Jacques van Oene
June 27th 05, 09:53 PM
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 549 2005 Jun 27, Somerville, MA
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Cosmos-1/Volna
--------------
The ambitious privately funded Planetary Society solar sail mission,
Cosmos-1, was lost during launch on Jun 21, the second launch failure
for the Russian launch industry within 24 hours.
The Volna submarine-launched ballistic missile was launched at 1946:09 UTC
from the K-496 "Borisoglebsk", a Kalmar-class submarine, in the Barents Sea.
The first stage engine of the Volna is reported to have failed 83 seconds
into flight, and the first stage did not separate from the second stage.
The rocket ended its flight 160 seconds after launch; it probably
reached about 200 km into space before falling back to Earth.
Confusing the issue, the Planetary Society reported that telemetry from
the satellite was recorded but contact was lost during the apogee burn
at 2007 UTC. That would have suggested a failure of the final stage
apogee burn when the vehicle would have been in around a -2000 x 765 km
x 80 deg orbit, with reentry around 2019 UTC over the equatorial
Pacific. However, it's not unknown for stray signals to be confused
with the real target, and the later claims of telemetry on the second
orbit, which now seem to be clearly wrong, cast doubt on the apogee burn
information too. At the moment the balance of the evidence is that the
spacecraft no longer existed by 1950 UTC and all reports of
transmissions later than that are incorrect; but some confusion remains
and I hope to provide more details in a future issue.
I'm very disappointed about this one: Cosmos-1, sponsored by the
Planetary Society (TPS), was an exciting project that was funded by
enthusiasts and private investors and I was really looking forward to
seeing it work.
The 103 kg payload carried an apogee motor for orbit insertion;
after reaching orbit it would have deployed 8 blades of aluminized
Mylar spanning 30 meters. The planned 850 km orbit was high enough
that solar radiation pressure would have been big enough compared
to atmospheric drag to be measured, resulting in an expected force
of 3 milliNewtons. This would have made Cosmos 1 the first spacecraft
to use solar radiation pressure for propulsion.
The solar radiation pressure in the vicinity of the Earth is
4.6 microPascals. For comparison, the solar wind pressure is only
0.4 nanoPascals today, and is typically a few nPa. Typical atmospheric
drag at 850 km is about 0.1 microPascal compared to 30 micropascals
at ISS altitudes around 400 km.
Some reports had incorrectly said that a suborbital ESA reentry test
payload,
Demonstrator-2R, was also expected to be on the Volna. Gunter Krebs
clarified this for me: the Dem-2R went to the launch site at the same
time as Cosmos-1, but is slated for a different Volna that was planned
for July.
There have been at least 7 other cases of two orbital launch failures
within 24 hours. The record was on 1966 May 17 when a Voskhod/Zenit bit the
dust
and an Atlas Agena Gemini target swallowed ocean only 4 hr 15 min aprt.
Note: Of course, don't confuse the Planetary Society's Cosmos-1
satellite with the Soviet Union satellite I call Kosmos-1 (reflecting a
transliteration from the Cyrillic) launched in 1962.
Molniya
-------
A Molniya 8K78M rocket launch failed to reach orbit on Jun 21. The
four-stage rocket took off from the First State Cosmodrome at Plesetsk
at 0049 UTC. The Blok-I third stage, the Blok-ML fourth stage, and the
Molniya-3K satellite payload crashed in the Tyumen region of Siberia.
Initial reports said the vehicle engine malfunctioned 4 minutes 58
seconds after launch, at the time of stage 2/3 separation, either
because the Blok-I failed to ignite or the Blok-A second stage failed to
separate cleanly. A later report has suggested one of the liquid strapon
boosters (Blok B, V, G or D) had a problem; again, details are still
coming in.
Normally the Blok-I stage puts the payload and upper stage in parking
orbit, but in this case the vehicle probably reached an apogee of
180-190 km on its suborbital trajectory. Estimated orbits of around
-5000 x 185 km x 62.8 deg or -4500 x 200 km x 62.8 deg roughly fit the
stage 2/3 sep information and predict reentry around 0059 UTC.
Since the Molniya is basically a Soyuz-U with a fourth stage, this
failure might delay Soyuz launches; a commercial US satellite, Galaxy 14,
and a Progress cargo ship launch are scheduled for August. This
is the first failure of a Soyuz/Molniya vehicle since the disastrous
2002 launch-pad explosion of the Soyuz carrying the first Foton-M,
and the two 1996 Soyuz failures caused by nose fairing problems.
One famous previous case of stage 2/3 separation failure was in
April 1975 when two Soyuz astronauts had to make an emergency
high-g reentry.
