https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Rocket_and_Space_Corporation
	In announcing the new corporation in August 2013, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said "the failure-prone space sector is so troubled that it needs state supervision to overcome its problems."[2] The name for the organization had first been provisionally floated in July 2013 when—three days following the failure of a Proton M launch—the Russian government announced that "extremely harsh measures" would be taken "and spell the end of the [Russian] space industry as we know it."[7] Rogozin indicated it would be "consolidate[d] under a single state-controlled corporation within a year."

------

RBTH owned by Russia government

https://www.rbth.com/science_and_tech/2013/07/03/rocket_failure_to_lead_to_space_industry_reform_27729.html


this crash used as pretext for government takeover of space industry?


------

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/2013788184616912.html
	So what happened? According to an anonymous rocket industry source working with the commission investigating the accident, the rocket launched prematurely by a mere half-second, preventing the booster from reaching the necessary power to launch.


then Putin comes in and attacks them later for delaying a rocket launch for a day: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/vladimir-putin-slams-repeated-russian-space-failures-after-delay/

	"The analysis of the telemetry data has shown that the rocket’s lif-toff occurred nearly half a second ahead of time. Hence, the engines had not reached the necessary thrust capacity by this time," the source told Interfax.


is this even true? how does the timing get messed up by half a second? a long time for a computer.



------


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11194485/Five-worst-accidents-in-Nasas-history.html
	NASA destroys an unmanned experimental rocket launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, carrying a pair of research satellites after it veers off course. Officials said the rocket - a prototype made by Alliant Techsystems Inc., or ATK - was destroyed by remote control 27 seconds into the pre-dawn flight. It was between 11,000 feet and 12,000 feet high when it exploded. Officials said they do not know why it veered off course. It was destroyed to avoid endangering the public.


Proton M not have this? story made it sound like it crashed


	...A flash fire erupts aboard the Apollo 1 during a routine launch-pad test, killing the three astronauts aboard.

	The deaths of Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee forced NASA to take pause in its space race with the Soviet Union and make design and safety changes that were critical to the agency's later successes.


this mean anything?


------

https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2013_07_04/Proton-M-rocket-crashed-due-to-premature-liftoff-source-6351/
	"The analysis of the telemetry data has shown that the rocket's liftoff occurred nearly half a second ahead of time. Hence, the engines had not reached the necessary thrust capacity by this time," the source said.

	In this situation, "the automated emergency system performed nominally: upon receiving information indicating that the engines did not reach the full thrust capacity, it started an emergency procedure to direct the rocket away from the launch pad," he said.


source says they don't detonate rocket, but "steer it away"


but how do you steer away an out of control rocket...?

not a rocket scientist but seems off


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqW0LEcTAYg


rocket tumbled, crashed, and exploded


https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1307/01proton/
	PROTON ROCKET CRASHES
	BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
	Posted: July 1, 2013

	...Russian rockets do not carry self-destruct explosives like Western boosters, which prevented any attempt to destroy the wayward Proton before impact.


so proton-M doesn't have self-destruct for things like this



------


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/proton-m-failure-due-to-same-design-flaw-that-doomed-1988-mission/
	Russian authorities investigating the May 16, 2015 Proton-M rocket failure have determined that the root cause was a design flaw in the turbopump for the third stage steering engine and concluded it was the same root cause of a prior crash in 1988.

	Igor Komarov, head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, said today that the Proton-M third stage failed on May 16 because of excessive vibration in the turbopump.  The failure destroyed Mexico’s MexSat-1 communications satellite.

	Alexander Medvedev, head of the Khrunichev Center, which manufactures Proton, revealed that it was the same problem that caused a 1988 Proton failure.  That crash previously was attributed to a manufacturing defect that led to the destruction of a fuel line in the third stage.

