The second launch from Vostochny ended in failure. Meteor-M and additional load lost

(photo: smitsmitty.livejournal.com/276539.html )



“The head part of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with 19 satellites, including the three-ton hydrometeorological apparatus Meteor-M, could completely fall in the ocean in the Antarctic region,” RIA Novosti reported .



Information about the emergency situation was confirmed by Roscosmos.



On November 28, 2017, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage was launched from the EASTERN cosmodrome. The main objective of the launch was the launch of the Meteor-M No. 2-1 spacecraft and the eighteen satellites of the associated load into the sun-synchronous orbit.











The additional payload consisted of the Baumanets-2 spacecraft and commercial nanosatellites from Russia, Germany, Sweden, the USA, Japan and Canada.





(“Baumanets”, photo: www.bmstu.ru/history/hmstu/university )



UPD : “According to preliminary data, there was a technical malfunction in the satellite navigation equipment, which is installed on the upper stage, operates on the GLONASS and GPS signal and improves the accuracy of the launching of spacecraft into target orbits by Fregat,” a TACC source said . NPO named after S.A. Lavochkin will conduct an inspection of all the Fregat accelerating units manufactured earlier.

UPD 2 : From the comments: ... these enterprises did not agree on the exact position of the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier when separating the upper stage from it. According to available information, the rocket reached the desired point in violation of certain angles. This would not have been a critical error if the second problem had not been imposed on it: the Frigate’s flight program was firmly sewn into its control system. The wrong position of the “propeller” tried to compensate for the maneuver, but did not manage to hold it in one minute - the time between separation from the rocket and the first turning on of the engine. After a minute, the Frigate turned on the engine, being almost upside down. The impulse sent it to the atmosphere.

UPD 3: “Roscosmos” confused Baikonur and East