The Molniya-3K communications satellite is built by NPO PM and
provides communications and probably video for the Russian Ministry of
Defense. Historically Molniya-3 satellites also provided civil
communications; the last regular Molniya-3 was launched on 2003 Jun 19.
This launch was the second Molniya-3K, following the prototype launched
on 2001 Jul 20. Alexander Zheleznyakov tells me the launch used pad 16/2
at Plesetsk.
Intelsat Americas 8
-------------------
On Jun 23, Sea Launch put up Intelsat Americas 8, breaking the run of
failures. IA-8 is an enhanced Loral LS-1300 satellite with Ku, C and Ka
band transponders; launch mass is 5493 kg. The satellite is owned by
Intelsat, the recently privatized communications company now based in
Bermuda. The Zenit-3SL launch vehicle's third stage, the Blok DM-SL,
put IA-8 in a 144 x 35609 km x 0.1 deg geostationary transfer orbit.
Ekspress AM-3
--------------
A new domestic Russian communications satellite, Ekspress AM-3, was
launched on Jun 24 from Baykonur. The launch vehicle was a Krunichev
Proton-K; according to the Novosti Kosmonavtiki web site, it used an
Energiya Blok DM-2 (11S861) No. 103L upper stage. Earlier Express
satellites used the modernized DM-2M version of the stage, while
commercial International Launch Services flights with the Proton use the
Briz-M stage and an uprated Proton-M launch vehicle.
The NK site reports that the Proton-K was serial number 410-10;
the official TsENKI web site has a document indicating 410-07 was to
be used, but my information indicates 410-07 was actually flown on
last December's Glonass launch.
The Ekspress AM-3 satellite was built by NPO PM and is owned
by Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, the Russian Communications Satellite Co.
It carries an Alcatel communications payload with Ku and C band
transponders, and one L-band transponder for mobile communications.
Ekspress AM satellites:
Launched Upper stage Location
AM-22 2003 Dec 28 DM-2M No. 13L 53.0E
AM-11 2004 Apr 26 DM-2M No. 14L 96.5E
AM-1 2004 Oct 29 DM-2M No. 15L 40.0E
AM-2 2005 Mar 29 DM-2M No. 16L 80.0E
AM-3 2005 Jun 24 DM-2 No. 103L Due at 40E
The Blok DM-2 went into a 231 x 35689 x 48.8 deg transfer orbit
after its first burn. A second burn circularized the orbit
at geostationary, and Ekspress AM-3 separated at around 0215 UTC
on Jun 25.
Space Station
-------------
Progress M-52 (vehicle 352) undocked from the Space Station's Zvezda
module at 2016 UTC on Jun 15. Its engine burn at 2316 UTC lowered its
orbit from 347 x 353 km to 62 x 353 km, and it reentered over the
Pacific at 2357 UTC.
Expedition 11 crewmembers Sergey Krikalyov and John Phillips
remain aboard the Station, while the STS-114 crew prepare for Shuttle
return to flight.
Progress vehicle 353 was launched from Baykonur at 2310 UTC on Jun 16,
reaching a 187 x 238 km orbit at 2318 UTC and becoming Progress M-53.
Progress M-53 will fly Space Station mission 18P delivering supplies to
the Station. Progress M-53 docked to the Zvezda module at 0042 UTC on
Jun 19. AP (and CNN) quoted Russian spokesman V. Lyndin as saying that
the docking was successful in automatic mode, but in fact, as reported
by CBS and MSNBC, commander Krikalyov took manual remote control
following a communications failure and used the TORU system to guide the
vehicle in. The Soyuz TMA-6 transport ship is docked to the Pirs module,
and the Zarya port is unoccupied.
Foton
-----
Foton M-2 landed in Kazakstan at 0736 UTC on Jun 16 after a successful
mission.
Erratum: although it had been planned that the Fotino experiment would
fly aboard Foton M-2, I now understand that Fotino was not in fact
completed,
and did not fly on the spacecraft.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.
DES.
May 5 0445 Cartosat ) PSLV SDLC SLP Imaging
17A
HAMSAT ) Comms
17B
May 20 1022 NOAA 18 Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Weather
18A
May 22 1759 DirecTV 8 Proton-M/Briz Baykonur LC200/39 Comms
19A
May 31 1200 Foton-M No. 2 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Micrograv
20A
Jun 16 2310 Progress M-53 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo
21A
Jun 21 0049 Molniya-3K Molniya-M Plesetsk LC16/2 Comms
F01
Jun 21 1946 Cosmos-1 Volna Borisoglebsk,BAR Tech
F02
Jun 23 1402 Intelsat A-8 Zenit-3SL Odyssey,POR Comms
22A
Jun 24 1941 Ekspress AM-3 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comms
23A
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail , (un)subscribe jsr |
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
No. 549 2005 Jun 27, Somerville, MA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Sender:
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To:
Cosmos-1/Volna
--------------
The ambitious privately funded Planetary Society solar sail mission,
Cosmos-1, was lost during launch on Jun 21, the second launch failure
for the Russian launch industry within 24 hours.