	...Russia has been experiencing an unusual number of launch failures of various rockets since December 2010 and other Proton crashes had other causes, so the Russian aerospace sector still has work to do to restore confidence in their capabilities.  Russian officials still have not determined, for example, the cause of an April 28 Soyuz-2.1a launch failure that doomed the Progress M-27M cargo mission to the International Space Station.  TASS reports that the launch of a military satellite on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket is being postponed until the Progress M-27M accident is solved.


why experiencing an unusual number of failures?


https://spacepolicyonline.com/pages/images/stories/List%20of%20Russian%20Space%20Launch%20Failures%20Since%20Dec%202010%20as%20of%20May%2016%202015.pdf
	Russia’s once reliable fleet of space launch vehicles began a string of failures beginning in December 2010 that has created significant consternation in Russia’s space program and brought about firings and reorganizations, but the failures continue.  Following is a list, with links to SpacePolicyOnline.com articles where available.


so rocket reliable, suddenly lots of failures, "reorganizations," still failures

-----

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/russia-suffers-another-soyuz-rocket-failure/
	Russia’s military Molniya satellites are being replaced by a new version, Meridian, and that was the payload today.   According to RussianSpaceWeb.com, the third stage of the Soyuz shut down 421 seconds into the flight and the latest reports indicate “a possible bulging of the combustion chamber No. 1, leading to its burn through and a catastrophic fuel leak.”  That website cites Russian news service Interfax as estimating the “financial loss from the accident could reach two billion rubles.”

	This is Russia’s fifth launch failure in 2011, a surprising number given the usual reliability of Russian rockets.   The other four were GEO-IK2, a Rokot launch vehicle with a Briz upper stage that left the spacecraft stranded in transfer orbit; Express AM-4, a Proton-Briz combination that left the spacecraft in transfer orbit; Progress M-12M, a Soyuz U-Fregat combination that did not attain orbit; and Phobos-Grunt, a Zenit-Fregat combination that left the spacecraft stranded in Earth orbit instead of on a Mars trajectory.


------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/another-proton-launch-anomaly-added-to-the-list/
	Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are vowing to make changes to Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, and its space industry.    The head of Khrunichev resigned in August one day after Medvedev met with Cabinet and space industry officials.   More recently, the head of the company that builds the GLONASS navigation satellites — a particular interest of President Putin — left his job after investigators determined that the company embezzled about $200 million of federal funding for the navigation satellite system.   More changes are expected.


-------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/top-russian-government-officials-meeting-november-26-to-discuss-refining-russian-space-sector/
	In addition to Russia’s unusual spate of launch failures since December 2010, the space industry also has been rocked by a corruption scandal involving the company that builds and maintains Russia’s GLONASS navigation satellite system, which is similar to the U.S. GPS system.  Yuri Urlichich,  director-general of Russian Space Systems left his job in recent days — some reports say he was fired, others say he resigned due to illnesss — after investigators determined that the company embezzled 6.5 billion rubles (about $200 million) of federal funding for GLONASS.

	Russian President Vladimir Putin also recently fired his defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, as his government tries to crack down on corruption.


------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/another-russian-launch-failure-sea-launch-zenit-rocket-fails-at-launch/
	Anatoly Zak at RussianSpaceWeb.com reported on his website and in tweets that a failure of the flight control system is suspected and cites industry sources as saying the rocket headed south instead of east at liftoff.  Its engines were shut down by an emergency command, Zak continues, and the rocket crashed into the Pacific Ocean 50 seconds after launch.


------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/russian-proton-rocket-crashes-moments-after-launch/
	Russia has been suffering a surprising number of launch failures in recent years.   (Link to a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet with a list of Russia’s space launch failures since December 2010.)  Many have been upper stage failures.  It is less common to have a failure moments after liftoff and this one evokes the images of the 2007 spectacular Sea Launch failure of a Zenit-3SL rocket.


failures moments after liftoff less common


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/roscosmos-official-confirms-proton-sensors-upside-down-flights-may-resume-in-september/
	Despite skepticism from a Russian Deputy Prime Minister, an official with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, confirms that the recent Proton-M launch failure was caused by sensors that were installed upside down.

