Two Russian space officials sacked over satellite loss

Two Russian space officials sacked over satellite loss

2010-12-29 22:01:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Two Russian senior space industry officials on Wednesday were sacked over the loss of three Glonass satellites on December 5, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Energia space corporation chief rocket and space systems designer Vyacheslav Filin and Roscosmos deputy head Viktor Remishevshy. Medvedev also reprimanded Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos).

The sanctions were imposed after a report prepared by a state investigation commission over the December 5 incident. A Proton-M carrier rocket went off course and crashed in the Pacific Ocean and thus the three satellites were lost.

The Proton-M was equipped with a DM-3 booster which was designed and manufactured by Energia space corporation. The state commission determined that Energia miscalculated the amount of fuel needed for the DM-3 booster.

As a result, the amount of oxidant exceeded the norm by 1.5 tons and this excessive weight caused that the carrier rocket was unable to put the Glonass satellites into the calculated orbit. The report also indicated that Energia’s experts did not follow the necessary pre-launch safety procedures and failed to notice the miscalculation.

The three Glonass satellites were supposed to conclude the formation of Russia’s navigation system. Rosocosmos switched on two reserve Glonass-M satellites to compensate for the ones that were lost. Russia expects to put in orbit the another three satellites by April 2011 in order to complete its system.

The Glonass navigation system project consists in 24 satellites that will operate in a similar manner to the U.S. Global Positioning System.

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