==MASSIVE CUBESAT LAUNCH FAILS

A much-heralded attempt to launch 15 CubeSats built by 11 universities
and
one private company failed this week. Fourteen of the tiny spacecraft
carried Amateur Radio transmit-only payloads.

The Dnepr-1LV rocket lifted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at 1943 UTC on July 26. Various accounts indicate that the
mission went awry less than two minutes after liftoff when the first
stage
failed to separate on time, causing an emergency shutdown of the
rocket's
main engine. Reports vary on how far downrange -- and just where -- the
vehicle fell. One said the Dnepr dropped to Earth some 15 km from the
launch
site, while another put the distance at 190 km. A third account said
the
Dnepr dropped into the Indian Ocean.

Originally set for June 28, the launch had been postponed until July
26. The
CubeSat project was a collaboration between California Polytechnic
State
University-San Luis Obispo and Stanford University's Space Systems
Development Laboratory. All of the CubeSats were designed and built by
students at various universities in the US and elsewhere in the world.
The
CubeSat roster included AeroCube-1, CP-1, CP-2, ICE Cube-1, ICE Cube-2,
ION,
HAUSAT-1, KUTESat, MEROPE, nCube-1, RINCON, SACRED, SEEDS, PiCPoT and
Voyager.

Thirteen of the satellites were to have downlinks in the Amateur Radio
satellite allocation between 435 and 438 MHz, and one was to operate on
145.980 MHz. None of the spacecraft carried a transponder. Transmitter
power
outputs ranged from 10 mW to 2 W.

The Dnepr was the second to launch this month from Baikonur's Area 109.
Other payloads included BelKA, the first Belarusian satellite, and
three
other microsatellites. According to Satellite Launch Report, the
original
Dnepr launcher was replaced by a different one in June after a problem
was
detected in the original vehicle's digital flight control system.

The Dnepr launch failure was said to be the first in seven orbital
launch
attempts. The Dnepr vehicle is a repurposed SS-18 "Satan" three-stage
intercontinental ballistic missile, originally designed in the 1980s to
compete with the US Peacekeeper missile. The START 2 treaty allowed up
to
150 of the missiles to be converted for use as space launchers.

The Russian space agency has convened a special commission to look into
the
cause of the malfunction.