Cosmos 1 solar sail didn't fly
posted Jun 22nd 2005 5:15PM
So the launch of that Cosmos 1 solar sail didn't end
up going so well. The first of a three-stage booster rocket failed 83 seconds into the mission, spewing debris over the
Arctic Ocean. Interestingly, a team of U.S. scientists were claiming they could detect signals from the $4 million
spacecraft in orbit, several hours before the Russians made the announcement of the booster failure and the loss of the
vehicle. Vyacheslav Davidenko, spokesperson for the mission, said this was "wishful thinking" on the part of the
Americans, and that fragments of the vehicle and its failed booster had crashed into the sea and were being recovered
by the Russian Navy. That's some serious wishful thinking, aight — better get those instruments recalibrated before the
next failure launch, dudes.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: Ok, so another news source contested a bit of that info, and stated the signals were being heard back from the Cosmos 1 hours later, and that those wacky rocket scientists and spacewatchers are still very hopeful about finding the sail somewhere in Earth's orbit. Man, oh man, guess we'll find out soon enough for sure. Thanks, Macross.
Pulled a Challenger? Besides the fact that the Challenger explosion didn't have anything to do with a rocket failure, that's just insensitive.
"In fact, it pulled a Challenger "
Oh man... that's pretty bad.
But yeah. This sucks, I was really interested to hear about how it worked. Hopefully they get another one up there and learn from whatever they can this time around.
gramatically and technical wrong/right, #1 is right, that statement is insensitive.
"pulled a Challenger"?
Too soon, man, too soon.
While yes the challenger comment is distasteful, #1 is wrong; Challenger was due to "Rocket Failure" in a roundabout sort of way. The o-ring failed and hot gas burned though the insulation of the external tank. So while it wasn’t the rocket nozzle itself, it was part of the SRB.
#1 is right that its insensitive, but I think he got the Challenger and Columbia confused. Columbia broke up due to a heat shield failure while the Challenger had an o-ring failure that led to a catastrophic explosion in the solid rocket boosters during lift off.
In either event the statement wasn't necessary.
It would have been more apt to call this 'Back to the Future'. see here
It would have been more apt to call this 'Back to the Future'. see http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/22cosmos1/
What is a "behicle"?
"Pulled a Challenger"?
The next time a building collapses, will it have "pulled a WTC"?
Poor taste folks.
I knew this was Barb when I read it. She said something in the past that pissed me off. But this isn't too bad. What, 1986? That's almost 20 years. I remember the "Why does NASA drink Pepsi?" (because they couldn't get 7-Up) joke was going around just days after the disaster.
I think you're right. Reference removed.
Regards,
Barb
this has all the makings of a good conspiracy theory. Suppose it did work, and the Americas did detect it correctly. Perhaps the Russian government just wants another head start on this new technology.
There I said it.
Hello
it's me, the bloke who wants to throw away your rubbish for you.
All I have to say is:
"Now why did they have to go and throw away a perfectly good umbrella?"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!
Now look at it - it's just another piece of space junk, rubbish, garbage, trash, what have you -
and all us Earthlings can say for it is:
"We're glad that we can contribute to fill up the immense void called space with some of our own earthly rubbish for future generations to enjoy."
I am sure Douglas Adams would be proud.
Well thats what happens when you low-bid to russia, in case you didn't infer from the submarine launch with an ICBM, thats what you get, probly had lots of insurance though.
All that money into the Star-War-Defense system, and now we know that their ICBMs had 83 seconds of flight time.
ISN't THAT THING THE UMBRELLA CORP SATELLITE seen at the END of RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE?
I think this is a major blow to the space society.
God forbid we had a space shuttle that could just bring the satellite up and dropped it off it seems those russian launchers arent all there cracked up to be after all
I cant wait until they perfect rail guns so satellites can be shot into orbit from earth...eliminating probably the most expensive part of the whole ordeal.
The Star-Wars Defense system never passed congress. Or maybe it was the house. Either way, it didnt pass. It was never built.
Does localhost qualify as "another news source"?
I feeel that russia and the united states routinely does these things, launch paylods into space and claim they where lost or destroyed. Some have claimed that this is mere smokescreen in order for this satelites to work under the black ops umbrella, you cannont seceretly launch anything into space, rockets usually make a heck of lot of noise and are quite visible, but you can publicly "lose" them by claiming they where destroyed. I feel that this is a strong possibility in this case, the russians are experts at putting stuff into space, they will not simply lose expensive euipment due to human or thechnical errors, they simply cannot afford it. No this satelite has other purposes you and I are not meant to know.
#14
Not trying to be unpatriotic, but let's be fair about this. The US has essentially lost a lot of their functional, as in tangible, space ability.
If it weren't for Russian rockets, there'd be skeletons in the space station instead of astronauts and cosmonauts.
The shuttle program is still of questionable safety and they've had 30 years to work on it. Read the CAIB report, basically losing "only" two shuttles was incredible luck...
If they would hurry up with the damn space elevator everything would go much more smoothly.
:)
#22, you need caps, lots more caps, to get that really edgy, 'I forgot to take my meds last week,' style that you're trying for.
As to the subject at hand. I remember seeing a claim, during the cold war, that something like 2/3 of all Soviet ICBMs were expected to malfunction during the boost phase*. I'm just sorry such a neat idea failed to make it into space.
*I though littering nukes across the Soviet countryside was supposed to have been *our* job, but hey, each to their own.