The Volna submarine-launched ballistic missile was launched at 1946:09 UTC
from the K-496 "Borisoglebsk", a Kalmar-class submarine, in the Barents Sea.
The first stage engine of the Volna is reported to have failed 83 seconds
into flight, and the first stage did not separate from the second stage.
The rocket ended its flight 160 seconds after launch; it probably
reached about 200 km into space before falling back to Earth.
Confusing the issue, the Planetary Society reported that telemetry from
the satellite was recorded but contact was lost during the apogee burn
at 2007 UTC. That would have suggested a failure of the final stage
apogee burn when the vehicle would have been in around a -2000 x 765 km
x 80 deg orbit, with reentry around 2019 UTC over the equatorial
Pacific. However, it's not unknown for stray signals to be confused
with the real target, and the later claims of telemetry on the second
orbit, which now seem to be clearly wrong, cast doubt on the apogee burn
information too. At the moment the balance of the evidence is that the
spacecraft no longer existed by 1950 UTC and all reports of
transmissions later than that are incorrect; but some confusion remains
and I hope to provide more details in a future issue.
I'm very disappointed about this one: Cosmos-1, sponsored by the
Planetary Society (TPS), was an exciting project that was funded by
enthusiasts and private investors and I was really looking forward to
seeing it work.
The 103 kg payload carried an apogee motor for orbit insertion;
after reaching orbit it would have deployed 8 blades of aluminized
Mylar spanning 30 meters. The planned 850 km orbit was high enough
that solar radiation pressure would have been big enough compared
to atmospheric drag to be measured, resulting in an expected force
of 3 milliNewtons. This would have made Cosmos 1 the first spacecraft
to use solar radiation pressure for propulsion.
The solar radiation pressure in the vicinity of the Earth is
4.6 microPascals. For comparison, the solar wind pressure is only
0.4 nanoPascals today, and is typically a few nPa. Typical atmospheric
drag at 850 km is about 0.1 microPascal compared to 30 micropascals
at ISS altitudes around 400 km.
Some reports had incorrectly said that a suborbital ESA reentry test
payload,
Demonstrator-2R, was also expected to be on the Volna. Gunter Krebs
clarified this for me: the Dem-2R went to the launch site at the same
time as Cosmos-1, but is slated for a different Volna that was planned
for July.
There have been at least 7 other cases of two orbital launch failures
within 24 hours. The record was on 1966 May 17 when a Voskhod/Zenit bit the
dust
and an Atlas Agena Gemini target swallowed ocean only 4 hr 15 min aprt.
Note: Of course, don't confuse the Planetary Society's Cosmos-1
satellite with the Soviet Union satellite I call Kosmos-1 (reflecting a
transliteration from the Cyrillic) launched in 1962.
Molniya
-------
A Molniya 8K78M rocket launch failed to reach orbit on Jun 21. The
four-stage rocket took off from the First State Cosmodrome at Plesetsk
at 0049 UTC. The Blok-I third stage, the Blok-ML fourth stage, and the
Molniya-3K satellite payload crashed in the Tyumen region of Siberia.
Initial reports said the vehicle engine malfunctioned 4 minutes 58
seconds after launch, at the time of stage 2/3 separation, either
because the Blok-I failed to ignite or the Blok-A second stage failed to
separate cleanly. A later report has suggested one of the liquid strapon
boosters (Blok B, V, G or D) had a problem; again, details are still
coming in.
Normally the Blok-I stage puts the payload and upper stage in parking
orbit, but in this case the vehicle probably reached an apogee of
180-190 km on its suborbital trajectory. Estimated orbits of around
-5000 x 185 km x 62.8 deg or -4500 x 200 km x 62.8 deg roughly fit the
stage 2/3 sep information and predict reentry around 0059 UTC.
Since the Molniya is basically a Soyuz-U with a fourth stage, this
failure might delay Soyuz launches; a commercial US satellite, Galaxy 14,
and a Progress cargo ship launch are scheduled for August. This
is the first failure of a Soyuz/Molniya vehicle since the disastrous
2002 launch-pad explosion of the Soyuz carrying the first Foton-M,
and the two 1996 Soyuz failures caused by nose fairing problems.
One famous previous case of stage 2/3 separation failure was in
April 1975 when two Soyuz astronauts had to make an emergency
high-g reentry.
