Rocket and lustration
I think a lot of generalizing analytical research, satirical plays and scenarios for tragicomedy will be written about the current period in the life of the country. But fate decreed in such a way that while we have to live in it. And to live in an era of change, as the Chinese correctly noted, this is an unenviable thing. What you have to make sure constantly.
We already wrote about lustration and that the start of this campaign led to a paralysis of the work of the state apparatus. The other day the topic received a logical continuation. In America, the spacecraft exploded. More precisely, the launch vehicle Antares with the cargo ship Cygnus, which was supposed to deliver to the ISS more than two tons of cargo. It happened live: the launch was broadcast on the NASA website.
The trouble is that the Antares rocket was originally a joint development of the United States and Ukraine with the participation of Russia. The main "owner" of the rocket was Orbital Sciences Corporation: its shares on the New York Stock Exchange fell 18% after News about the explosion.
But the most unpleasant thing is that the rocket fell right on the launch pad and caused a strong fire. The Wallops Space Center has suffered tremendous damage, and the launch complex has been virtually destroyed. In this light, the vigorous statement of the astronauts with the ISS that they are provided with food until March 2015 can not but rejoice: the next start from Wallops will probably be possible not earlier than the spring-summer of next year. How to joke in social networks, you have to eat up what is.
Not a joke to insurance companies. The rocket was insured and reinsured by all leading offices in this field. But even financial strength fades away before the scale of possible expenses. The figures call from $ 2 to $ 5 billion. This is the minimum and maximum damage that can be caused to the spaceport, rocket, ship, owners of the burnt equipment and astronauts. Naturally, there is a big and exciting search for the culprit. And in this situation it is very important for Ukraine to defend itself against attacks in time. It’s not a fact that material “charges” for a rocket will be rolled out to us, but reputational losses may turn out to be enormous. It would not hurt Ukraine’s participation in the investigation of the incident. But who will agree on this, if the space agency does not have a manual - is it lustrated?
Meanwhile, the media is slowly beginning to form its own investigative pool around the Antares-Cygnus disaster. The NASA’s statement that there were no problems before the start was added to the fire of curiosity.
According to information from open sources, the developer of the launch vehicle Antares is an American company Orbital Sciences Corporation. However, the development of its first stage was entrusted to the Dnepropetrovsk Yuzhnoye design bureau. And the AJ-26 engines are modifications of the NK-33 engines manufactured by Russian SNTK them. N.D. Kuznetsova. Therefore, there are three potential applicants for the title of “father of an accident”.
According to one version, voiced by the media, the cause of the accident was the engines of the first stage of Ukrainian production. At the Southern Machine-Building Plant, this version was refuted. But they could not refute the involvement in the assembly of the rocket, since this fact is well known and is proudly reported on the KB website.
Moreover, during previous successful launches (there were three such), the plant rightly boasted of its participation in an international project and called other contractors from the Ukrainian side.
“22 on April 2013 of the year 00 00 minutes, Kyiv time, from the Space Flight Center on Wallops Island, located in the Atlantic Ocean 240 km from Washington, successfully launched the first launch of the Antares launch vehicle. The lead developer of the PH is Orbital Science Corporation (USA).
The launch vehicle is intended primarily for delivering cargo to the International Space Station, as well as for launching commercial and state-owned space vehicles. The launch vehicle consists of two stages and the spacecraft Signus (third stage).
The basic design of the first stage of the Antares LV was developed by the Yuzhnoye design office, manufactured by the Southern Machine-Building Plant in cooperation with the Ukrainian enterprises Khartron-ARKOS (Kharkiv), Kievpribor (Kiev), Khartron-YUKOM (Zaporizhia), " CHEZARA "," Rapid "(Chernigov) and others.
Preparation of the Antares launch vehicle for launching, its testing and launching was carried out with the participation of specialists from the State Enterprise Design Bureau Yuzhnoye, State Enterprise PO YuMZ, and the Scientific Production Association Khartron-ARKOS (end of quotation).
In short, we worked there tightly and thoroughly. A large group of enterprises. If necessary, someone will do scapegoats.
The Russian side, in turn, actually refutes its thorough participation in the construction of the rocket. It also minimizes ours. According to the editor of the journal "Cosmonautics News" Igor Afanasyev, Antares is not an American-Ukrainian, but a purely American rocket, in the manufacture of which some elements made in Russia and Ukraine were used.
Apparently, there were fewer Russian elements or there was no obvious suspicion towards them. In any case, the Russian engine manufacturer, OAO Kuznetsov, reported that the American side had not yet received any requests for assistance in investigating the causes of the rocket explosion.
At the same time, representatives of Orbital Sciences Corporation have already invited Ukraine to participate in the investigation. In particular, the invitation is addressed to the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise Yuzhnoye Design Bureau named after M.K. Yangel. Formality or bell?
The first meeting of the heads of the space agencies of Russia, Ukraine and the USA on November 4 should give an answer to this question. But there is no one to represent Ukraine in this “debriefing”: an outstanding scientist, academician in the field of the space industry, chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Yuriy Alekseev is lustrated from office on formal grounds. His only fault, as I already wrote, is that he led the agency for many years - under Kuchma, under Yushchenko, and under Yanukovych. At the same time, his first deputy was also fired. And the rest of the "specialists in space" fled to leave and sick leave to postpone the exciting moment of lustration.
While at the cosmodrome, as far as I know, experts flew from the Yuzhny Design Bureau. They will have to participate in the search for an answer to the question of which malfunction of the Antares rocket led to its crash. As they say, without cover from the state and its influential officials. Our state, you understand, is not up to the rocket. And all the more so not to "Yuzhmash". And the only officials who at least really understand something in the technical specifics of the issue are lustrated in the name of democracy. As for me, idiocy, in its brightness rivaling the rocket explosion.
On video: so burned Antares
Information