Russian Space Forces

Foton-M No. 1

Soyuz-U-PVB

FAILURE
Failure

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 · 18:20 UTC

Mission

/01

Foton-M No.1 was a mission by the European Space Agency aboard a Russian Soyuz-U rocket that failed to launch successfully. The spacecraft's payload consisted of 44 experiments prepared by the European Space Agency, Fluidpac, BIOPAN-4, Telescience Support Unit, and others. Investigation found that the most likely cause of the failure was debris being ingested into the Blok D hydrogen peroxide pump, cutting off the supply of lubricant to the turbopumps. This was the first failure of an R-7 launch vehicle in the first two minutes of launch since 1988.

Mission Type

Earth Science

Orbit

Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Probability

N/A

Status

Launch Failure

Vehicle & Pad

/02

Rocket

Soyuz-U-PVB

Variant: U-PVB

Launch Pad

43/3 (43L)

Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

62.927° N, 40.450° E

218

Pad Launches

1525

Location Launches

58

Agency Launches

49

Orbital This Year

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