	Alexander Lopatin, a deputy director of Roscosmos, is quoted today by Russia’s official news agency, Itar-Tass, as confirming earlier reports that angular rate sensors were installed “head over heels.”  Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin disputed the earlier reports saying that installation of the sensors was virtually foolproof.

	Nonetheless, that is what happened according to Lopatin.  “The cause was an industrial process violation, the human factor,” he said.  The six angular rate sensors themselves were fine and passed all tests, but three of them were installed “head over heels” by workers at Khrunichev, the rocket’s manufacturer.


a different story for the launch failure?


------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/russia-suffers-another-proton-failure/
	Information is still coming in, but Itar-Tass is quoting an unnamed official at Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, as saying the problem occurred between the separation of the second and third stages and contact with the Proton rocket “was lost in the 540th second after liftoff”  and “the nose cone did not separate from the rocket.”


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/ostapenko-failed-bearing-doomed-may-2014-proton-launch/
	The head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, says that the investigation into the failure of a Proton rocket last month concluded that it was caused by a failed bearing.


investigation found different reason?

	These failures are part of an increasingly longer list of Russian launch vehicle failures since December 2010 that has resulted in high level Russian political attention to the state of the Russian space industry and associated changes in the structure of that industry as well as leadership of Roscosmos and the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center, which manufactures Proton.

	Russia announced last year that it would completely revamp its space industry because of the rocket failures.  It created a United Rocket and Space Corporation (ORKK) headed by Igor Komarov.   Komarov said earlier this week that ORKK does not have the authority or resources to carry out a complete audit of all of the Russian space industry, but overall the enterprises seem stable, although not all can afford to carry out modernization efforts.


------


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/eu-demands-answers-on-galileo-launch-mishap/
	The Soyuz rocket has been in use since the beginning of the Space Age, though it has been upgraded many times over those decades.  Russia’s enviable track record of launch successes began deteriorating in 2010 and a solution to those woes is proving elusive.   Russian government and industry officials have been fired and a complete restructuring of the Russian space industry is underway, but failures continue.  The venerable Proton rocket suffered yet another failure in May and has not yet returned to flight.


------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/arianespace-announces-cause-of-galileo-launch-anomaly/
	The Soyuz rocket was exonerated and found to have performed as planned.   The problem was in the Fregat upper stage because the hydrazine fuel froze and blocked the fuel supply to the Fregat’s thrusters.  The fuel froze because the hydrazine and cold helium feed lines were connected by the same support structure, creating a thermal bridge.  The root cause was found to be “ambiguities” in the design documentation as the result of poor system thermal analysis in the design phase.

	Arianespace concluded that the issue is easy for Lavochkin to resolve and launches could resume as early as December 2014.  The company also noted that this failure followed 45 consecutive successful uses of the Fregat.

------

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/progress-m-27m-reenters-russians-propose-changes-to-iss-schedule/
	Launched on April 28, the spacecraft apparently was damaged when the third stage of its Soyuz 2.1a rocket suffered a malfunction as the two reached orbit.  Anatoly Zak at RussianSpaceWeb.com reported yesterday that Russian experts believe the third stage exploded, damaging the spacecraft and puncturing its fuel lines, putting it into a spin as the fuel vented into space. Russian flight controllers initially received conflicting data about the spacecraft’s status, then received video from an onboard camera showing it rotating several times a minute.   Soon thereafter, the mission was declared a total loss.


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/russian-progress-cargo-ship-in-trouble-on-way-to-iss/
	As the situation evolved, however, the Russians lost contact with the spacecraft and docking plans now are on hold “indefinitely.”

	The spacecraft is carrying three tons of supplies, including fuel and food.


------


https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/two-more-failures-in-one-day-bedevil-russian-space-program/
	Russia’s space program suffered two more failures in the past day.  First, the engines of a Progress cargo spacecraft attached to the International Space Station (ISS) did not fire when commanded to raise the orbit of the ISS.  Then, the launch of a Proton rocket carrying a Mexican communications satellite failed.  These are on top of the failure of a different Progress cargo ship that made an uncontrolled reentry over the Pacific Ocean last week.

