Fall of "progress"

In Russia, the next failure in the space industry: the progress cargo spacecraft launched the day before from Baikonur. According to Roscosmos, the ship was launched using the Soyuz-U launch vehicle. In the seventh minute of the flight, telemetric data ceased to arrive from him. Most of the fragments of the ship burned in the dense layers of the atmosphere, the rest fell 60–70 kilometers west of Kyzyl in Tuva. There is no information about victims and destruction. The collapse occurred almost immediately after the statement of the deputy prime minister of the Russian government Dmitry Rogozin that "the Russian astronautics escaped from the veils of defeats and offensive accidents."

The State Commission for the investigation of the collapse of "Progress" will have to find out which of its systems and assemblies that failed. The first conclusions about this can be made until mid -December.

According to the preliminary version of the State Commission, the crash occurred due to the engine of the engine of the third step of the rocket. It could lead to both the engine of foreign particles and a poor -quality engine assembly.

A source of RIA Novosti said that one of the versions of the fall of the space truck may consider negligence in the production of the RD-0110 engine of the third-stage of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle. The developer of the RD-0110 engine is the Voronezh KB Himavtomatika.

The Roscosmos previously emphasized that "the loss of a cargo ship will not affect the normal functioning of the ISS systems and the life of the crew of the station."

Launch of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle at the Baikonur Cosmodrome

In the past, the flights of freight "progress" have already ended in failure twice. A similar accident with the Soyuz-U launch vehicle, which led to the fall of the Progress M-12M truck, occurred on August 24, 2011. The unburned elements of the third stage and the ship fell in the sparsely populated mountain district of the Altai Republic. The cause of the accident was announced by the emergency work of the same RD-0110 engine of the third stage of the rocket.

The last time "Progress" was lost in April 2015. Then Roscosmos called the cause of the problem the damage obtained from the abnormal separation from the third stage. The damage was estimated at five billion rubles.

About the reasons for the next crash of the ship "Progress" is said by a member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics Alexander Zheleznyakov:

The process of controlling the quality of products in the missile industry is far from perfect

- Talk about the technical causes of the accident, so far, you need to deal with the telemetry information that was obtained, and study all the factors, including the organization of production in Voronezh or in Samara, where rockets are made. Now we can say only in general terms that the process of restructuring, the process of increasing control over the quality of products in the rocket and space industry is far from perfect. And this is probably the most important and most unpleasant reason - that the production culture has fallen since Soviet times, today it has not recovered, and all the latest changes have not yet been led to a positive result. To organize normal production, it takes another time.

- considerable public funds are allocated to the space industry. Why can't you put things in order in the industry?

- I'm afraid to make a mistake, but it seems to me that these issues are not quite the people who can do this. Now in the missile and space industry “effective managers” who do not understand the production are refueling everyone. That is, competence and qualifications are our main problems.

- Only last year there were two accidents involving progress. Was there really not enough year to analyze everything, study and conduct the next launch properly?

The launch vehicle is to blame

- The problems of accident rate were not only last year, they were two, and three years ago, and more. And here it is not "progress" to blame. A launch vehicle that could not bring "progress" to orbit is to blame here. So you need to focus on the actual culprit of the accident - on the rocket. Experienced specialists in the industry are aging, and a lot of time is required for young personnel who are replacing them to receive the same qualifications. And, unfortunately, we no longer have time, and such a vicious circle is obtained: the old frames are leaving, and the young people do not have time to learn, intercept experience. The personnel problem is very difficult and painful.

-The space industry is supervised by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Dmitry Rogozin, and the other day he said that the Russian cosmonautics "escaped from the veil of defeats and offensive accidents." How do you evaluate Dmitry Rogozin as a curator of Russian cosmonautics?

Professionals should deal with similar issues

- I would not comment on the statement of Dmitry Rogozin, because you yourself see the result - apparently, jinxed ... It is rather difficult to say regarding the role. People who work in this industry all their lives should deal with similar issues. Cosmonautics is such a specific area that it is unlikely that it will be possible to approach it with common standards, to try to organize some kind of management, as in other industries. We see that all these attempts to transfer to the missile and space industry do not work with other industries, but simply lead to such an unpleasant result. I would like to see at the head of the industry, not politics.

-What will happen to the Russian space industry in the next three to four years, if everything remains as it is?

-I would like positive changes to take place. And those measures that are taken to control the quality of products, on new developments, would bring some result. But so far I do not see this result and I am afraid that in the next three to four years we will still be in a fever. Only if we act competently during this period, we can say that in 5-7 years we will begin to somehow break down, ”says Alexander Zheleznyakov.

One of the reasons for the numerous failures of the Russian space industry is its underfunding and large -scale corruption, the expert of the anti -corruption center of the Yabloko party Maxim Kruglov believes:

The main reason is corruption in Roscosmos

- The main reason is the corruption system that has developed in the State Corporation Roscosmos, ineffective expenditure of funds that the corporations allocated. The second reason is a very serious underfunding of the industry. If you look in comparison with the European Space Agency, with the Chinese, with the American one, then Russia is significantly behind the allocation of funds, in financing. And the fact that stands out, firstly, is not enough, and secondly, there, most of them are simply plundered, settled in some inappropriate directions. Therefore, such results. But this is a problem not only of this industry, but of all state corporations, the entire public administration system that we developed by 2016. Plus, all this happens against the background of the economic crisis that the country is experiencing.

- The Russian space industry is haunted by failures, rockets fall, accidents are taking place ... Maybe there are no clear tasks before the industry?

Roscosmos has no competitors - we do not have private space companies

- Why, goals are set quite correct, we have certain strategic programs for the development of space. The problem is that we have absolutely not developed the sphere of private space companies, and in this sense there is no competition, because we have one luxury and its contractors who are affiliated with them. In this sense, as in any area where there is no competition, it is difficult to wait for any breakthrough results. Again, you can compare with American programs, where private space companies play a very large role that supply certain components, cosmic systems for NASA, for example. We can recall the company of Ilon Mask and so on.

-The other day, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space industry, said that the Russian astronautics escaped from the veils of defeats and offensive accidents ...

Rogozin is a Soviet -type official, he can only report on successes

- And what else can he say? This is a Soviet -type official, he can only report on successes, even if they are not. As for his role, she is quite deplorable, because Dmitry Rogozin never showed himself an effective manager or an effective manager. Yes, he was a politician, then he waited for his appointment to a high position in the government and then works there, without showing any effective results.

- And what is the reason for the absolute impunity of Dmitry Rogozin? The missiles fall, the eastern cosmodrome was built with scandals. And nothing ...

- I think that as such he personally does not commit corruption crimes, just a management system that he oversees is ineffective ... I don’t know, it’s hard for me to get into the president’s head. Let's see, maybe someday he will make some kind of personnel decisions. I’m just not sure that they will help, because here is the case in the management system that has developed, and which one person simply cannot change. There are certain practices and traditions that have developed in this system, and who will let it change?