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Cubesat Launch Ends in Failure

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the damn-shame dept.

Change writes "The CalPoly Cubesat group's launch yesterday has been a failure. It seems the first stage did not separate from the Dnepr rocket properly, and the vehicle crashed about 25km south of the launch site. More will be known when the debris is recovered and analyzed. A second launch is still in the works, but the loss of the 14 satellites from this launch is an unfortunate end to quite a lot of hard work of many engineering students."

6 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. More than 14 satellites were lost. by nacnud75 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There were 18 satellites on board not just the cube sats. BelKA-1 Baumanets UniSat-4 PICPOT and CubeSats: AeroCube-1 PolySat 1 PolySat 2 ICEcube-1 ICEcube-2 ION HAUSAT-1 KUTESat Merope Ncube-1 Rincon 1 Sacred SEEDS Voyager

  2. Re:Old Ballistic missile was used... by Brett+Johnson · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA:

    "The failed launch attempt comes two weeks after a successful Dnepr launch from Russia's Yasny Launch Base, an active strategic missile facility.

    That July 12 liftoff carried the U.S. spacecraft Genesis-1, an inflatable module developed by Las Vegas, Nevada's Bigelow Aerospace as a prototype for future orbital space habitats. Genesis-1 continues to do well, relaying telemetry and images from orbit."

  3. Re:Old Ballistic missile was used... by jaxom_01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I watched a show the other night which talked about how the US pulled 14 TITAN II missiles out of thier silos, relocated them to Vandenburg AirForce Base, removed the warhead and changed them over to carry a payload into space. 13 out of 14 were launched and 13 out of 13 were successful. The last TITAN II missile was kept as a static display at Vandenburg AFB. I think it all depends on what missiles are being re-used for payload launches. The TITAN II missiles were good for it because they were man-rated. They were designed from the beginning to be reliable enough to carry a man into space (Gemini missions) -Aaron

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    The post made with 100% recycled electrons
  4. Re:Old Ballistic missile was used... by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ack! Trident, not Polaris. Stupid brain.

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    Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
  5. Re:Old Ballistic missile was used... by dan828 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Heinlein wrote about such a scenerio. It was mentioned in passing in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as "the wet firecracker war."

  6. Re:Old Ballistic missile was used... by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'm assuming you're just kidding, at least about the US arsenal. This is something that is taken very seriously. Confidence in the performance of weapons is managed through stockpile surveillance, assessment and certification, and refurbishment.

    The Navy even more so than the USAF. The Navy will actually call in a SSBN from patrol occasionally. The warheads on one or more missiles will be removed and replaced with ballast. (No other modification is made to the missile, and the only operational interface that is even temporarily broken is the ordinance train for nose fairing jettison.) The submarine will transit to a simulated patrol area off of the Cape or Vandenburg and will await launch orders. When the launch order is sent (using actual strategic circuits) the (actual strategic) missile will be fired from its (actual strategic) tube and head downrange.
     
    The USAF hauls the missile out of it's tube, ships it to Vandenburg, preps it, and launches it out of a special launch facility.
     
     
    There are numerous layers of logic like this that are designed just for the issue you bring up. Clearly an ICBM should have enough smarts to know that it hasn't left reached it's target if it is only 20 yards from the launch site and the onboard altimiter never reached a height of over 200 feet.

    There not only should be - there are . (US) [ICBM|SLBM]'s have a whole series of interlocks to prevent the physics package from being fired unless it has reached it's intended target. (Further details are, as you might guess, classified.)