	...This time, however, the Progress M-26M engines did not fire upon command.  The engines were supposed to ignite at 4:14 am Moscow Time May 16 (9:14 pm May 15 EDT) and fire for about 15 minutes to raise the ISS orbit by 2.8 kilometers to an altitude of 401.8 kilometers.  The most recent rebsoost was on May 6 and another is planned for June 7.   Russia’s official news agency TASS said later in the day that experts at Russia’s Mission Control Center had identified the problem and another attempt will be made on May 18.  It quoted an unnamed source as saying “I would rather not name the reason” for the failure.


	...Now there is a third anomaly to solve.  A Russian Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M upper stage launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 05:47 GMT (1:47 am EDT) this morning to send Mexico’s MexSat-1 (or Centenario) to geostationary orbit.  The Proton’s third stage failed at 497 seconds according to Roscosmos, however.  The third stage, the Briz-M upper stage, and the MexSat-1 satellite all fell to Earth over the Baikal region of Russia.  Most of the debris is presumed to have burned up during the descent from 161 kilometers altitude.  Russian authorities are searching the area, but no fragments have been located.

	Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev immediately directed that a State Commission be established to investigate the accident “and submit proposals on personal and financial responsibility.”

	...Russia’s launch vehicles once were considered among the most reliable in the world, but repeated failures since December 2010 have tarnished their reputation. The Russian government has fired people at Roscosmos and in industry and repeatedly reorganized the aerospace sector, most recently combining the government and industry sectors under a single individual, but the failures continue.


------


http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20161201-whats-the-matter-russias-rockets.html
	Jason Davis

	...The current version of the Proton has been around since 2001, and it's often associated with the word "workhorse." Soyuz dates back to the dawn of the space age, when an ancestor of the stalwart launcher sent Sputnik into space in 1957. Both rockets have evolved, but in terms of recent history, Russia's core launch fleet has remained relatively unchanged.

	So what's the matter with Russia's rockets?

	...But other than the fact that most of the accidents have involved upper stages, there isn't an easily identifiable common thread between the accidents. It turns out the real reason for Russia's rocket woes may be tied to the country's changing economic and demographic landscape.


Jason Davis a Russian propagandist?


http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2017/20170901-bridenstine-nominated.html

mostly innocuous article on Bridenstine, although comes off as supportive/downplaying his "moon over mars" policy


------


http://www.businessinsider.com/back-to-back-rocket-launch-failures-just-dealt-russia-a-heavy-blow-2015-5
	In a speech to lawmakers, Rogozin cast the proposed reform as essential for establishing tight control over money flows, cutting production costs and uprooting corruption.

	He admitted that U.S. space industries are now nine times more efficient than Russia's space industry.

	Critics say, however, that other giant state corporations created during Putin's 15-year rule, as part of his efforts to concentrate lucrative economic assets in state hands, have not exactly been success stories.

	They say these state conglomerates suffer from mismanagement and inefficiency and are dogged by corruption.

	Rogozin said that a recent investigation into the activities of the Khrunichev company, the manufacturer of the heavy-lift Proton booster rocket, revealed numerous instances of fraud, abuse of office and falsification of documents, resulting in economic damage of 9 billion rubles (more than $180 million).

	"With such degradation in the leadership, a high accident rate isn't a surprise," Rogozin said.


how exactly does corruption among officials translate to rockets exploding?

embezzling funds doesn't blow up satellites

even if they are corrupt they would not want to lose business

	If the Soyuz problem persists, it may pose a serious challenge to the International Space Station program, which has relied entirely on the Soyuz spacecraft for ferrying crews after the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet.

	The successive launch failures mark a rare case in which both main booster rockets used by the Russian space program are out of service at the same time pending crash probes.

