From Yahoo:
Computer Fault Causes Ukrainian Rocket Crash
By Pavel Polityuk
KIEV (Reuters) - A computer malfunction brought a Ukrainian rocket carrying 12 commercial satellites owned by the
Globalstar telecoms consortium crashing to earth Thursday, the launch rocket's maker said.
NPO Yuzhnoye said two faults appeared in quick succession in the two-stage Zenit-2 rocket's computer system just minutes
after the rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
''As a result (the computer) sent an order to cut the engines,'' a company statement said, adding a special commission had
been created to investigate the converted Soviet ballistic missile's crash.
The disaster was a blow for the telecommunications sector, where three rival groups are scrambling to launch hand-held
satellite telephones that will turn into reality the dream -- or nightmare -- of being reachable anytime, anywhere.
It also punctured the ambitious plans of what was once the Soviet Union's biggest and most secret intercontinental ballistic
missiles maker to carve a niche for itself in the fast-growing global satellite launch market.
''This is a great blow for the design bureau and for Ukraine,'' Yuri Alekseyenko, spokesman for Yuzhnoye's rocket design
bureau, told Reuters by telephone from Ukraine's main industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk.
''In all the design bureau's existence, there has never been such a mistake. We have launched hundreds of rockets and there
were never any such occurrences.''
Yuzhnoye, the base from which its director Leonid Kuchma went on to become Ukraine's current president, beat swords into
ploughshares after independence in 1991, converting the Soviet missiles into Zenit, Zenit-2 and Cyclon rockets.
Struggling to make ends meet as government subsidies dried up, it also started making trolleybuses, tractors and children's
prams.
Alekseyenko put a brave face Thursday's catastrophe, saying the crash should not delay further planned launches.
''We already know the reason for this (crash) so there won't be a long investigation,'' Alekseyenko said. ''We think the next
launches in October and December, if they are delayed, will not be delayed for long,'' he said.
Eduard Kuznetsov, deputy head of Ukraine's National Space Agency, told Reuters last week Thursday's launch would be the
first time Globalstar had used a Zenit rocket, and that two more Zenit launches of Globalstar satellites would follow.
The $2.6 billion Globalstar consortium is led by Loral Space & Communications Ltd (LOR - news) and includes
QUALCOMM Inc, AirTouch Communications Inc., Alcatel, Alenia, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, a unit of Daimler-Benz AG
(DAI - news), Elsacom, France Telecom (FTE - news), Hyundai, Space Systems/Loral and Vodafone Group Plc.
Yuzhnoye's Zenit-2 is also to be used on the SeaLaunch system being developed by Boeing Co of the United States with
Russia's Energiya rocket maker and Norway's Kvaerner. Those rockets will be launched from a converted oil rig at sea.
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