Russia Blames Human Error for Loss of Angolan Satellite
Russia's recent rocket launch was programmed with the wrong point of origin:
The loss of a multi-million pound weather mapping satellite was due to programming errors, the Russian deputy prime minister has said. Dmitry Rogozin said Meteor-M had been programmed for take-off from a different space station.
Speaking to Russian state TV, he blamed "human error". "The rocket was programmed as if it was taking off from Baikonur," he told the Rossyia 24 TV channel.
In fact the rocket was actually taking off from new base Vostochny, in the east of the country.
Angola Loses Contact With First Commercial Satellite
AngoSat-1, a communications satellite built for almost $300m, was launched on Tuesday evening from the launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
It was scheduled to work for 15 years and was made to improve telecommunications in the African country. About 50 Angolan aerospace engineers were trained around the world. This crew was supposed to oversee mission from a control centre in Angola.
Earlier this year, Angola made public its long-term plan for its space programme, which envisages a steady expansion in the coming years. It is unclear how a failure of AngoSat-1 will influence that multi-year plan.
Also at Reuters.
Related Stories
Russia Restores Contact With AngoSat-1 Satellite
Russia has stated that it has restored contact with Angola's first satellite, AngoSat-1, that was launched by a Zenit rocket on Tuesday, December 26, 2017.
According to RSC Energia, which manufactured the satellite and controls its operations in space, its operators worked on the issue and on Thursday, Dec. 28, telemetry data indicated that the spacecraft's systems are operating normally.
"Experts from the Energia Corporation have received telemetry data from the AngoSat satellite launched by the Zenit-3SLBF space rocket from the Baikonur spaceport on December 26. The satellite has provided telemetry data showing that all its systems settings are in order," RSC Energia said in a statement.
Also at Satellite Today.
Previously: Angola's First Communications Satellite Lifts Off from Kazakhstan
Russia Blames Human Error for Loss of Angolan Satellite
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @06:23PM
The point of origin is designated by a pyramid with a circle on top.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @06:30PM (9 children)
These are the same folks that hacked our election?!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @06:34PM (7 children)
Russia is accusing the US of 'direct interference' in its elections [businessinsider.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 29 2017, @06:43PM (4 children)
Just more Russian trolling. Everyone already knows that Russia's elections are rigged, most of the candidates are thrown in to make it look like a contest, and the media won't give air time to real anti-Putin candidates. A U.S. State Dept. statement is pretty indirect, especially since most Russians will never hear or care about it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @07:33PM (1 child)
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/12/25/putin-chief-critic-barred-from-running-for-president-russia/gVIR7l6cMeizsbAwkOAIkJ/story.html [bostonglobe.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by takyon on Friday December 29 2017, @07:42PM
Not sure what kind of point you thought you made with that link [archive.is] added (and it was JavaScript hell).
Putin-approved lame opposition candidates get to run. Remotely threatening candidates with strong criticism for Putin, aka Alexei Navalny [wikipedia.org], don't get to run. He'll be lucky if he isn't killed sometime before 2024.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Saturday December 30 2017, @01:00AM (1 child)
And after his term limit he appoints, er, lets the people vote for their substitute president while he takes a four year sabbatical to wrestle bears while shirtless.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:25AM
What a ridiculous comment. Everyone knows that you have to wrestle bears shirtless or you'll ruin your shirt.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @10:29PM (1 child)
It's just amazing how aliterate USAians are of History and how often they give their own gov't a free pass on heinous behavior. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [wsws.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:28AM
So what you're saying is "We're Number 1! We're Number 1!!" We don't need to read anything to know that.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 29 2017, @06:45PM
It's easy to hack crappy and exposed computer systems. Not as easy to launch a rocket properly when you have drunkards and krokodil users on staff.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday December 29 2017, @06:37PM
There are going to be some sad-faced people at some insurance companies today! :)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @06:40PM (3 children)
Pretty sure you don't get to launch a satellite in Russia with your own programming.
Knowing next to nothing about rocket science, I don't see why this should be a fatal error. The orbit might be wrong, but might be correctable with a lot of fuel wastage. Unless the boosters shut down prematurely, you would think it would just clime to orbit and give Madagascar a new weather sat.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 29 2017, @07:05PM
Not implying anything, but typically rockets launched by responsible nations have self destruct procedures for serious off-course errors.
As per the Angola's one, Ukraine-Russia cooperation (as in first stage - second stage) sounds like a bad idea at the moment.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday December 29 2017, @07:06PM
Lesser problems have been fatal errors - there's the explosion of Ariane 5 for example, you may know it (its the one with the overflow bug that lead to it exploding), but here's a write-up: https://www.around.com/ariane.html [around.com]
Presumably this one was a less dramatic failure, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @07:20PM
> The orbit might be wrong...
Latitude matters -- the ground speed due to earth's rotation makes up part of the final orbital velocity.
Is that enough of a clue?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @07:42PM (1 child)
> Dmitry Rogozin said Meteor-M had been programmed for take-off from a different space station.
And that's why you don't have car models named "Crash-and-Burn GX".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @07:59PM
I always thought the Integra LS was a great name.
(Score: 5, Informative) by EETech1 on Friday December 29 2017, @10:30PM
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/zenit-angosat-launch.html [russianspaceweb.com]
It appears they have been able to re-establish communications with ANGOSAT-1!
From the above link:
During most of the day on December 28, the efforts to contact Angosat-1 continued and in the evening Moscow Time, the official TASS news agency reported that flight controllers had received telemetry from the spacecraft. This fact was also confirmed by the Angolan government. Soon thereafter, TASS quoted industry sources as saying that the communications could had initially been disrupted due to draining of the spacecraft's batteries, but, fortunately, Angosat-1 had already deployed its solar panels, which allowed to restore the power supply. Obviously, such a scenario provides no explanation how the spacecraft ended up with drained batteries and why such an obvious problem could not be avoided.
On December 29, RKK Energia, the satellite manufacturer, also confirmed that the communications with the Angosat-1 had been restored, adding that the telemetry received from the spacecraft showed all the parameters of onboard systems had been normal. Around the same time, industry sources said that the spacecraft was receiving commands and sending telemetry back, thus maintaining two-way communications with ground control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:24AM (1 child)
It seems more likely to me that it was just way too heavy.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:48AM
Moar BOOSTERS!
Jebediah Kermin
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Funny) by shortscreen on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:41AM
Even TFS can't make up its mind whether the sat launched from Baikonur or not.