	The two rockets have been the workhorses of the Soviet and then Russian space industries for five decades. Work on building their replacement has dragged on slowly for about 20 years, and the new booster, the Angara, was successfully launched for the first time in December.


space program around the world going backwards


	A government panel has traced the latest Soyuz failure to a leak from propellant tanks in its third stage, but it has yet to determine the reason for that. It's not clear yet what happened to the Proton.

	The Proton's latest failure was its seventh launch accident in 4 1/2 years. While the cause of Saturday's setback hasn't been determined, the previous accidents have been triggered by manufacturing flaws and human error.

	The series of failed launches has prompted the Kremlin to continuously reshuffle the industry's top brass. The Roscosmos space agency has seen four directors in as many years, but the failures continue.

	Amid tensions with the West over Ukraine, some even suggested that the failures could have been caused by sabotage.


interesting, blame West? Ukraine?


	Most observers agree, however, that the likely root is space builders' plunging quality standards.

	"It's a personnel problem above all," said Konstantin Kreidenko, a former space official who is now editor of Glonass Vestnik, a space magazine. "It could be a wrong cable connection, or use of bad fuel or some filter getting clogged. They need to check the entire chain and introduce stringent quality controls."

blame "personnel"

	In one example, a dramatic Proton crash in July 2013 shown live on national television was traced to an ill-qualified worker rudely violating assembly instructions and placing orientation sensors upside down with the help of a hammer.

	Kreidenko said the current quality management is a far cry from Soviet times, when "instructions were observed like military regulations."

	"In the Soviet Union," he said, "people were losing jobs and suffering heart attacks for far smaller blunders."


this seems off


------


https://www.space.com/14193-russia-phobos-grunt-space-failures-foul-play.html
	Russian Space Failures May Be Result of Foul Play, Official Says

 	Foul play may be responsible for the failure of Russia's Mars probe Phobos-Grunt, as well as a string of other embarrassing setbacks that plagued the country's space agency last year, the agency's chief suggested.

	The 14.5-ton Phobos-Grunt spacecraft got stuck in Earth orbit shortly after its Nov. 8 launch, and Russian officials predict it will crash back into the atmosphere this Sunday (Jan. 15). Shadowy unnamed actors may have brought the probe down and caused four other Russian space failures in 2011, hinted Vladimir Popovkin, chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

	"It is unclear why our setbacks often occur when the vessels are travelling through what for Russia is the 'dark' side of the Earth — in areas where we do not see the craft and do not receive its telemetry readings," Popovkin told Russia's Izvestia newspaper, according to Agence-France Presse.

	 "I do not want to blame anyone, but today there are some very powerful countermeasures that can be used against spacecraft whose use we cannot exclude," he added.

	Russian engineers still don't know why Phobos-Grunt's main engines failed to fire as planned to send the probe on its way toward Mars, Popovkin said. But he admitted that the mission was risky to begin with, since it was underfunded and relied on old Soviet-era designs, AFP reported. [Photos of the Phobos-Grunt mission]

	"If we did not manage to launch it in the window open in 2011 for a Mars mission, we would have had to simply throw it away, writing off a loss of five billion rubles ($160 million)," said Popovkin, who took charge of Roscosmos in April 2011.


https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0110/Russia-hints-foreign-sabotage-may-be-behind-space-program-troubles
	"The basic problem is that our space industry has been degrading for a long time," says Roman Gusarov, editor of Avia.ru, an online aerospace magazine. "It's very complicated technology, with a long chain of industrial suppliers, and the holes have been growing wider and more numerous for years … The system can still turn out old Soyuz and Progress ships, but it can't handle new technologies. I don't understand why they were in such a hurry to launch Phobos-Grunt, given the known risks."

	The beleaguered Roskosmos chief Popovkin, who has only been in his job since last April, insisted Tuesday that if they hadn't seized the November launch window the agency would have lost more than $150-million and might have had to scrap the mission altogether.

	..."The Phobos-Grunt project was inherently risky and it was underfunded to begin with," says Alexei Sinitsky, editor of Aviatsionnoye Obozreniye, an aerospace trade journal.

