Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 26 – An investigation
into the failure of the Progress MS-04 rocket at the end of last year, one that
has already uncovered massive diversion of funds and the substitution of cheap imitation
materials for other more valuable ones that could be sold, has forced Roskosmos
to recall all the rocket engines to the factory for extensive testing.
According to Aleksandr Sharkovsky in
“Nezavisimaya gazeta” today, these problems “bear a systemic character,” that
is, they may affect far more than just these launch vehicles and thus force a
pause of some time for Moscow’s space program and possibly part of its nuclear
triad as well (ng.ru/economics/2017-01-26/2_6912_proton.html).
“Prosecutors, FSB officers and the
Investigation Committee” have been brought in to try to answer “the eternal
Russian questions: who is guilty and what is to be done?” the Moscow journalist
says. What they will find and who will
suffer the consequences remains to be seen.
Initially, it appeared that
Roskosmos and its factory managers would get away with at most a slap on the wrist,
Sharkovsky says. After all, rockets fail a certain percentage of the time. But
now that it has been discovered that managers substituted cheap components in
order to sell for their own benefit the expensive ones specified in the
contract, that is certain to change.
For more on this emerging scandal,
see polit.ru/article/2017/01/25/vmz/,
kommersant.ru/doc/3200920, svpressa.ru/economy/article/164999/ and
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