Proton-M rocket failure

[mako88sb]

I did a quick search but it doesn't look like it's been posted before. Happened back in early July:



Link wasn't working but should be good now.

[eddie]

And Putin was not happy!

[Wolferz]

WOW! Bigga badda BOOM!

[Gargamel]

NEED MORE STRUTS!

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

NEED MORE STRUTS!

Need some rocketeers who know what they're doing.-

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Need some rocketeers who know what they're doing.-

ie, NEED MOAR STRUTS!

[Oberon]

[Wolferz]

NYET!!!!

Good thing we didn't put the monkey in there. WAIT! I think we found the problem.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Need some rocketeers who know what they're doing.-

Since 2002 when you introduced your latest Delta IV and Atlas V heavy launchers there have been 96 Proton launches (if I didn't miss any) of which 9 were failures (one partial). That means success rate of roughly 91 percent. Most troubles (5 failures) have been after 2010. I don't know reason for that.

At same time you have launched 22 Delta IVs of which 1 has failed partially and 39 Atlas Vs of which also 1 has failed partially. So in total you have had 61 successful launches and two failures which means success rate of roughly 97 percent.

So difference isn't huge and for some strange reason private companies are still ready to strap their million (or billion) dollar equipment into that Soviet vintage rocket instead of your shiny new Yankee rockets. Wonder why...

EDIT: Raw wiki data for your consumption on failed launches from 2000 onwards...

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

5 November 2002
23:04:23 Proton-K/Block-DM-2M 8K82K/11S861-01 408-02 Site 81/23 Failure
Astra 1K Geosynchronous transfer (intended) Communications
Commercial launch conducted by International Launch Services. The engine of the Block-DM upper stage shut down prematurely during the second planned burn, leaving the payload stranded in low Earth orbit.


8 February 2006
20:10:00 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 535-11 Site 200/39 Failure
Arabsat-4A (Badr-1) Geosynchronous transfer (intended) Communications
Commercial launch conducted by International Launch Services. Briz-M upper stage shut down prematurely due to a burn through in the oxidizer supply system during the second burn.


September 2007
22:43:10 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 535-22 Site 200/39 Failure[2]
JCSAT-11 Geosynchronous transfer (intended) Communications
Commercial launch conducted by International Launch Services. The first and second stages of the rocket failed to separate due to a damaged pyrotechnic firing cable.


4 March 2008
23:18:55 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 535-25 Site 200/39 Failure[8]
AMC-14 Geosynchronous transfer (intended) Communications
Commercial launch conducted by International Launch Services. Briz-M upper stage shut down prematurely due to rupturing of the gas duct between the gas generator and the propellant pump turbine by high heat erosion.


5 December 2010
10:25:19 Proton-M/DM-03 8K82KM/11S861-03 535-37 Site 81/24 Failure
Uragan-M #739 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
Uragan-M #740 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
Uragan-M #741 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
First flight of the Blok-DM-03 upper stage. The upper stage and payloads failed to reach orbital velocity due to overloading of the upper stage with 1.5 tonnes of liquid oxygen, which was caused by communication error between engineers.[10]


17 August 2011
21:25:01 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 935-21 Site 200/39 Failure[15]
Ekspress-AM4 Geosynchronous transfer (intended) Communications
Briz-M upper stage suffered a failure of attitude control due to a too short programmed time interval for gyro platform manipulation while the operation timeline was being formalized.[14]


6 August 2012
19:31:00 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 935-31 Site 81/24 Failure[24]
Telkom 3 Geosynchronous (intended) Communication
Express MD-2 Geosynchronous (intended) Communication
Briz-M upper stage failure 7 seconds into its third burn.


8 December 2012
13:13:43 Proton-M/Briz-M 8K82KM/11S43 935-34 Site 200/39 Partial failure[28]
Yamal-402 Geosynchronous transfer (intended) (achieved) Communications
Commercial launch conducted by International Launch Services. Briz-M upper stage shut down 4 minutes earlier than planned on its fourth burn. On 15 December 2012 the satellite was placed into its designated orbit with the help of its internal engine.


2 July 2013
02:38:22 Proton-M/DM-03 8K82KM/11S861-03 535-43 Site 81/24 Failure
Uragan-M #748 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
Uragan-M #749 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
Uragan-M #750 Medium Earth (intended) Navigation
First stage failure, rocket crashed near launch pad minutes earlier than planned on its fourth burn. On 15 December 2012 the satellite was placed into its designated orbit with the help of its internal engine.[27]