	"There's no need for conspiracy theories, and no reason to take Popovkin's suggestion seriously," he adds. "Maybe he meant extraterrestrials?"


------


http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45943952/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/russian-space-chief-claims-space-failures-may-be-sabotage/
	James Oberg, a NASA veteran and NBC News space analyst who has written books on the Russian space program, said Popovkin's comments were a sad example of the Russian cultural instinct to "blame foreigners."

	"It's a feature of space launch trajectories that orbital adjustments must be made halfway around the first orbit to circularize and stabilize subsequent orbits," Oberg said in emailed comments. "The Russians must know that simple geography — not evildoers lurking in shadows — dictate where their communications 'blind spots' are. But the urge to shift blame seems strong."

	Oberg said U.S.-Russian frictions in space policy would be particularly worrisome now, in the wake of NASA's retirement of the shuttle fleet.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oberg
	James Edward Oberg (born November 7, 1944), often known as Jim Oberg, is an American space journalist and historian, regarded as an expert on the Russian and Chinese space programs.[1][2] He had a 22-year career as a space engineer in NASA specializing in orbital rendezvous. Oberg is an author of ten books and more than a thousand articles on space flight. He gave many explanations of UFO phenomena in the popular press.

	...He has often been called to testify before the US Congress on the Russian space program


this guy seems sketchy

	Oberg was commissioned by NASA to write a rebuttal of Apollo Moon landing conspiracy theories. However, NASA dropped the project after ABC's World News Tonight program ran a story about it, claiming it was beneath NASA's dignity to respond to Moon landing denialists claims.[13] Oberg has said that he still intends to pursue the project, "depending on successfully arranging new funding sources."[13][14]

	Oberg writes that that Moon landing conspiracy theories are fueled by resentment of American culture by some countries. He gives the example of Cuba, where many school teachers claim the landing was a fraud.[13][15] But besides this, the new wave of conspiracy theorists appear to use alternative publication methods to publicize their claims.

	Oberg says that belief in the conspiracy is not the fault of the hoaxists, but rather of educators and people (including NASA) who should provide information to the public.[13] NASA does not, in Oberg's opinion, provide an adequate reaction to the theorists' claims.


problem being that the denial makes the conspiracy theory seem more credible, especially the way Oberg does them


also writes a bunch of lame-sounding denials for UFO sightings and weird space phenomena

	James Oberg wrote several articles as a publicity campaign to remove guns from the ISS.[42][43] The pistol was in the Soyuz emergency landing survival kit and was added there for self-defence after landing in inhospitable environment. It was model TOZ TP-82, had three barrels and a folding stock that doubled as a shovel and contained a machete. The gun was only carried by Russian members of the ISS. Oberg suggested that it might be an invitation to a future disaster and proposed it to be put in a compartment accessible only from outside, after landing.

	In 2014 Oberg asked Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian ISS astronaut, about the pistol and she admitted the gun is removed from the list, or more precisely, it is still on the official list of kit contents, but the committee meets before every mission to review the list and vote to remove the pistol for the specific flight


trying to foment distrust between Russian and U.S. scientists?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_laser_pistol


why did the Soviets have a laser pistol

------


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/failed-launches-cast-shadow-over-russian-space-program/
	The Kremlin has offered yet another plan for the reorganization of the industry, which has seen numerous shake-ups in recent years. A presidential bill that received preliminary approval by the lower house this week pulls all the nation's space assets together in one giant state-controlled commercial corporation.


------

http://www.actforlibraries.org/russian-space-agency-hints-sabotage-caused-rocket-failures/
	Now, Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roskosmos, has insinuated that his country’s space program may be the victim of ongoing sabotage at the assembly line.


	...Some in Russian government suspect U.S. interference

	While Popovkin was reluctant to publicly accuse any other country, a few in the Russian government have voiced aloud their suspicion that somehow America is behind the series of costly and embarrassing failures. Not only is Russian space effort being hurt, but their international prestige has been tarnished—at least that’s how some in Russia perceive the situation.

