In russia there are consequences for failure
Unlike on wall street.
Russian boffins have pooh-poohed the theory that duff Martian moon probe Phobos-Grunt failed to leave Earth's orbit because it had been knackered by US radar. Yesterday, news website RIA Novosti reported that a Russian government commission scrutinising the fiasco was mulling whether or not US radars interfered with the craft …
Imagine the European Space Agency had a snafu of its own, and Angela Merkel mused openly:
"I am not suggesting hanging them using piano wire like under Heinrich Himmler..."
Imagine the outcry. Even Nicolas Sarkozy would distance himself in the situation. Might even become David Cameron's BFF, hard as it may seem.
But I guess in post-Soviet Russia it's ok to get nostalgic for Stalin, as long as you're being ironic about it. Look on the bright side: no one's doing the same for Beria.
That site is amazing, you have given me something to do for the rest of the day :D
But on topic, I would be more surprised if outside interference wasn't to blame for most of the russian long haul mission failures, they generally know what they're doing in space, and after 60 years of getting things to fly out of orbit, you'd have thought engines not firing would be the least of their woes.
Since NASA wanted (even needed) this to succeed as much as Roscosmos, I don't see it getting sabotaged. Even making accusations of that is really strange. Cold War is over, and has been over for quite a while., in spite of Putin trying to recreate the "glory years" of Communist Russia.
<alien icon, cuz that makes only slightly more sense>
The Russians really haven't had much luck with microchips to Mars. Both Mars 6 and Mars 7 returned huge amounts of garbage when they finally reached the planet because solar radiation had eaten their microprocessors.
Not that the software was much better; Fobos 1 received an untested software patch that resulted in it losing lock on the Sun and being unable to charge its batteries. Fobos 2's computer failed, but IIRC it was never determined if the error was hardware or software.