They did not count and trample

The accident, which led to the loss of the satellite after the launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome on November 28, was the result of error in the algorithm of the Frigate acceleration unit, which cannot be identified by existing methods. This was stated by the head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov, Interfax reports .

“Experts came to the conclusion that the unexplored behavior of the accelerated block was led to an abnormal situation after its separation from the launch vehicle,” Komarov said. “Unfortunately, we are faced with a problem that was not associated with quality discipline, but with a feature of the software, which was first tested about 20 years ago. This was the first start of this cosmodrome in this. The combination of "Soyuz-Frigate" must be said that if this start took place at another time of the year and there would be several other fields of the fall, then we would not have an accident. "

"The operational system of the management system has led to an incorrect determination of the orientation of the accelerated unit after separating the launch vehicle from the exhibited initial azimuts of the launch vehicle and the acceleration unit at the starting complex of the cosmodrome," said the deputy head of the "Roscosmos" Alexander Ivanov. "The existing mathematical methods for modeling the deduction of space apparatus could not identify such an error."

The problem is characteristic only for the Vostochny cosmodrome, when launching from other sites it does not appear. “This is a combination of the orbit, the azimuth of the start, the areas of the fall and the weather are“ treated ”with software methods. It is not metal, not engines, not dumps, it is the development of programs, debugging and with new methods checking,” Ivanov said.

Meanwhile, there were no complaints about the technical condition of the launch vehicle, the acceleration unit, as well as the cosmodrome, the deputy head of Roscosmos emphasized. The commission found that all work carried out at the starting complex related to preparation for launching a launch vehicle could not lead to a similar result.

On November 28, after the launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, the Soyuz-2.1B missile brought into an intermediate orbit a satellite of the remote sensing of the Earth "Meteor-M". However, then the satellite, along with the accelerated block, Fregat entered the atmosphere and fell into the Atlantic Ocean . In addition to the "meteor", 18 more spacecraft of a low load were lost.

This launch was the second in the history of "East". In April last year, the previous model of the rocket, Soyuz-2.1a, was successfully launched from the cosmodrome on the second attempt.