Double oops: Russian rocket fails right after premature success notice

Mistake No. 2: Russian rocket mission collaborators fail to launch their famed projectile for the second time in five months. That one's definitely embarrassing. But we're thinking what will really haunt them is Mistake No. 1: Jumping the gun hours earlier by telling everyone it was a big success. Satellite-maker Thales Alenia Space released a success statement about five hours before rocket-maker Krunichev issued another failure one, explaining an engine had in fact shut off and the satellite was not placed in proper orbit after all. We're blaming the gopher at the launch pad for Number Two (no, seriously, there's a gopher living at the launch pad). But the other one's on them. [Source]

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