The Kremlin is puzzled by Russia's space agency Roscosmos's reaction to President Dmitry Medvedev's criticism of the Glonass project, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said on Wednesday.
A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket, launched on Sunday from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan with three Glonass-M satellites deviated from its course and the satellites fell into a non-navigational area of the Pacific Ocean.
"The reaction of Roscosmos's authorities to the president's sharp criticism of the Glonass project implementation has brought about utter puzzlement," Prikhodko said, commenting on the interview of Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov to the Russian Izvestia daily.
Perminov told Izvestia there was nothing catastrophic in the recent Glonass failure. "The launching site is not damaged, no one died, and there is just a technical failure."
"Fortunately, it is not really a catastrophe, but it is an absolutely exceptional emergency," Prikhodko said, adding that Roscosmos's self-esteem needed "very serious conclusions."
"It is very strange that the Roscosmos leadership believes the absence of human losses and the non-destruction of the launch pad are criteria in evaluating an important government program."
According to Prikhodko, the criteria should be completely different, "especially in evaluating technical conditions," and added that the criteria used by Roscosmos's chief Anatoly Perminov were "unacceptable."
Glonass is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.
BRUSSELS, December 8 (RIA Novosti)
