Russians delay launch of new booster

Space Launch Delay

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The military has postponed the launch of a
new-generation space booster rocket scheduled for this week due to "a
software malfunction," the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The Soyuz-M2 booster was scheduled to lift off from the Plesetsk
Cosmodrome in the Far North on Friday in a step toward bringing most
launches onto Russian territory.

Revision wrote:

Space Launch Delay

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The military has postponed the launch of a
new-generation space booster rocket scheduled for this week due to "a
software malfunction," the Defense Ministry said Thursday.


Does anyone have details on what differentiates the "Soyuz 2" from the
standard Soyuz booster?

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote in
:



Revision wrote:

Space Launch Delay

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The military has postponed the launch of a
new-generation space booster rocket scheduled for this week due to "a
software malfunction," the Defense Ministry said Thursday.


Does anyone have details on what differentiates the "Soyuz 2" from the
standard Soyuz booster?

About all I've been able to figure out is that it
uses a modern digital electronics guidance system.
Straps-ons, core and maybe the second stage are
mostly the same. Some sources suggest there are
improvements in the propulsion technology, but I can't
find anything that's specific. It's even hard to
guess version they're really talking about, but I
think this is it:

http://www.starsem.com/soyuz/soyuzst.htm

That and a wider payload fairing.

There were proposed changes in the core/booster engines to
a more advanced staged-combustion design, and even a
cryogenic upper stage, but these haven't been implemented
or haven't gone into design.

Old Number 7 just keeps soldering along...coming up
on its fiftieth birthday.

--Damon

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

Does anyone have details on what differentiates the "Soyuz 2" from the
standard Soyuz booster?

Check EA - probably something there.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge

"Damon Hill" wrote in message
4...

Old Number 7 just keeps soldering along...coming up
on its fiftieth birthday.

Why not? It's the most reliable LV in the world by far, it doesn't simply
"keep soldiering along"; it's _got no choice_ until there is a better
vehicle and that's a long way off.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge

The Soyuz-2-1A, which is to launch soon has a new guidance system, a new 4
meter payload fairing and a changed oxidezer-fuel ratio for the 3rd stage.
Otherwise it is like the Soyuz-FG
The Soyuz-2-1B to be launched in 2006 will introduce a new engine for stage
3.
The Soyuz/ST will feature a Ariane-4 payload fairing, otherwise as the 2-1B
version

Gunter Krebs
http://space.skyrocket.de


"Pat Flannery" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...


Revision wrote:

Space Launch Delay

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The military has postponed the launch of a
new-generation space booster rocket scheduled for this week due to "a
software malfunction," the Defense Ministry said Thursday.


Does anyone have details on what differentiates the "Soyuz 2" from the
standard Soyuz booster?

Pat

It is one of the world's most reliable launch vehicles, but I'm
not sure it is *the* most reliable among active launchers.
Tsylkon 2 (soon to be retired), STS, and Delta 2 all have
slightly better predicted reliability (both in realized results
and in predicted reliability) than Soyuz-U.

The numbers for the top four most reliable active launchers
break down as follows, as of October 31, 2004.

Vehicle Launches Realzd Pred Consc. Last
(Failures) Rate Rate* Succes Fail
----------------------------------------------------------
Tsyklon 2 104(1) .99 .98 91 4/25/73
Delta 2 115(2) .98 .97 60 1/17/97
STS 113(2) .98 .97 0 2/1/03
Soyuz-U 716(20) .97 .97 13 10/15/02
----------------------------------------------------------
* First level Bayesian estimate of mean predicted probability
of success for next launch attempt (k+1)/(n+2) where k is the
number of successful events and n is the number of trials.

- Ed Kyle