Jonathan's Space Report No. 549 2005 Jun 27, Somerville, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'