Russia Says Satellite Launch

Failure Due to Programming

Error
By REUTERSDEC. 27, 2017, 1:12 P.M. E.S.T.
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MOSCOW — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on

Wednesday the failed launch of a 2.6 billion-rouble ($44.95 million)
satellite last month was due to an embarrassing programming error.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact
with the newly-launched weather satellite - the Meteor-M - after it
blasted off from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East.

Eighteen smaller satellites belonging to scientific, research and

commercial companies from Russia, Norway, Sweden, the United
States, Japan, Canada and Germany, were on board the same rocket.

Speaking to Rossiya 24 state TV channel, Rogozin said the failure had

been caused by human error.

The rocket carrying the satellites had been programmed with the
wrong coordinates, he said, saying it had been given bearings for
take-off from a different cosmodrome - Baikonur - which Moscow
leases from Kazakhstan.

"The rocket was really programmed as if it was taking off from

Baikonur," said Rogozin. "They didn't get the coordinates right."

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The Vostochny spaceport, laid out in the thick taiga forest of the
Amur Region, is the first civilian rocket launch site in Russia.

In April last year, after delays and massive costs overruns, Russia
launched its first rocket from Vostochny, a day after a technical glitch
forced an embarrassing postponement of the event in the presence of
President Vladimir Putin.