#ms10

Magister SCENE 10 by Nevarrah

Investigators pinpoint deformed sensor as cause of Soyuz MS-10 abort (November 1, 2018) In a press conference outside of Moscow November 1, Russian investigators have released their preliminary findings on the cause of last month’s Soyuz MS-10 launch anomaly. 

According to Oleg Skorobogatov, leader of the Russian accident investigation commission, the failure was traced to a deformed sensor on a strap-on booster that was improperly installed during the Soyuz rocket’s assembly. Discovered to have been bent by just six degrees, the sensor was unable to open a cover on a reverse thrust nozzle which would have completed the separation of the booster from the core stage. 

In a video released by Roscosmos during this morning’s press conference, the ‘D’ booster can be seen partially separating from the core stage and swinging back to impact the engine section. RSC Energia, manufacturers of the Soyuz rocket, are inspecting vehicles slated to fly upcoming missions to ensure the anomaly will not occur again.  Two uncrewed launches of the Soyuz rocket are slated before the December 3 flight of the Soyuz MS-11 and its crew to the space station. These flights will serve as verification that the vehicle is safe to resume human flights. 

Soyuz MS-10 marked the first launch abort in the International Space Station program and the first crewed Soyuz failure since Soyuz T-10 experienced a high-altitude abort in 1983.

The rocketcam video of the MS-10 launch also marks the first time onboard footage has been seen of a vehicle departing Earth from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gagarin’s Start - technically known as LC-1/5 - is the pad used by most crewed flights of the Russian space program, including the first traveller into space, Yuri Gagarin. The pad can be seen falling away with the surrounding Kazakh steppe and Baikonur infrastructure in the distance. Rocketcams were first installed on Arianespace-operated Soyuz vehicles departing from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana in 2015, and upgraded Soyuz-2 rockets launching from the Vostochny cosmodrome in 2016.