Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton-M No. 1

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 Details

  • Launch date: October 15, 2002 at 06:20 PM UTC
  • Launch vehicle: Soyuz-U-PVB
  • Operator: Russian Space Forces
  • Launch site: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
  • Mission type: Earth Science