Russian Space Chief Claims Space Failures may be Sabotage

This is your typical mainstream news report with that uses "may" a lot but it's sourced and comes straight from a Russian official's mouth. Whether or not there is any truth to these claims is a whole different story but it does seem like he is indirectly accusing other countries of sabotaging Russia's space program.

MOSCOW — Some recent failures of Russian satellites may have been the result of sabotage by foreign forces, Russia's space chief said in comments apparently aimed at the United States.

Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin stopped short of accusing any specific country of disabling Russian satellites, but in an interview Tuesday in the daily Izvestia he said some Russian craft had suffered "unexplained" malfunctions while flying over another side of the globe beyond the reach of his nation's tracking facilities.

Popovkin spoke when asked about the failure of the $170 million unmanned Phobos-Grunt probe, which was to explore one of Mars' two moons, Phobos, but became stranded while orbiting Earth after its Nov. 9 launch. Engineers in Russia and the European Space Agency have failed to propel the spacecraft toward Mars, and it is expected to fall back to Earth around Jan. 15.

He doesn't provide many details so part of me wants to think he is just talking trash, but another part of me cannot ignore these claims. There might be some truth to these claims, who knows.

Popovkin said modern technology makes spacecraft vulnerable to foreign influences.

In my opinion the most likely candidates would be the United States, Israel, or China. All you die hard patriots out there don't get too upset, I only said U.S.A. because if this news is true, they would be the most likely candidate. Call me an American hater and I will @ you. If anyone has an idea of who else could do this please feel free to share.

Iran and India also might have the tech to do something like this but they're unlikely candidates in my opinion.

"I wouldn't like to accuse anyone, but today there exists powerful means to influence spacecraft, and their use can't be excluded," he said.

As previously said only a few countries would have the capability to do this. To make this claim only leaves a few suspects and going public with this obviously means they're using this as propaganda.

A retired Russian general alleged last November that the Phobos-Grunt satellite might have been incapacitated by a powerful U.S. radar. Nikolai Rodionov, who previously was in charge of Russia's early warning system, was quoted as saying that a powerful electromagnetic impulse generated by U.S. radar in Alaska might have affected the probe's control system.

I dismissed the claims from retired general as crazy talk from an old man trying to relive his glory days, perhaps I was mistaken.

You can see read the whole article here:

www.msnbc.msn.com...

There are many obvious reasons why countries would sabotage their competitor's space programs but I can't figure out who would have the most to gain by sabotaging these satellites and probes. The United States does have the X-37B in orbit for quite a while now and have extended the mission. A magazine has recently hinted that this spaceship could be spying on China.

X-37B spaceplane 'spying on China'

Now we have Russia claiming sabotage on their space program. This leaves me to wonder what kind of technology might be on this X-37B,

Yes, this is all speculation based on this news article and recent events so don't get too worked up guys. There is nothing wrong with looking into certain possibilities once claims like these are made.

Personally I have never heard of Vladimir Popovkin before today so here is some information on him if you're interested in finding out more about this man.

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Popovkin (Russian: Владимир Александрович Поповкин; born 25 September 1957 in Dushanbe, Tajik SSR) is the General Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency and First Deputy Defense Minister of Russia.[1] He is a retired General of the Army and former commander of the Russian Space Forces.

en.wikipedia.org...

Anyone believe the claims about the Russian space program being sabotaged?

hey...maybe the satellite was made in china!

awesome...at least it's not just the US drumming up the propaganda machine...guess we really are all screwed. now other countries are blaming other countries for problems...it's not just the US anymore!

Here is some more interesting news that might be related:

Turkey’s spy sat to zoom in on Israeli secrets

This means even with Google Earth one can zoom into Israel only so far, explains Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University. “If you try to look at specific parts of Israel, many of them will come out blurrier than any other place in the world that I have checked,” he told RT.

But that is about to change. Turkey is putting the finishing touches to a military satellite it plans to launch within the next two years. The Gokturk satellite will be capable of taking the very pictures Tel Aviv does not want distributed, and there are no American-style legal qualms in Turkey about upsetting its photo-sensitive neighbor.

“Turkey could sell directly or indirectly some of these imageries to enemies of Israel,” explains Mohammed Najib, defense analyst at Jane’s Defense Weekly.

Such a prospect is especially unnerving for Israelis now, because tensions between Tel Aviv and Ankara are at an all-time low. An aid flotilla attempt on Gaza two years ago that left nine Turks dead, and Ankara’s expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, has Tel Aviv nervously weighing its options.

Perhaps Israel and the United States are teaming up to sabotage certain countries from being able to spy on Israel? I wonder if the Turkish satellite launches will go according to planned or will there be a mishap. Once again this is all speculation but it does appear that come people are aiming for space superiority, especially when it comes to satellites and probes. This is good from a defensive standpoint if you're the country doing the sabotaging. I would certainly sabotage my enemy's space program if I had the tech to do it.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


This is kind of old news.
Check the dates...

Star Wars: It has begun..



Russia says foreign power may have caused spy satellite loss

From: Moscow (AFP) Feb 14, 2011

The Russian space agency suggested Monday that a foreign power may have been behind the space accident that disabled one of the country's most modern military satellites earlier this month.

