Ekspress-AM8 successfully launched aboard Proton M

Proton is proving it’s back in business — it launched a Russian commsat into orbit, with spacecraft separation from the upper stage expected tomorrow, after the Block-DM upper stage has performed the final burn to insert it directly into geosynchronous orbit.

Lotsa launches in Asia: Long March, GSLV, and Proton return to flight

It was a surprisingly busy week in spaceflight, with three launches from Asia.  The first was a surprise launch of a Long March 4C from Taiyuan Launch Center in northern China on Thursday, placing a surveillance satellite into orbit.  China ordinarily does not announce military launches.  The payload is designated Yaogan 27.

Later that day, a GSLV Mark 2 rocket blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India.  This was the third all-domestic flight, with an Indian-built cryogenic upper stage, and the second succesful one.  The payload was an Indian geosynchronous commsat, GSAT 6, and telemetry indicates it has deployed its solar arrays and is active.  GSLV has had a difficult break-in period, but with back-to-back successes, ISRO is ready to declare the Mark 2 operational.

And then Proton rounded out the week from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, making a triumphant return to flight after the May 16 accident that destroyed a Mexican commsat.  This flight was completely successful, delivering the Boeing-built Inmarsat 5 F3 spacecraft to geosynchronous transfer orbit for Inmarsat of London.  This will be the latest element in Inmarsat’s Global Xpress Ka-band mobile communications network.

Next rocket on deck is Monday’s Atlas V launch for the US Navy, and then after that is Wednesday’s scheduled manned Soyuz launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome to begin the forty-fourth Soyuz flight to the International Space station.

Russian rocket mishaps solved?

The investigation went deeper than previous ones, since the previous hadn’t actually resulted in any improvement, and what they found was surprising to me.  It wasn’t just quality control issues in manufacturing, as had previously been suspected; there are honest-to-gosh design defects in both the Briz-M upper stage for the Proton, and the upper stage of the Soyuz 2-1a.

The Soyuz 2-1a is a new model of the venerable R-7 family.  Being quite new, it’s perhaps unsurprising there’s a problem, but what’s interesting is that the design flaw only shows up with the Progress as payload.  (Presumably, it could also happen with Soyuz, which shares its service module entirely with Progress.)  This explains why it never had a problem on any of its other flights, but the defect must be fixed before it can carry Soyuz or Progress into orbit.

The Proton defect is a bit more worrisome, because it’s been in the system for decades without anyone noticing — despite multiple failures with similar characteristics and multiple investigations.  A small vernier engine used for steering the vehicle during third stage flight has a design defect which makes it extremely easy to unbalance.  And when it becomes unbalanced, it experiences increasingly violent vibrations until it undergoes what rocket scientists dryly refer to as an “unscheduled disassembly”.  The good news is that existing engines can be reworked with a different rotor shaft in their turbopumps to prevent the problem happening again.  Also, it’s back to flight now, having been cleared for all non-Progress/Soyuz flights, placing a military satellite (possibly a Kobalt or Persona spy satellite) into orbit:

So, good on you, Russia, for finding these defects!  Hopefully the design change and rework will do the trick, and keep Proton flying safely.  Alternately, I’d be happy with them replacing it; Proton’s one of the last flying launch vehicles to use hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide in the first stage.  Nasty stuff to release into the atmosphere.

More bad news for Russian Spaceflight: Proton-M explodes (UPDATE)

UPDATE: While the investigation is only beginning, at present it appears that a fault in steering engines may have been to blame.  This would a four-nozzle vernier engine.  During third stage flight, a rocket is going very fast — approaching orbital velocity — and only slight deviations from its trajectory could put enormous aerodynamic strain on the vehicle.  Meanwhile, MexSat-1’s insurance policy is paying for the entire cost of the spacecraft.  Lastly, I have a correction — I wrote that the third MexSat would be launching aboard Ariane V, but I had the wrong A*V vehicle.  The first one went up on Ariane V, but the third (Morelos 2) will be going up on Atlas V.

Proton-M was scheduled to launch MexSat-1 “Centenario”, a Mexican geosynchronous commsat, from Baikonur Cosmodrome today.  The initial launch looked fine, but then something went catastrophically wrong during operation of the Briz-M third stage.  Proton-M has had a particularly bad wrong.  Out of 43 launch attempts in the past five years, six have been catastrophic failures, and two ended in useless orbits.  The payload and upper stage are believed to have reentered and impacted in the Chita region of Russia, near Mongolia, although signs suggest it broke up very high and so pieces may be relatively small.  This flight was managed by International Launch Services, a collaboration between Lockheed Martin and RSC Khrunichev, which sells Proton and Atlas V commercially.

“Centenario” is one of a set of three satellites purchased by Mexico from Boeing and built in the United States.  The first one launched on Ariane V and has gone into service, while the third is scheduled to also fly on Ariane V.

