This was about the third unsuccessful Proton launch in as many months. The explanation that they had an engineering brain drain due to natural attrition. All of the old Soviet engineers who built the Proton rocket are mostly dead. With the fall of the Soviet system, the physical science courses were not that well attended in the Russian universities. The same is here in the US.
Both countries need a reboot of the science, math, and engineering courses. Also a reboot of how NASA and the Russian Space Agency needs to do things. A new generation and a new protocol. I had a conversation with a retired orbital specialist from JSC that happens to be in my club on this. One of the agreements is the closure of the Johnson Space Center and dusty museum and moving the facility somewhere else!
Joelene
