Russian Proton Rocket Failure
Reports of a Russian Proton rocket launch failure this evening.
I do not speak Russian and can not translate the launch commentary.
However, I located the Proton rocket launch profile.
The video shows launch of the rocket and continues until roughly 5 min 28 sec of flight.
You can clearly see the second stage rocket firing until about 5 min 22 sec (5 min 28 sec on the video). This moment in the Proton launch profile appears to correlate to shut down of the second stage and ignition of the third stage motor. Therefore, a plume appears in the video at 5 min 30 sec, two seconds after the light from the second stage engine stops.
I conclude that the Russian space launch capability is having severe problems. Resources appear to be focused on Soyuz but the safety of the Soyuz vehicle for man rating requires an explanation from the Russians on the significant number of Proton rocket failures over the past three years. We need to insure that US astronauts are safe in flying on Soyuz.
