Russian spacecraft unresponsive, spinning out of control
Source: Reuters
A Russian cargo ship was spinning out of control shortly after launch on Tuesday, threatening 2.7 tonnes of fuel, water, food and supplies intended for the International Space Station, NASA said.
The Progress 59 freighter blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:09 a.m. ET (0709 GMT). Minutes later, the freighter reached its preliminary orbit and deployed a pair of solar panels. But ground control teams then lost contact with the ship, unable to confirm if its communications system was working or if it was ready for a series of steering burns to reach the orbital outpost, which flies about 418 km (250 miles) above Earth.
The ship was originally scheduled to rendezvous with the station six hours after launch, and Russian flight controllers set their sights on a backup opportunity on Thursday. Efforts to contact the freighter, however, have been unsuccessful.
NASA's Mission Control later reported that a video camera on the Progress showed it to be spinning at a "rather significant rate," and the Americans informed their Russian counterparts that due to these problems Thursday would be too soon to attempt to dock for safety reasons.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/russian-spacecraft-unresponsive-spinning-out-of-control-1.3052346
Russia’s Soyuz-2-1A rocket was used to launch the resupply vehicle for only the second time, taking over from the Soyuz-U that launched the previous Progress.
2015-04-28-041927This rocket’s fairing included a design to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, or the “Great Patriotic War”, as it is called in Russia.
The 2-1 version of the world famous rocket first flew in November 2004. Derived from the earlier Soyuz-U and the Soyuz 11A511 before that, the rocket was intended as an eventual replacement for all of the Soyuz and Molniya variants then in service.
The Molniya-M was retired from service in 2010 and the Soyuz-2 has already replaced the Soyuz-U for all launches apart from Progress missions to the International Space Station. That was until Wednesday’s mission.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/progress-m-27m-soyuz-2-1a/
= new reply since forum marked as read
