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Russia Lost a $45 Million Satellite Because 'They Didn't Get the Coordinates Right' (gizmodo.com)
Last month, Russia lost contact with a 6,062-pound, $45 million satellite. Turns out, that happened because the Meteor-M weather satellite was programmed with the wrong coordinates. Gizmodo reports: On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told the Rossiya 24 state TV channel that a human error was responsible for the screw-up, according to Reuters. While the Meteor-M launched last month from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East, it was reportedly programmed with take-off coordinates for the Baikonur cosmodrome, which is located in southern Kazakhstan. "The rocket was really programmed as if it was taking off from Baikonur," Rogozin said. "They didn't get the coordinates right." And the rocket had some precious cargo on board: "18 smaller satellites belonging to scientific, research and commercial companies from Russia, Norway, Sweden, the U.S., Japan, Canada and Germany," Reuters reported.
Perhaps they should stop launching satellites that pollute space with junk. Businesses should be prohibited from launching new satellites, unless they're safely deorbiting an existing one at the same time.
To my knowledge, none of the various tiny pieces that remain of the klan endorsed Trump for 2016 or 2020. I know a Klansman is on video endorsing Hilary, but hey, you probably don't buy that.
Why would the Klan love Russia? Why do you hate Russia?
If this is anything similar to SpaceX, you get to choose from: a large refund for a new flight or a new flight. a new flight is usually scheduled a lot sooner than buying a new flight later, but a refund is nice when you can't afford a new satellite. The satellite itself (usually a lot more expensive than the launch cost) is not refunded, you have to ensure that yourself. It's usually insured separately for everything until engine ignition (transport, integration onto the rocket, etc.), everything between engine ignition and making contact in orbit (the correct orbit), and optionally for N years of operation after than. When launching a large set of satellites in several launches the owner can take a bit of a hit and pays for the first failure, resulting in much lower insurance cost. For example for the new Iridium network, the remaining 6 sets of 10 satellites where launched a few month after the first set of 10, because the insurer (for N years of lifespan) wanted to be sure there where no technical problems with the first 10.
Some companies have started so small that they couldn't afford insurance, they just bet all on the launch succeeding. Have a look at the early history of SES - their very first satellite, Astra 1A, went up without insurance. Had the Ariane rocket exploded, nobody would be talking about SES, and chances are sat TV would have developed quite differently.
My old tomtom worked fine when I stuck it to a passenger window of a 737 and showed me we were going around 900km/h. It didn't take much longer to find the satelites. (but I had to delete any routes and turn off the speed camera warnings, cause it couldn't keep up with that)