reminds me of how easy it is for confusion to reign when people who are Russian/English bilingual (to the point where they really don't pay attention to what language they use when they speak with other such people, and I fall into that category) answer a yes-no question.
That's because the difference in pronunciation between "yes" and "nyet" virtually disappears under less-than-optimum (i.e., typical) conditions for oral expression, where neither the terminal "s" or the terminal "t" is well-enunciated (becoming the difference between "yeh" and "nyeh").
Cheers...