Velkovschina

The reason for the refusal of the equipment of the space truck "Progress M-27M", which the day before lost control, could be an explosion that occurred at the separation of the ship from the third stage of the launch vehicle. This was reported by Interfax with reference to a certain source in the space industry, close to the commission to investigate the incident. According to the interlocutor of the agency, this conclusion is analyzed by the analysis of the orbits of fragments found near the spacecraft.

The source explained that near the spacecraft both Russian and American controls, several dozen “incomprehensible fragments” were discovered and now experts are analyzing them.

Earlier it became known that the US Air Force Space Center on the basis of Vanderberg in California found in orbit next to the Progress and the third step of the Soyuz-2.1A launch vehicle 44 fragments. The parameters of the orbit of the 15 largest debris were later published. Experts noticed that these fragments have a large spread of heights.

“Given this, as well as the fact that the progress ship was found about 30-40 kilometers above the estimated orbit and at the same time was very rotated around its axis, we can confidently say that when the ship was separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle, something like an explosion occurred,” the agency’s interlocutor concluded.

At the same time, he added, while there is not enough information to definitely say what exactly exploded.

The day before, the experts came to the conclusion that the controlled information of "M-27M progress" from orbit is impossible . On Wednesday, starting from 03:50 Moscow time, six attempts were made to take the ship to control, but they all turned out to be unsuccessful.

An uncontrollable gathering from the orbit of the ship can occur in the first decade of May. With an uncontrolled descent, fragments of the ship’s design, non-mined in the dense layers of the atmosphere, can fall anywhere in the zone limited from the north and south with 52 parallels. The exact place and time of the fall of its fragments can be determined only a few hours before.

The total damage from the loss of "progress", taking into account the cost of the Soyuz-2.1A launch vehicle, will amount to about 5 billion rubles.

At the same time, NASA noticed that the inconspicment of "progress" on the ISS would not affect its work. There are no critical goods on the ship. According to NASA, the Russian and American ISS segments continue to work in normal mode and have stocks that are enough even after the arrival of the next cargo ship. On June 19, the start of the ISS of the American cargo ship Dragon is planned, which should deliver several tons of cargo to the station.

It was reported that among the goods that the device was supposed to deliver to the international space station, there is a copy of the Banner of Victory. It was assumed that against the backdrop of this banner, astronauts would congratulate Russians on the 70th anniversary of Victory over Germany. Symbolic "victorious" posters were also glued to the Soyuz-2.1A launch vehicle.

However, on Wednesday, the Roscosmos press service said that a copy of the banner has already been delivered to the ISS with the Soyuz TMA-16M with a piloted ship, which started on March 27. Meanwhile, on the department’s website, a message has been preserved that the solemn transfer of a copy of the banner for sending to the ISS took place in a star town only on April 8.

On Tuesday, "Progress M-27M" started from Baikonur. He was supposed to be spent on the ISS 6 hours after the launch. However, the shipdid not reach the calculated orbit due to the incorrect operation of one of the steps of the launch vehicle. Specialists of the Flight Management Center could not get telemetry information from the board of "progress".

In addition, the ship did not open two of the five antennas of the course system designed for automatic docking with the International Space Station. It was also found that "progress" quickly rotates around its axis.