[FPSPACE] TsNIImash director: "Space safety system has broken down"

[James Oberg]

RE: Reports and telecon questionAny thoughts on this remarkable (and alarming) claim?
The director of TsNIImash, which performs independent reviews of other space missions, has told a government panel that the process has broken down (full news story below).

Here's a bio page and photo on Gennadiy Raykunov
http://www.tsniimash.ru/general_director/


Here are his main quotations:

"The organizational and methodological management of quality and reliability services at rocket-and-space industry enterprises has broken down. The services are in decline." 

"The number of failures during flight testing and use of rocket-and-space hardware has increased substantially."

"The majority of failures are associated with insufficient work on the ground, unjustified substitution of real testing with calculations." 

Wow!!

Jim


   Firm chief says Russian space industry quality control management broken down

   Moscow Interfax-AVN Online in Russian 1225 GMT 15 Sep 09

   Moscow, 15 September: The rocket-and-space industry's product quality control system requires fundamental improvement, the director-general of the Machine Building Central Research Institute, Gennadiy Raykunov, has said.
   "The organizational and methodological management of quality and reliability services at rocket-and-space industry enterprises has broken down. The services are in decline," Raykunov told a roundtable discussion about problems in space affairs held at the State Duma.
   The head of Roskosmos' central research institute said that "the number of failures during flight testing and use of rocket-and-space hardware has increased substantially" in recent years.
   "It is necessary to restore the sectoral and, together with the Ministry of Defence, inter-sectoral information system for the reliability and technical condition of rocket-and-space hardware," Raykunov said.
   He said that ground-based experimental work lies at the heart of giving rocket-and-space hardware reliability. "The majority of failures are associated with insufficient work on the ground, unjustified substitution of real testing with calculations," Raykunov said.
   He said that Roskosmos' sectoral experimental base is "morally and physically outdated".
   

 
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