"Sin on engines"
When launched from the cosmodrome on the island of Wallops in the United States, the Antares launch vehicle with the Cygnus spacecraft exploded, which was supposed to deliver cargo to the ISS. Experts are still only guessing about the causes of emergency, but most already associate it with the work of the engine, in the construction of which, in addition to the Americans, Ukrainian and Soviet experts participated.Explosion at the start
In the United States, during the launch from the Wallops Cosmodrome off the coast of Virginia, for the tenth second after launch, the Antares launch vehicle carrying the Cygnus space truck with approximately two tons of cargo for the ISS exploded.
The explosion occurred in 18.23 local time on Tuesday (Wednesday 1.23 in Moscow), reports TASS with reference to the message of the American Aerospace Agency (NASA).
According to the latest data, no one was hurt during the incident. However, the launch site due to the fact that the rocket did not have time to fly far from the ground, was damaged, which is estimated as "significant".
A special commission was set up to investigate the incident, which included representatives of both NASA and Orbital Sciences, a private company that manufactured the Antares launch vehicle and the Cygnus spacecraft. And the first violin in the commission, apparently, will be played by a private structure.
“Orbital Sciences has formed a special commission that will work in close cooperation with the relevant government agencies in order to establish the causes of today's accident,” said vice president of the corporation Frank Culbertson at a press conference.
As soon as the reasons for the incident become known, his company plans to promptly correct all errors and resume missile launches, he added.
And on November 4, the causes of the accident are planned to be discussed at a meeting of the head of NASA and Roscosmos.
Is it about the engine?
Officially, the reasons for the emergency have not yet been made public, but many analysts have already named the problems with the launch vehicle engines among the main versions.
This version, in particular, shared with RIA "News»Space specialist, professor of George Washington University John Logsdon. “The engines were updated rocket engines, originally intended for use on the Soviet H-1 launch vehicle more than 40 years ago,” he said.
The NK-33 engine was developed for the Soviet lunar rocket H-1, was produced from the beginning of the 1970-x and is now used in the USA under the ISS program for Antares launch vehicles.
The expert added that it’s too early to talk about the further use or non-use of Antares until the specific causes of the accident have been established. In addition, it is not clear how much damage was done to the launch pad itself. According to the expert, Antares missiles can only be launched from there.
According to the Interfax source in the aerospace industry of Russia, the launch facility at the American space center could have been very seriously affected by the accident. And in this case, the next start is unlikely to take place there before the spring - summer of the next year.
It is known that this is the fourth launch of the Antares launch vehicle (the first was held in April of last year - approx. VIEW), and all three previous ones were quite successful.
Commenting on the incident, Academician of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. Tsiolkovsky Alexander Zheleznyakov told the LOOK at the newspaper that "it is not yet completely clear what happened." He called to wait for the end of the investigation, but admitted at the same time that "the majority of experts sin on the engines."
“As for the reliability of these rockets, I can say that they are being operated relatively recently, but before that everything was fine,” the specialist confirmed. “And the incident once again proves that no matter how reliable space technology is considered and no matter what country launches, no matter what the quality of the product, no one is insured from such incidents.”
According to Zheleznyakov, the main engines on this American-made carrier rocket are Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which has specialized in this for several decades.
However, the first stage of the Antares launch vehicle “was made not only by the Americans, but also in cooperation with the Ukrainians,” and they used the modified Samara NK-33 engines there.
“Indeed, the reserve that we had under the lunar program is now being used by the Americans in these engines,” he explained.
At the same time, the expert once again urged to wait for the end of the investigation before expressing versions about whether these engines are related to the accident.
According to Igor Marinin, editor-in-chief of the Astronautics News magazine, the current accident occurred due to the modification of the Soviet engine by the Americans, and the responsibility for this lies only with them (the USA), he told RIA Novosti.
According to him, these engines have been purchased by the United States for a long time. In the USSR, they were produced from the middle of the 70-ies for a modified H-1M rocket intended for landing a man on the Moon. But the program was closed, some of the engines were destroyed, and Americans bought several dozen.
Testing engines produced by both American and Russian experts - nothing bad was found.
The same thing, by the way, was announced on Wednesday by the Vice-President of Antares Orbital Sciences Corporation, the company producing Antares rockets and Cygnus spacecraft, Frank Calbertson. He assured that the engines went through all stages of testing and demonstrated maximum reliability.
At the same time, the Americans made the first stage of the engine for Antares and its adaptation to their equipment together with specialists from the Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk, Marinin added.
“They were pretty serious and gave them their name. It turned out the engine is already American. The Americans saved so much, did not manufacture their engine, bought our very good quality and took advantage of specialists from Dnepropetrovsk, who were freed from orders for Zenit, ”Marinin explained.
According to the expert, at some stage of adaptation and modification of the engine under the American program could fail: "Whether this is the pipeline, or it got into the tank something strange, because the tanks are also in Ukraine do ..."
But, most likely, it is “some kind of external reason, and not the engine itself,” he is sure, therefore, “every responsibility is removed from Russia.”
On the ISS, everything is calm
Together with the Antares rocket, Cygnus exploded - a private American automatic cargo space ship supply
The crew of the International Space Station was immediately informed of the incident with the space truck. And, although the accident somewhat violated the schedule for supporting the American segment of the ISS, most experts say that this is not critical for astronauts.
It is known that the exploded spacecraft carried approximately two tons of food, water, oxygen, materials for scientific experiments and other equipment into orbit.
Roscosmos noted that the accident would not affect the supply of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
“For us, this damage is zero, or, say, minimal. The Cygnus explosion will have no effect on the supply of the Russian segment of the ISS, since we mainly carry our cargoes on Progress tested Russian ships, which we have enough. We always have four ships a year; if necessary, we will launch the fifth ship, ”said Alexei Krasnov, a representative of the ministry in connection with this.
However, if necessary, and a request from NASA, Russia is ready to deliver the necessary cargo to the American segment of the ISS with the help of Progress.
“For the ISS, this accident carries no threat: neither for the life of the astronauts, nor for their diet, their food,” assured the newspaper VIEW and space expert Alexander Zheleznyakov. - Already today, our truck Progress М25-M starts at the station (at the time of the publication of the note, the start was successful and was a success - note LOOK), which will deliver new stocks there. The possibility of various incidents is always laid. Therefore, the ISS has enough supplies and food, and water, and air. "
But regarding the prospects for the transfer of NASA to the delivery of cargo to the ISS with the help of the Russian Progress because of the Antares accident, the Russian expert is not very optimistic:
“I think that changes will not happen. Americans have not only Cygnus, but also another private ship - the Dragon. They are designed to reduce the dependence of Americans on Russia in terms of cargo turnover. Now they have the opportunity not to order additionally our Progress, but to deliver goods on their own, ”he noted.
And even “more flights”, in his opinion, will not necessarily do. The same Dragon is able to hold more than it delivers cargo now. Thus, part of what could not be delivered on Wednesday night could be redistributed to it.
It should be noted that earlier information about emergency situations when launching the Antares rocket came to the press. So, in May of this year, it was announced that its launch, scheduled for June 10, was canceled due to the failure of the first-stage engine AJ26 - the very modernized version of the Soviet NK-33 engine.
We add that one of the most notorious incidents in space lately was the failure of the launch of the European satellites Galileo in August. At the same time, the European Space Agency laid the blame for this on the Russian upper stage "Frigate", finding a constructive defect in it. Russian specialists were less categorical in their assessments, noting that the impact on the accident on the design of the fuel line for the Frigate, which the Europeans sinned for, still needs to be proved.
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