US classified data on the fall of "Phobos-Grunt"
The strategic command of the United States of America, which is responsible for the control of outer space, removed from its specialized Internet resource all information about the fall of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station in the Pacific Ocean. As reported by RIA "News“This fact caused experts to be perplexed, because until now the US military had done nothing of the kind.The US strategic command on the specialized Internet resource SpaceTrack constantly publishes data on launch dates, parameters of the orbit and the entry into the atmosphere of spacecraft and their debris. In particular, TIP messages are laid out by specialists on the site - forecasts of the timing and location of the satellites falling, and then the final calculated coordinates.
However, the standard practice with the case of the Phobos-Grunt station has been changed. The reasons for this change are unknown. The first TIP message was published on the website in late December. In it, the south-west of Afghanistan was indicated as a point of fall, while the time variation for entering the atmosphere was 11 days. But soon this message was removed from the site, and the new updated data did not appear.
"Phobos-Grunt" in the forecast section of the fall of the spacecraft appeared in January, just before the fall, but unlike in similar cases, the exact dates and coordinates of the fall site were not indicated. The corresponding column indicated only the time range from 16: 59 to 17: 47 GMT (20: 59 - 21: 47 Moscow time) January 15. The fall of "Phobos", according to the Russian military, happened over the Pacific in 21: 45.
In addition, the site also published a note that information regarding the Russian station is published in a format that differs from standard recordings.
The administration of the site to the question of journalists in connection with which the information about "Phobos" is given in an incomplete form, gave a very concise answer: "This information was deleted at the direction of the manual."
Data on the range of terms of the fall of the station "Phobos-Grunt" is currently removed from the site, you can see only the date of the fall, as well as the latest known parameters of the orbit of the device.
At the same time, SpaceTrack contains accurate data on the place and time of the fall of other spacecraft, for example, the Russian "Cosmos-2176".
Some commentators have been surprised by such selectivity. "Apparently, this contradicts the policy proclaimed by the US government to exchange data on the situation in outer space, and also undermines the efforts of the State Department and NASA to interact with other countries and society in matters related to the fall of the apparatus," safe world world washington fund spaces brian widen.
The expert could not name the reasons that forced the US military to remove information about Phobos-Grunt. However, RIA Novosti reports that this story takes place against the background of statements from Russia, as if the cause of the accident was the emission of American radars placed on the Kwajalein Atoll. Independent experts and NASA denied this version.
The Phobos-Grunt AMS (automatic interplanetary station) is the first Russian station in 15 years, intended for the delivery of soil samples from the Mars satellite. Phobos-Grunt launched on the night of November 9 from the Baikonur cosmodrome. But the station's propulsion system did not turn on, in connection with which the device did not enter the flight path to the Mars satellite. As a result of the accident, "Phobos-Gruntu" instead of 34-month odyssey for more than two months just flew in near-earth orbit.
January 15 station wreckage fell into the ocean.
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