Space failures costs Russia prestige, cash Medvedev

RUSSIAN Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday said the country was losing prestige and money due to botched space projects after it junked two satellites in the latest launch failure to dog the once-pioneering industry.
The failure of a workhorse Proton rocket after launch on Monday caused the multimillion-dollar loss of Indonesia’s Telkom-3 and Russia’s Express-MD2 satellites, according to Russia’s space agency.

Russian space agency Roskosmos said an engine failure in the rocket’s upper stage, called the Briz-M, meant the craft went into the wrong orbit. A similar problem caused the loss of a $265 million communications satellite last year.
“I don’t know the reason for the loss of our satellites - whether it is the upper stage, mechanical damage, elementary negligence or everything together - but we cannot stand this any longer,” Medvedev said at a televised government meeting.
“We are losing our authority and billions of roubles.”
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia did have a contingency plan for its 2008 war with Georgia and had even trained militiamen in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Putin’s confession immediately led Georgia to accuse the Kremlin of starting the brief but bloody war on 2008.
Putin’s comments appeared to be a bid to shield his Kremlin predecessor Dmitry Medvedev from criticism following an online documentary that accused the former commander-in-chief of procrastinating over the decision to use force against Georgia.
Speaking on the fourth anniversary of the war, Putin said he had approved the contingency plan to counter a possible attack from Georgia months before the conflict broke out.
“There was a plan, it’s no secret in my opinion,” Putin said at the Kremlin in televised remarks.
“It’s within the framework of this plan that the Russian side acted. It was prepared by the General Staff at the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007.”
Medvedev, according to Reuters said he would hold a meeting on the subject next week and ordered government officials to look into recent failures. “They must report their recommendations on who to punish and what to do further.”
Moscow is struggling to restore confidence in its space industry after a series of mishaps last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.
Such failures for Russia, which conducts 40 percent of global space launches, may undermine its standing in the market, strengthening competitors such as Europe’s Ariane rocket.
Telkom-3 was the first satellite Jakarta had purchased from Moscow, built by Russia’s ISS-Reshetnev with communication equipment made by French-led satellite maker Thales Alenia Space. Express-MD2 was a small communication satellite, made for the Russian Satellite Communications Company.
Source: Guardian