Cause of Carrier Rocket Accident Still Unknown

SPACEMART

Definitive and prolific production version of satellite launcher based on Yangel R-14 IRBM. After further development at NPO Polyot (Omsk, Chief Designer A S Klinishkov), the modified Kosmos-3M added a restartable second stage with an orientation system. This booster was launched form two 'Cusovaya' launch complexes from 1967. The second stage used low thrust rockets using gas generator output to adjust the final velocity of the stage.
Source Encyclopedia Astronautica.
Photo by Sven Grahn.

Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 10, 2001
A Russian government commission has so far been unable to determine the cause of the accident involving a Kosmos-3M booster-rocket carrying the U.S.-made satellite 'Quick Bird' launched November 21 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region in northern Russia.

A press release from the Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) says that analysis of existing telemetric data and simulations of the rocket's trajectory have helped to reduce the number of possible causes for the in-flight malfunctioning.

A commission statement says the accident could have been caused by the failure of the second stage engine or premature engine shutdown on an emergency order issued by the rocket's onboard control system.

The statement notes that the rocket had been in storage for 13 years, but the commission found nothing wrong with the way the Plesetsk ground services prepared for or conducted this launch, the 401st of a Kosmos-3M from Plesetsk.

The RVSN press release says that flight simulations established that the rocket's second stage and the satellite broke apart and burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. A lengthy but fruitless search for the satellite was conducted after the accident.

The 950-kilo Quick Bird was intended to be placed in a circular orbit at the altitude of about 600 kilometers. It was designed for commercial probing of natural resources and making maps of the earth from space. The project called for putting two such satellites into orbit.

SPACEMART

Senior Russian Space Official To Be Replaced

Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 10, 2001
The replacement of the general director of Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, Anatoly Kiselyev, seems inevitable, a source from the aerospace industry told Interfax.

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