Rogozin: Proton-M crashes due to lack of labour discipline

The Proton-M rocket has crashed due to lack of labor discipline, criminal negligence and the casual attitude from the Russian Federal Space Agency, Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. Speaking at a session of the inter-department commission on Monday, Rogozin said, “This is a standard rocket. What’s new in it?” “How can you install sensors wrong? The whole process is regulated,” Rogozin said, adding that the Roskosmos leadership had removed itself from the development of the space infrastructure on Earth and “considers rockets launches the key task”. Till the yearend the Russian Federal Space Agency hopes to make four or five launches of Proton rocket. The first launch with a foreign satellite is scheduled for September. On July 2, the Proton-M rocket with three Glonass-M satellites was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. However, the rocket changed its flight direction, started to fall and exploded. According to Roskosmos, the rocket crashed due to the wrong installation of angular rate sensors, which helped monitor the rocket’s attitude in space. Earlier, Lopatin said, “The Khrunichev Centre installed three sensors out of six.” “The sensors can be installed wrong by using physical force while sensors themselves were in good order,” he added. Criminal proceedings have been launched. On July 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin set up a special commission to reform the aerospace sector. The commission is led by Vice-premier Dmitry Rogozin. On August 2, the government press service reported that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued a reprimand to Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin for the improper execution of duties.