Jacques van Oene
October 9th 05, 01:16 PM
N° 44-2005 - Paris, 8 october 2005
CryoSat Mission lost due to launch failure
Today at 21.00 h CEST Mr. Jury Bakhvalov, First Deputy Director General of
the Khrunichev Space Center on behalf of the Russian State Commission
officially confirmed that the launch of CryoSat ended in a failure due to an
anomaly in the launch sequence and expressed his regret to ESA and all
partners involved.
Preliminary analysis of the telemetry data indicates that the first stage
performed nominally. The second stage performed nominally until main engine
cut-off was to occur. Due to a missing command from the onboard flight
control system the main engine continued to operate until depletion of the
remaining fuel.
As a consequence, the separation of the second stage from upper stage did
not occur. Thus, the combined stack of the two stages and the CryoSat
satellite fell into the nominal drop zone north of Greenland close to the
North Pole into high seas with no consequences to populated areas.
An investigating commission by the Russian State authorities has been
established to further analyze the reasons for the failure, results are
expected within the next weeks. This commission will work in close
cooperation with a failure investigation board consisting of Eurockot, ESA
and Khrunichev representatives.
This information is released at the same time by Eurockot and ESA.
For further information, please contact :
ESA Media Relations Division
Tel: +33(0)153.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
--
--------------------------------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
CryoSat Mission lost due to launch failure
Today at 21.00 h CEST Mr. Jury Bakhvalov, First Deputy Director General of
the Khrunichev Space Center on behalf of the Russian State Commission
officially confirmed that the launch of CryoSat ended in a failure due to an
anomaly in the launch sequence and expressed his regret to ESA and all
partners involved.
Preliminary analysis of the telemetry data indicates that the first stage
performed nominally. The second stage performed nominally until main engine
cut-off was to occur. Due to a missing command from the onboard flight
control system the main engine continued to operate until depletion of the
remaining fuel.
As a consequence, the separation of the second stage from upper stage did
not occur. Thus, the combined stack of the two stages and the CryoSat
satellite fell into the nominal drop zone north of Greenland close to the
North Pole into high seas with no consequences to populated areas.
An investigating commission by the Russian State authorities has been
established to further analyze the reasons for the failure, results are
expected within the next weeks. This commission will work in close
cooperation with a failure investigation board consisting of Eurockot, ESA
and Khrunichev representatives.
This information is released at the same time by Eurockot and ESA.
For further information, please contact :
ESA Media Relations Division
Tel: +33(0)153.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
--
--------------------------------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info