The Molniya-3K communications satellite is built by NPO PM and
provides communications and probably video for the Russian Ministry of
Defense. Historically Molniya-3 satellites also provided civil
communications; the last regular Molniya-3 was launched on 2003 Jun 19.
This launch was the second Molniya-3K, following the prototype launched
on 2001 Jul 20. Alexander Zheleznyakov tells me the launch used pad 16/2
at Plesetsk.
Intelsat Americas 8
-------------------
On Jun 23, Sea Launch put up Intelsat Americas 8, breaking the run of
failures. IA-8 is an enhanced Loral LS-1300 satellite with Ku, C and Ka
band transponders; launch mass is 5493 kg. The satellite is owned by
Intelsat, the recently privatized communications company now based in
Bermuda. The Zenit-3SL launch vehicle's third stage, the Blok DM-SL,
put IA-8 in a 144 x 35609 km x 0.1 deg geostationary transfer orbit.
Ekspress AM-3
--------------
A new domestic Russian communications satellite, Ekspress AM-3, was
launched on Jun 24 from Baykonur. The launch vehicle was a Krunichev
Proton-K; according to the Novosti Kosmonavtiki web site, it used an
Energiya Blok DM-2 (11S861) No. 103L upper stage. Earlier Express
satellites used the modernized DM-2M version of the stage, while
commercial International Launch Services flights with the Proton use the
Briz-M stage and an uprated Proton-M launch vehicle.
The NK site reports that the Proton-K was serial number 410-10;
the official TsENKI web site has a document indicating 410-07 was to
be used, but my information indicates 410-07 was actually flown on
last December's Glonass launch.
The Ekspress AM-3 satellite was built by NPO PM and is owned
by Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, the Russian Communications Satellite Co.
It carries an Alcatel communications payload with Ku and C band
transponders, and one L-band transponder for mobile communications.
Ekspress AM satellites:
Launched Upper stage Location
AM-22 2003 Dec 28 DM-2M No. 13L 53.0E
AM-11 2004 Apr 26 DM-2M No. 14L 96.5E
AM-1 2004 Oct 29 DM-2M No. 15L 40.0E
AM-2 2005 Mar 29 DM-2M No. 16L 80.0E
AM-3 2005 Jun 24 DM-2 No. 103L Due at 40E
The Blok DM-2 went into a 231 x 35689 x 48.8 deg transfer orbit
after its first burn. A second burn circularized the orbit
at geostationary, and Ekspress AM-3 separated at around 0215 UTC
on Jun 25.
Space Station
-------------
Progress M-52 (vehicle 352) undocked from the Space Station's Zvezda
module at 2016 UTC on Jun 15. Its engine burn at 2316 UTC lowered its
orbit from 347 x 353 km to 62 x 353 km, and it reentered over the
Pacific at 2357 UTC.
Expedition 11 crewmembers Sergey Krikalyov and John Phillips
remain aboard the Station, while the STS-114 crew prepare for Shuttle
return to flight.
Progress vehicle 353 was launched from Baykonur at 2310 UTC on Jun 16,
reaching a 187 x 238 km orbit at 2318 UTC and becoming Progress M-53.
Progress M-53 will fly Space Station mission 18P delivering supplies to
the Station. Progress M-53 docked to the Zvezda module at 0042 UTC on
Jun 19. AP (and CNN) quoted Russian spokesman V. Lyndin as saying that
the docking was successful in automatic mode, but in fact, as reported
by CBS and MSNBC, commander Krikalyov took manual remote control
following a communications failure and used the TORU system to guide the
vehicle in. The Soyuz TMA-6 transport ship is docked to the Pirs module,
and the Zarya port is unoccupied.
Foton
-----
Foton M-2 landed in Kazakstan at 0736 UTC on Jun 16 after a successful
mission.
Erratum: although it had been planned that the Fotino experiment would
fly aboard Foton M-2, I now understand that Fotino was not in fact
completed,
and did not fly on the spacecraft.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.
DES.
May 5 0445 Cartosat ) PSLV SDLC SLP Imaging
17A
HAMSAT ) Comms
17B
May 20 1022 NOAA 18 Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Weather
18A
May 22 1759 DirecTV 8 Proton-M/Briz Baykonur LC200/39 Comms
19A
May 31 1200 Foton-M No. 2 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Micrograv
20A
Jun 16 2310 Progress M-53 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo
21A
Jun 21 0049 Molniya-3K Molniya-M Plesetsk LC16/2 Comms
F01
Jun 21 1946 Cosmos-1 Volna Borisoglebsk,BAR Tech
F02
Jun 23 1402 Intelsat A-8 Zenit-3SL Odyssey,POR Comms
22A
Jun 24 1941 Ekspress AM-3 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comms
23A
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail , (un)subscribe jsr |
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info