	The suspicion, however, makes no sense. Since the Obama administration basically gutted NASA’s manned space program, and the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the U.S. is heavily relying on a robust, reliable Russian space program to carry astronauts up to the $100 billion International Space Station (ISS).

	Without the Russian rockets, American astronauts are marooned on terra firma and the ISS runs the risk of orbital deterioration. Like the Phobos-Grunt mission it too can fall into a fiery death plunge potentially risking cities. The ISS is big. It would be the largest man-made object to ever fall from orbit.

	Plus, there is that $100 billion dollars that would be lost.

	Is China responsible?

	Any way it’s looked at, it makes no military, commercial, or political sense for the U.S. to sabotage the Russian space program.

	If the string of spectacular mishaps have occurred because of sabotage, the Russians might look to their south instead of towards the West. China stands to gain mightily from a failed or delayed Russian space program.

	The Chinese have announced—and embarked—on bold plans to catch up to both Russia and the U.S. space technology, and then surpass it. They are not hiding their ambitions to establish bases on the Moon—bases many military intelligence agencies believe will be military.

	With America’s space program in a state of flux and Russia’s Soyuz rocket fleet raising questions of reliability, China stand as the only country standing to benefit.

	Of course, that’s if the Soyuz production line has really fallen victim to acts of sabotage…


no author listed



https://www.rt.com/news/162228-proton-rocket-failure-sabotage/
	Sabotage considered in Proton rocket crash – investigator

	The botched launch of the Proton-M rocket this month may have been caused by sabotage, the chair of the investigating commission said. This conspiratorial version is being considered as part of the probe, although it’s not a likely scenario.

	...The sabotage version voiced on Thursday caused some hype in Russian media and drew a rebuke from Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who supervises the Russian space industry.

	“The Roscosmos disaster commission should first finish its work and present the results to the Russian government, and only then torment society with new versions of what happened,” he tweeted.


https://www.rt.com/news/165024-proton-booster-sabotage-investigation/
	Intentional damage to a Proton rocket booster was reportedly established by a polygraph and a criminal case has been initiated, Izvestia daily quotes the Ministry of Interior. Previously sabotage was considered an unlikely option.

	...when the FSB was informed about the incident, it launched a lie detector probe of about 15 assemblers who could have been in physical contact with the duct during the assembly, a source at the Khrunichev Center told Izvestia.

	The results of the FSB investigation were delivered to the Ministry of Interior and became the basis for the criminal case. The names of the established suspects have not been made public for legal reasons, a source in the ministry informed Izvestia.


-----


so:

string of rocket failures since 2010, rocket usually reliable.

Some allege sabotage, and Oberg makes it sound like the CIA did it.

Oberg sketchy, "expert" in Russian space program, has a habit of denying things in a way that makes them sound true, like Moon landing fake.

NASA relies on Russian rockets and needs them to refuel ISS, one of the rockets carrying supplies to ISS gets knocked out.

Sketchy guy blames China on sabotage

RT says sabotage, FSB did "lie detector test"

One of the failures turns out to be allegedly from sensor installed upside down, although a different explanation was given earlier

Other Russian officials claim corruption led to the launch failures, but unclear how embezzling money by bureacrats leads to installing sensors upside down by engineers

Putin reorganizes space program, attacks Roscosmos

One of the failures was a Mars mission.


------


https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000201760006-3.pdf


Says Russia making space program subservient to military in 90's


http://jalopnik.com/this-insane-rocket-is-why-the-soviet-union-never-made-i-1448356326


was this deliberate? article at least makes it sound like the problem with the rocket was "obvious"


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http://spacenews.com/37648popovkin-replaced-as-roscosmos-chief/
	“I hope that a whole number of problems, which unfortunately have lately been observed in Roscosmos activities, will be overcome with your arrival,” Medvedev said in a meeting with Ostapenko, a transcript of which was posted on the Russian Cabinet’s website. “I hope that all launches, including future ones, will be carried out in accordance with plans.”


just sounds off... whole thing comes off as some sort of coup to grab power in space industry