Everything looks okay in this video, but it likely perished not long after:

Proton launch, and Iran performs another launch

The venerable Proton heavy-lift workhorse completed another successful flight this morning, placing the Inmarsat 5-F2 satellite into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome:

Meanwhile, Iran unexpectedly placed a payload into orbit; their program is rather secretive, so they do not announce launches ahead of time like other nations.  The 50 kg Fajr satellite was placed into orbit by the Safir rocket, Iran’s first successful orbital flight in three years, and their fourth overall.  The USAF’s Space Surveillance Network reported an orbit of 139 miles by 285 miles, with an inclination of 55.5 degrees.

The last launches of 2014: Proton and CZ-2A

Proton has flown one last time for 2014, placing the Astra 2G commsat into orbit for UK Television on December 27:

But China got the final launch of the year, on December 31, placing a weather satellite Fengyun 2G into orbit aboard a Long March (CZ) 3A rocket.  Alas, it has gotten very hard to find YouTube videos of recent Chinese launches.  But it probably looked a lot like this Chinese-language news coverage of an earlier launch of a Fengyun satellite aboard the same rocket type:

Two successful rocket launches: Atlas V and Proton!

Well, the Geminids were a bust for me.  Totally overcast here, and we drove out to South Dakota to visit the in-laws and guess what?  Totally overcast there.  In fact, it was pea-soup fog for a lot of the drive back.  But hey, there’s always something else exciting in space.  😉  First off, on Friday night the weather finally cooperated in California and the most powerful Atlas to fly from Vandenberg AFB launched with its classified payload.  It’s the second-heaviest Atlas V configuration, the 541.  The 541 has flown twice from Cape Canaveral, but this is its first flight from the West Coast.  The previous flights boosted NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2001, and another NRO payload earlier this year.  The only heavier Atlas is the 551, which has only flown once, launching New Horizons directly into a solar escape trajectory from Cape Canaveral in 2006.  (New Horizons will reach its primary target, Pluto, next year.)  Here’s last Friday’s launch:

And just for fun, compare it to this one: New Horizons peeling out of Florida faster than any other rocket:

Last Fridays’ Atlas is still climbing rather fast for what is likely a fairly hefty payload; satellite spotting enthusiasts suspect it to be a Trumpet electronic signals intelligence spacecraft intended for a highly elliptical Molniya-style orbit.  But that’s really just speculation; it’s tough to really know.

Meanwhile, early this morning Russia’s Proton rocket completed its historic 400th launch, placing the Yamal 401 commercial commsat in orbit for Gazprom Space Systems from Baikonur Cosmodrome, bound for geosynchronous orbit.  It should be there by now, and will enter the commissioning phase of its mission.  After a series of troubles in recent years, this is a very encouraging and positive way to round out the year for the vehicle and International Launch Services, a cooperative venture between rocket manufacturer Khrunichev and Lockheed Martin, which sells both Proton and Atlas on the international market.

Proton launch of Express AT1 & AT2

It’s always a good time to watch a rocket, right? 😉  This one blasted off from Baikonur last weekend with two geosynchronous commsats on board.  These two will offer high definition TV programming to Siberian customers, who previously did not have access to such signals.

SpaceflightNow has a nice article about the payloads, with a picture of them during encapsulation in the assembly hall.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1403/16proton

Turksat 4A launch aboard Proton!

This was last Friday, but I’m still kinda catching up on space news after a busy weekend.  😉  Here’s the replay:

Previewing the last launches of 2013

The last week of the year has a few launches in it, despite the holidays.  😉  First on deck is the very first Soyuz 2-1v rocket, a substantially modernized variant of the venerable R-7 family with a massive revamp — most noticeably, they have deleted the four slanted strap-on boosters around the core stage that gave Soyuz its distinctive look, and replaced the core stage engine with an NK-33, originally built for N-1 and also used on Orbital Science’s Antares booster.  (Which does prompt some interesting questions, as the engine has not been produced in the last forty years; what will they do when the supply is exhausted?)  Thus, Soyuz 2-1V is a modernized Soyuz in much the same way as Atlas V is a modernized Atlas; it shares a lot of history, but is pretty much a new rocket.  It will launch from Plestesk Cosmodrome tomorrow, Christmas Eve, carrying the Aist technology demonstrator satellite and a couple of calibration spheres.  Launch  is scheduled for 1230 GMT.

The workers at Plesetsk won’t get a break; a Rockot is scheduled to follow the very next day, carrying three Rodnik military commsats at 0045 GMT.

Attention shifts south after that, and Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan finishes up the year with a Proton rocket carrying the Express AM5 civilian commsat on December 26 at 1049 GMT.

The next mission launched worldwide will be in 2014: if all goes well, the next commercial Falcon 9 mission is set for January 3 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.