Satellite crashes into Siberia minutes after launch
A Russian satellite has crashed into Siberia minutes after its launch, the defence ministry says, in the latest humiliating setback for Russia's embattled space program.
The Meridian communications satellite failed to reach orbit after it was launched due to a failure with its Soyuz rocket, raising new concerns over the Russian space program which has now lost over half a dozen satellites in the last year.
Its fragments crashed into the Novosibirsk region of central Siberia and were found in the Ordynsk district around 100 kilometres south of the regional capital Novosibirsk.
"A sphere was found, around 50 centimetres in diameter, which crashed into the roof of a house in the village of Vagaitsevo," a local security official told the Interfax news agency.
In an extraordinary irony, the official said that the house was located on Cosmonaut Street, named after the heroic spacemen of the Soviet and Russian space program.
There were no reports of casualties while officials said that radiation was within normal limits.
The owner of the house, Andrei Krivoruchenko, was at home with his wife at the time, and said he heard a huge noise and a crash as the satellite hit his roof.
"I climbed up onto the roof and could not work out what had happened. Then I saw a huge hole in the roof and the metal object," he told Russian state television.
The head of the Ordynsk district, Pavel Ivarovksy, told Interfax that the damage was being examined by specialists and the owner of the property would receive compensation.
The failure of the Soyuz-2.1B rocket to deliver its payload is a particular worry as it comes from a member of the same family that Russia uses to send multinational manned crews to the International Space Station (ISS).
An unmanned Progress supply ship bound for the ISS crashed into Siberia in August after its launch by a Soyuz, forcing the temporary grounding of the rockets and as well as a wholesale re-jig of the station's staffing.
The loss of the Meridian satellite caps a disastrous 12 months for Russia that has already seen it lose three navigation satellites, an advanced military satellite, a telecommunications satellite, a probe for Mars as well as the Progress.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said the satellite came down due to third stage rocket failure just seven minutes after the launch.
"This again shows that the (Russian space) industry is in crisis," admitted Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Roscosmos, in comments broadcast on state television. "It is deeply unpleasant."
Gubi se interesovanje...Bas kad smo isli kuci,u Belorusiji gledi neki dokumentarac,svedocio je direktor nekod od centara za razvoj,govorio kako su godinama fabrikovani podaci sa istrazivanja,a narocito oko nabavke opreme,bas dobra emisija...
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