From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Mon Jun 27 2005 - 06:08:44 PDT
>From: Planet4589 <owner-jsr_at_host.planet4589.org>
>Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 549
>Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:31:53 -0400
>
>Jonathan's Space Report
>No. 549 2005 Jun 27, Somerville, MA
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Sender: owner-jsr_at_host.planet4589.org
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>Reply-To: jcm_at_host.planet4589.org@host.planet4589.org
>
>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 : jcm_at_host.planet4589.org |
>| USA | jcm_at_cfa.harvard.edu |
>| |
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