Polar satellite launch a failure

[merwin]

Polar satellite launch a failure
Sun, October 9, 2005
By AP

MOSCOW -- A European Space Agency satellite that was to have collected data on polar ice broke up in flight after being launched on a converted ballistic missile, a Russian space agency official said yesterday.

Remnants of the satellite crashed into the ocean, said Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The loss of the CryoSat satellite is a major blow to the agency, which had hoped to conduct a three-year mapping of polar sea ice and provide more reliable data for the study of global warming.
...
The problem appeared to be with the booster rocket that was supposed to lift the CryoSat unit into orbit, Davidenko said.

"The booster unit did not switch on and it resulted in the failure of the satellite to reach orbit," he said.
...

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Dang, that was an important satellite (and a clever name too)

:-(

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. I can imagine a number of tinfoil explanations but I won't post them

I can imagine a number of tinfoil explanations but I won't post them because I don't believe in any of them. Let's see if any tinfoilers get excited or if they are more content imagining Bush dropping avian flu virus on dissidents.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. Please don't be ...

...prejudiced! We must be all encompassing to empower all to their full potential, even if that means they can only wear tinfoil hats. :tinfoilhat:

BTW, GW Bush hates us.

[Kailassa]

16. Bernardo, your ridiculing of an idea ...

gives it an unexpected aura of legitimacy.

[hatrack]

22. Besides, as we all know, CLENIS is responsible for this foul deed!

As CLENIS was also responsible for the Black Death, the eruption of Krakatoa and the Permian Extinction, what's a puny little satellite launch to its awesome phallic powers!

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Halliburton in on that one ?

[lakeguy]

4. figures, now we can keep our heads in the sand!

[sam sarrha]

6. i worked on the Delta3 program.. or lack of it, thats why Russia is using

crap to launch with...

i got layed off for making waves trying to do it right.. not possible

[steely]

23. lessee, i worked indirectly with those guys in 1997

January - ouch - not sure if a II or III - but as much as I find it ironic, in the end, rolling the dice on a >97 % success rate still seems like a sure thing. I wonder if takeovers were an issue? I know I've been down that path.

[G_j]

7. Disaster as climate probe crashes

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1588336,00.html

Disaster as climate probe crashes

Robin McKie in Frascati
Sunday October 9, 2005
The Observer


A satellite designed by British scientists to measure how fast Earth's polar ice caps are melting crashed shortly after its launch from a Russian missile site yesterday.
CryoSat, the £100 million brainchild of UK climate expert Duncan Wingham, was supposed to survey the thinning of Earth's ice caps from space. Instead it plummeted into the Arctic Ocean at around 4.15pm.

The loss is a major blow for climate research - and for Europe's ambitions to become a major space power. Last night delegates, dignitaries, and senior scientists - who had gathered at Europe's Esrin space control centre in Frascati, Italy, to celebrate CryoSat's success - stood in grim huddles as they tried to digest the news of its fate.

'This is a tragedy for all the scientists who have spent years putting together this mission,' said Volker Liebeg, head of the European Space Agency's Earth Observation division.

..more..

[Ruffhowse]

8. Excuse me while I adjust my tinfoil hat, but......

it seems highly suspicious that a satellite that would give direct and damning evidence of global warming just HAPPENS to crash on liftoff. Seems just a little too convenient to me.

[SpiralHawk]

9. I don't need no steenkin satelitte

I have my own eyes. I can see what is happening to the Mother Earth who we all depend upon for water, food, shelter, air and beauty.

I don't need no steenkin satellite.

I see what is happening, and I trust my own perceptions.

[Delphinus]

20. We also have what the last astronauts said,

while up in the space. The female commander talked about how fragile everything was and what she could see. I was doubly worried about their re-entry after she spoke.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Star Wars has begun? - GW's wet dream - HAARP and so on

.
.
.

Has it not always been that the Russian Space people pulled the people off the space station when the USA's transfer system failed?

I find it a little hard to believe that a simple launch into space of a mechanical device by the Russians failed due to some sort of incompetence on their part - not while the USA is still an operating "superpower" - and blatantly obvious about their attempts to control the world for their own desires . . .

That's my Canuk opinion anyhoo . .

[babydollhead]

14. Lets talk about HAARP

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. You think the Russians are mechanically perfect?

They make mistakes, like anyone who launches rockets. No satellite launch is 'simple'. If it was, it would be cheap, and lots of people would do it.

[Psephos]

17. Wow, an actual sane post on this thread. Thank you. :-) n/t

[Henny Penny]

21. You're right there Muriel...

Space ambitions do seem to be rather dangerous.... I mean who can forget what happened those poor Brazilians that wanted to launch a couple of satellites back in 2003???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3175131.stm

Best to leave the control of space to Rummy... you know its for the best!

[Gregorian]

11. As much as I didn't want that one to crash,

That was money that could have gone toward noncombustive energy conversion research.
We only need to assume that the caps ARE melting. And that things ARE as bad as we think. Let's get on with our new life. We know it's coming. No, it's here.


This is like a quarterback in a football game who thinks he's broken his leg. The score is 100 to 1. They've already lost the game, but there's one minute to go. So they bring him into x-ray to see if he can play the last play. What the hell difference does it make?

[Barkley]

12. Converting nuclear subs into launchers makes sense, we should try it!

The first time the Russians launched from a sub it worked.

Delta-IV submarine to launch satellite on July 7th, 1998
The Northern fleets Delta-IV class submarine Novomoskovsk (K-407) is scheduled to launch a German scientific micro-satellite on July 7th from its submerged position in the Barents Sea.
http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/vessels/9514.html

[Straight Shooter]

13. The bushie fundies can now claim the hand of God smote that satellite.

This is a setback, definitely. And just why the hell don't we have about 10 satellites up there monitoring polar sea ice? Or do we?

[Up2Late]

18. Oh, that SUCKS!

I wonder what the Russian word is for SH*T!

[Psephos]

24. The Russian word is...

dermo.

It has about the same profanity strength as the English equivalent.

Peace.

[kostya]

25. Sledi za bazarom!

:)

[Psephos]

26. Ok, ok! Izvinite pozhaluysta! :-)

[truthisfreedom]

19. sad. we seriously need more data on polar ice.

we're so screwed.