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Marinin said that Popovkin's move was a step in the right direction. "It has already yielded some immediate results, making the Bulava (intercontinental ballistic) missile capable of flying. But it appears that it hasn't been properly organized at every plant and is not working everywhere yet." Popovkin's predecessor, Anatoly Perminov, who lost his job after previous launch failures, also said that the latest failure had likely been rooted in a manufacturing flaw. Marinin said that despite Tuesday's failure, the Proton rocket, capable of launching massive satellites into high orbits, will remain popular among global customers. The rocket manufactured by the Moscow-based Khrunichev company has been the main cash-cow for the space industry since its darkest days in the 1990s. "Proton is a very good and solid design," Marinin said. NASA has also experienced an array of launch failures, including those of two high-profile climate research satellites. The Glory satellite, which was to collect long-term climate data, crashed in 2011 after the rocket's nose cone failed to separate. In 2009, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide, crashed off Antarctica after payload fairing failed to separate from the rocket. The European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rocket, used for launches from the cosmodrome in French Guiana, has not experienced a launch failure since 2003.
[Associated
Press;
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