The launch of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station, whose engines did not work when entering orbit, was forced. Roscosmos realized that the device was unreliable, but they took this step, since its service life was expiring, said the head of the department Vladimir Popovkin. And he did not rule out that the frequent accidents of Russian vehicles could be rigged by someone
"Phobos-Grunt" was designed and created in conditions of a limited amount of funds, which predetermined risky technical solutions and caused the problem of the mission as a whole. We became hostages of these decisions, since we were already bound by obligations with the European Space Agency, whose instruments were there, and with our Chinese colleagues, whose satellite we undertook to deliver to Mars together with Phobos,”Vladimir Popovkin explained.
"Phobos" was under construction for a long time, and the warranty for many units was expiring. “If we had not had time to launch it (“Phobos”) into the“window”of 2011 for a flight to Mars, we would have to simply throw it away, writing off at a loss the five billion rubles invested in it,” Popovkin explained.
At the same time, the head of Roscosmos emphasized that accidents with Russian vehicles for some unknown reason often occur “during the period when they fly over the shadow side of the Earth for Russia” - where Roscosmos cannot receive telemetry from them. “I don’t want to blame anyone, but today there are very powerful means of influencing spacecraft, the possibility of using which cannot be ruled out,” he said.
To prevent accidents in the future, Roskosmos "at times" has strengthened control over preparations for launches, Popovkin said. As a result, according to him, “interesting things began to emerge: they retreated a little, here they just barely tightened up”. In addition, representatives of Roscosmos will soon be able to observe the manufacture of devices at each enterprise, the head of the department added.
"Phobos-Grunt", launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on November 9, was supposed to go to one of the satellites of Mars, Phobos, and take soil samples from its surface. However, after separation from the launch vehicle, the apparatus did not turn on the engines, and as a result, it hovered in orbit. According to the preliminary version, the cause of the accident was a software failure or breakdown of equipment on board the station.
Debris from Phobos is expected to fall to Earth on January 15th. As reported earlier in Roskosmos, the exact place of the fall will be known about a day before. "The area of the fall of the remnants of the spacecraft today can be determined only by the" strip "of the Earth's surface from 51.4 degrees south latitude to 51.4 degrees north latitude," the ministry said in a statement.