Russian space missions have been hit by a bad spell in recent years. Despite the increased funding and customer base, four engines have bitten the dust in two years. The recent one on May 16, a Proton-M rocket took off on schedule and due to an emergency, the rocket couldn’t reach the upper atmosphere. The flight only lasted 497 seconds. The space company would have taken a great flak if the failed rocket had dropped on a populated area, but luckily that tragedy didn’t happen.
However, the crashed rocket is not the only concern for the rocket company now. It went down with a Mexican satellite MexSat-1 built by Boeing. The satellite is naturally destroyed, and the 1 billion dollar contract with the Mexican government is now in jeopardy. Other projects are now being delayed and the Immarsat, another global communications giant has postponed the launch of their third satellite for their broadband service. The question marks on the Proton-M rockets will be dealt with, before any further attempt to launch satellites into the space.
In another major crash in few weeks, progress-59 cargo spacecraft was also aborted after the rocket went spinning in the air shortly after take off. It was launched to carry supplies to the International Space Station. The poor souls over there will have to wait a bit more to get their hands on the much-needed supplies./
Russians have been pioneers of rocket technology. They were the first to send a satellite and an unmanned lunar mission. The recent failings have been a disaster for them, and we hope that they address the technical issues before sending further rockets.
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