Russia on February 1 launched a high-tech Geo-IK-2 craft to help the military draw a three-dimensional map of the Earth and locate the precise positions of various targets.

News reports said the satellite was a vital part of Russia's effort to match the United States and NATO's ability to target its missiles from space.

But the craft briefly went missing after its launch only to re-emerge in a wrong orbit that left the craft unable to complete its assigned task.

If true the Russians have been aware of this possibility for awhile

Russia Concerned U.S. May Deploy Space-Based Assets

From September 26, 2006 :: Defense Daily International :: News

According to retired Russian General Vladimir Dworkin, now senior researcher with the Center for International Security at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia’s concerns about lasers in space do not apply to existing components of the multi-layered U.S. missile defense system, such as the Airborne Laser. “We’ve gotten used to it,” Dworkin said. “But if you’re talking about reviving … Star Wars,” perhaps by resurrecting Brilliant Pebbles or developing a laser BMD system, then that “would be a shock” to Russians that they would not easily get used to. The more the U.S. pushes to develop a space-based BMD system, the more sharply Russia would be likely to respond, Dworkin warned.

reply to post by ICEKOHLD


The propaganda has been heavy as of recently. I don't know about you but this incident kind of reminded me of the American drone/Iran event from last month.

reply to post by SLAYER69

This is kind of old news. Check the dates...

Check the dates, this is from today Slayer. The interview happened earlier today.

Your article is probably from the retired General I mentioned midway through my post, you must have not bothered to read that far.

Finish reading the rest of the thread then get back to me please.

Really? Well it is possible that the US is behind it....HOWEVER I am one to SUSPECT CHINA! I refuse to buy any of their cheap $h*t if I can help it....Boycott Made In China!

double post..

reply to post by Starwise


China could be a likely culprit. They have a space program that they're trying to expand and it would make sense to knock down the competition a few pegs. They most likely have the tech to do this too so it could very well be them.

Why can't it simply be a problem with Russian technology?

The temptation to blame outside influences is one of the most often resorted to propaganda tricks.
It unites the people against an aggressor(whoever)and it explains the failure without blaming the agency that launched the probe.

That being said, yes the US does have its space plane up there on extended mission....
This "space drone" could have any kind of high tech weaponry aboard.....
The Russians may have reason to suspect it of intervening in their flight plan....
It is nessessary to plot the courses of both to be sure.they even came close....(probably impossible)
Other ground based systems, either high powered lasers or particle beam weapons could be the culprits, as well as somebody s haarp machine, which many countries own.....being used to bounce intense signals at the satellite shorting its circuits...
Im sure Ben Fulford will have a fantastic tale of the whole scenario soon....)
Further to the conspiracy theory,

Originally posted by DAZ21
Why can't it simply be a problem with Russian rockets?

That's a very probable possibility, most people already assume this. My focus is on the claims this man made earlier today, but yes, it could certainly be a faulty space program and blaming their failures on other countries may help them save some face.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Exactly.

How embarrassing and undermining it is for them. to have such technology fail multiple times. Especially in the face of such tension as we find ourselves in at the moment.

Originally posted by DAZ21
Why can't it simply be a problem with Russian technology?

edit on 10-1-2012 by DAZ21 because: spelling

Or, it could be there is something wrong with Russian Technology

Out of seriousness though, it is interesting that they alluded to HAARP....am I wrong here?

I would hate to think we had anything to do with it. Are we not going to rely on Russia to take our astronauts into space?

Russia has been failing in space since the beginning, the only difference is the iron curtain is down and we see their failures openly... Not to discount their achievements in space, they did do the first un-manned robotic missions to the moon and all...

But maybe just maybe their quality control is not up to our standards? I mean we have had some epic space failures and we arn't running to blame sabotage...

BUT if any country could do it, it would be the US, we shoot satellites down from rocking navel vessels on the open ocean, while other countries have trouble doing it from a stable land base... and we have been able to do it since the 80s as the wiki leaks cables showed.

Moon Treaty

I also find it funny that the space treaty was signed by major nations in the UN, BUT the Moon treaty was not signed by the US making the moon owned by all... I wonder why... anyone else have a flag in it?

reply to post by Starwise


I'm not too into the haarp conspiracies but, I thought haarp only worked from the stratosphere downwards??

reply to post by DAZ21


I dont know what happens when you bombard a sat with massive amounts of focused radio waves, I would imagine that harrp could broadcast in a direction of a sat in orbit, which is what their sat was doing, building momentum to sling shot it out.

Whoops never mind, they never signed the treaty.

Other outlets are covering this too, here is a WP report:

Russia space chief says some of nation’s satellites may have been sabotaged

MOSCOW — Some recent Russian satellite failures may have been the result of sabotage by foreign forces, Russia’s space chief said Tuesday, in comments apparently aimed at the United States.

WP goes on to say that it was probably directed towards the U.S.

It's 5 minutes to midnight now BTW, in case you haven't seen the 7 threads that just came out.

Originally posted by ICEKOHLD
hey...maybe the satellite was made in china!

No joke. Russia actually lost four GLONASS navsats one after the other in 2009 because they used components made in Taiwan that were not radiation-hardened.

It's sad when even attempts at humor and satire are actually TRUE for the poor Russians -- and for anybody else relying on them for space rides [like US].