Soyuz launch thoroughly investigated, cable was faulty - Rogozin
SOCHI. May 13 (Interfax) - The ad hoc commission has investigated, at the behest of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the incident that occurred at Vostochny Cosmodrome in late April and found a cable defect which could only be seen during liftoff.
"We found what the control panel itself showed: there was a design defect in the cable that regulates the opening of a third-stage valve," Rogozin told reporters on Friday.
The defect was the result of the digitalization of paper documentation, which failed to stipulate the need to connect two contacts and the need for to solder between them, he said.
"Nevertheless, one of the company's staff responsible for the automatics spotted the defect, reported it to her superiors, and they reported it to their higher-ups. The design defect was dealt with, but oddly enough, all of the cables, except the one where it had been found, and that cable - a mystical situation - was sent to the rocket for which everyone was held responsible, and it was noted that the tests were carried out," the deputy prime minister said.
"Why was it not possible to spot this defect already on the rocket itself? Because it is from the category of those that only come out during liftoff, when the valve-opening cartridge goes off," Rogozin said.
In this situation, the maker was to rely fully on the documentation, including the reports issued by military quality-control checkers, whose job it is to see to the manufacturing of this small part, Rogozin said.
"One can cite forever the frequently delayed launches, whereas, in reality, there are far fewer of them in Russia, than in the United States. This is not an emergency, not an incident even - this is a normal working situation where automatics shows a delayed launch, but the reasons are such as to cause a host of questions about the way the work was carried out," Rogozin said.