Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Criminal case opened on crash of Proton

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Fwd: Criminal case opened on crash of Proton

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 4, 2013 10:41:15 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Criminal case opened on crash of Proton

This will make it difficult to find root cause and contributors to the root cause, as who wants to truthfully speak, and motivation is to hide ones involvement if it means going to prison.
Gary

July 04, 2013 13:48

Criminal case opened regarding crash of Proton at Baikonur - prosecutor's office
ALMATY. July 4 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over the crash of the Proton-M rocket at the Baikonur complex, the Baikonur prosecutor's office said in a statement posted on its website.
"The investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee at the Baikonur complex has opened a criminal case on this incident over evidence of a crime, put forward in the Russian Criminal Code Article 216 Part 1. The Baikonur prosecutor's office is overseeing the investigation," the statement said.
The Baikonur prosecutor's office is checking whether the law regulating preparations for launches and launches of rocket and space equipment was followed, at the order of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, the statement said.
The Proton-M rocket with three GLONASS satellites was launched at the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 2. The rocket exploded and crashed near the launch site within minutes.
ez cm

© 1991—2013 Interfax Information Service. All rights reserved.

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Investigation Committee set to find culprits in Proton-M failed launch
MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Investigative Committee (SK) intends to find the culprits in the failed launch of a rocket Proton-M with three satellites Glonass at the Baikonur spaceport, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
"The scope of investigating actions, which are aimed to find all the circumstances of the incident and people, who are to blame for it, are being taken. The detectives are examining the relevant documentation, are interrogating the officials, who are in charge of the preparations and the launch of the rocket in particular. The scope of expertises to find the exact reason for the incident are about to be scheduled," the spokesman said.
© Copyright 2013 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.

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Russia Investigates Failed Proton Rocket Launch
The Proton-M rocket was carrying three Glonass navigation satellites when it exploded shortly after launch early on Tuesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
© REUTERS/ Pool via Reuters TV

MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the failed launch earlier this week of a Proton-M space rocket that has sparked renewed doubts about the efficiency of the Russian space industry.
Agents from the branch of Russia's Investigative Committee at the Baikonur space center will question space program officials to determine whether safety rules were violated ahead of the unsuccessful launch.
"Investigators are examining the relevant documentation, and questioning officials who were in charge of the preparation and the launch of the rocket," the committee's spokesman Vladimir Markin told reporters.
"A number of forensic experiments may be ordered to establish the exact cause of the accident," he said.
The Proton-M rocket was carrying three Glonass navigation satellites when it exploded shortly after launch early on Tuesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
©Ser She
Russian Proton-M Rocket Explodes Shortly After Launch. Witness Footage
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The exploding rocket left behind a cloud of toxic heptyl, amyl and kerosene fuels, although experts believe it will not have a significant impact on the local ecology.
The Kazakhstan authorities, however, have set up a government commission led by the nation's environment minister to explore the accident's aftermath. Rumors of mass deaths of livestock in the areas adjacent to the space center were dismissed by Kazakhstan officials on Thursday.
No-one has been accused of causing the accident at this stage, but breaking launch safety rules leading to a crash carries a penalty of up to three years in prison according to Russian law.
Meanwhile, Russia has indefinitely suspended all scheduled Proton launches from Baikonur, including those for a US Sirius FM6 telecoms satellite on August 14 and a Russian Kosmos military satellite on September 5.
The Tuesday accident is the second unsuccessful launch of a Proton-M rocket carrying satellites for Russia's flagship Glonass positioning system in the last three years.
In December 2010 a Proton-M veered off course and crashed in the Pacific Ocean, after engineers overloaded the rocket with fuel, said International Launch Services, the US firm that markets commercial Proton launches.
Another Proton-M mission was unsuccessful in December 2010 after a failure in the rocket's upper-stage Briz engine, its maker Khrunichev said. A control system glitch caused the loss of a Proton-M in August 2011, while complications with a Briz engine led to the loss of another Proton mission a year later.
© RIA Novosti.
Losses from Failed Roscosmos Launches

The partial failure of a Briz booster on a Proton rocket in December 2012 caused a payload to be put into an incorrect orbit, which was later corrected, Roscosmos said.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense and aerospace industry and has been ordered to oversee the investigation, said after the accident that "harsh decisions" must be taken, as Russia's rocket and space industry "cannot continue to exist in its current form."

© 2013 RIA Novosti

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