INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Russia Loses Satellite — ‘Shifty’ Vladimir Putin Balks At Defense Setback

By Sandra Hajda
Published on: 23:35 PST, Dec 7, 2015

Russia lost a satellite recently when it failed to separate from a carrier rocket. The “super-satellite” took a decade to develop and was designed to detect submerged submarines.

Putin is eager to have military mastery of land, air, and sea zones and uses both defensive and aggressive tactics to this end, as reported by Daily Sabah. Some have referred to the president of Russia as a bully and a military rule-breaker.

The Russian satellite will not stay active but will explode in the atmosphere within days. It is not clear whether in-built functionality to destroy the satellite in the event of a faulty launch will activate at that point, or if the satellite will burn up when it re-enters the earth atmosphere as its orbit slowly decreases.

The satellite failed to part from its booster rocket and changed the planned trajectory.

It had been equipped with advanced cameras that allowed it to scan oceans and identify submarines underwater. The satellite was also equipped to detect forest fires — a problem that plagues Russia, detroying forests during yearly heat waves.

“One of the four locks holding the satellite malfunctioned.”

Russia has lost numerous satellites and suffered through a few rocket launch failures in recent times. Just last May a Proton rocket was lost due to a technical problem afflicting its third-stage engine. This resulted in the loss of a Mexican communications satellite.

Putin-watchers on Twitter joked about the lost Russian satellite, comparing it to the faulty satellite launched by North Korean Kim Jong Un, which was “crude” and never yielded a single useful result for the North Korean dictator, as reported by The Financial Express.

No signal has ever been detected from the crude-looking 100-kg (220-pound) hunk of black metal that the North said was mounted with cameras to take images and transmit them back to Pyongyang

Many will be relieved that “bullying” Putin’s new satellite has been lost. Putin sometimes uses the satellite capabilities of Russia to intimidate his enemies. Recently, following a diplomatic scuffle with Turkey, he threatened to expose Turkey’s terrorist links by publishing satellite photos of ISIS trucks crossing the Turkish border.

Following the September 11 attacks, a story arose saying that Putin wanted to release satellite footage showing that 9/11 was an insider job.

Ghanaweb report that the loss marks “another disaster” for the space industry in Russia, a country that prides itself on launching of the first satellite in human history and on executing the first manned space mission.

Russian military experts blamed Soviet “legacy” problems for the loss.

“This is a systemic problem. We’re dealing with the leftovers of the Soviet space industry that have been in the deepest crisis in recent years.”

Russian engineers are reluctant to use foreign-made components due to security concerns, making Russian satellites especially vulnerable, as the space industry is unable to draw on the capabilities of other nations.

“With military satellites trouble happens more often. Their life cycle is just two-three years.”

In just a few days American, Russian and Japanese astronauts are expected to return to Earth from a collaborative stint on the International Space Station (ISS). They will travel aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule.

A commission to investigate the loss of the satellite has been established, though officials in Russia say they are confident that it was a faulty release mechanism that was to blame.

The rocket failed to open and separate from the satellite.

[Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]

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