Launch News (FAILURE) Proton-M/Block-DM-03 launch with triple GLONASS-M, July 2, 2013

[Cosmic Penguin]

The long-lived Block-D series upper stage has not been featured on its long time partner, the Proton rocket, for quite a long time. Indeed during their last joint flight 2.5 years ago the upper stage drank too much LOX (due to some calculation error of the fuel loading values on the upper stage, flying for the first time in an enlarged version) and the rocket failed to put it and its payloads into orbit.

Today the two will fly together again to attempt to do what should have been done on that launch in December 2010 - to put three GLONASS-M navigation satellites into their planned medium Earth orbit. Amazingly this will be the 328th launch of a Block-D series upper stage since 1967 - a very large number for such a complex cryogenic upper stage!

Launch location:

Baikonur Launch pad no. 81/24 46° 4'15.38"N, 62°59'5.11"E

Launch dates and times:

{colsp=6}Launch times

Time Zone |

Australia - Sydney/AEST ​

|

Baikonur / UTC+6 ​

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Moscow / MSK/ ​

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Universal / UTC ​

|

Washington / EDT ​

Launch time (Primary): ​

|

13:38:22​

|

08:38:22​

|

06:38:22​

|

02:38:22​

|

22:38:22​

on (Primary): ​

|

Jul. 2, 2013​

|

Jul. 2, 2013​

|

Jul. 2, 2013​

|

Jul. 2, 2013​

|

Jul. 1, 2013​

{colsp=6}

[highlight][eventTimer]2013-07-02 02:38:22?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] triple GLONASS Launch[/highlight]​

Live Coverage Of The Launch:

• TSENKI Video Streams: http://www.tv-tsenki.com/live.php - coverage from 05:00 MSK (01:00 UTC)

PAYLOAD

3 Uragan-M (11F654M, 14F113) navigation satellites:

Stack Summary

{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter | Value

Manufacturer's article numbers:​

| 48, 49, 50

GLONASS System numbers (expected):​

| 748, 749, 750

COSMOS designators (expected):​

| Cosmos-2488, -2489, -2490

Target Orbit:​

| MEO

ApA X PeA​

| 19100 X 19100 km

Inclination:​

| 64.39°

RA of Asc. Node:​

| 26° (GLONASS plane II)

Uragan-M spacecraft are the second generation of GLONASS satellites with an increased lifetime of 7 years following up the first generation Uragan spacecraft.

Characteristics|

Uragan-M​

Customer:​

|

• Roscosmos, Russian Ministry of Defense

Prime contractor:​

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• JSC "Information Satellite Systems" Reshetnev Company

Mission:​

|

• Satellite for providing global navigation services for military and civilian users

GRAU Index:​

|

• 11F654M or 14F113

Type of Platform:​

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• Pressurized

Mass:​

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• Total mass at lift-off 1 415 kg

Stabilization:​

|

• 3 axis stabilized

Navigation Payload:​

|

• L-Band
• 25 channels separated by 0.5625 MHz intervals in 2 frequency bands: 1602.5625 - 1615.5 MHz and 1240 - 1260 MHz
• Right hand circular polarized.
• On-board cesium clocks provide time accuracy to 1000 nanoseconds

On-board power:​

|

• 1 400 W

Life time:​

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• 7 years

Coverage area:​

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• Global

|

Launch Vehicle:

{colsp=2}Characteristics

|

{colsp=2}

Proton-M / Block DM-03​

Prime contractor:​

|

• Khrunichev Space Centre

GRAU Index:​

|

• 8K82KM

Height:​

| ~57 m with upper stage and payload fairing

Diameter:​

| max 7.4 m

Liftoff mass:​

| ~700 tonnes

Payload mass:​

| ~22 tonnes at LEO

1st stage:​

|

• 6 X RD-275 engines
• Empty 30.6 tonnes
• Propellants 419.41 tonnes (UDMH and NTO)
• Thrust in vacuum 1069.8 tonnes of force
• Thrust at sea level 971.4 tonnes of force

2nd stage:​

|

• 1 X RD-0211 engine 3 X RD-0210 engines
• Empty 11.4 tonnes
• Propellants 156.113 tonnes (UDMH and NTO)
• Thrust in vacuum 237.4 tonnes of force

3rd stage:​

|

• 1 X RD-0213 engine & 1 X RD-0214 vernier engine
• Empty 3.7 tonnes
• Propellants 46.562 tonnes (UDMH and NTO)
• Thrust in vacuum 59.36 (core) + 3.15 (vernier) tonnes of force

Upper Stage:​

|

• GRAU Index: 11S861-03
• Common Name: Block DM-03
• Designer: RKK Energia
• Manufacturer: "Krasmash" Krasnoyarsk Machine Building Plant
• 1 X RD-58M engine
• Empty 2.2 tonnes
• Diameter 4.1 m
• Propellants 15.095 tonnes (LOX and Kerosene RG-1)
• Thrust in vacuum 8.67 tonnes of force
• ISP 254 s
• Flight time 7-21 hours

Payload Fairing:​

|

• Diameter 4.35 m
• Length 10 m

The vehicle's reliability statistics according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/reliability2010.txt:

================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================
Proton-M/DM-03    0     1    .00  .33      0    12/5/10  2010-

Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan on July 2, 2013 (8 a.m.)

Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Clouds|Pressure|Wind|Weather
8 AM|27°C|8°C|30%|0%|0%|97%|998 hPa|22 km/h S|

Overcast

References
http://www.federalspace.ru
http://tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.khrunichev.ru
http://www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru
http://tihiy.fromru.com/Rn/RN_Proton.htm
http://www.energia.ru
http://krasm.com
http://www.iss-reshetnev.com/
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=44.84999847,65.50000000

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJnODUV-4_4"]Вывоз РКН Протон-М с 3-мя КА Глонасс-М[/ame]

 

[N_Molson]

So it's the relatively "light" DM-03 (15 tons of propellants)

 

[boogabooga]

Failure!!!!!!


Was watching livestream, went full out of control, flipped upside-down, and exploded near the pad!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Wow.

The rocket toppled in mid-air, disintegrated and hit somewhere near the launch pad. Reminds me of some of the craziest launch failures I have ever seen on Youtube.....

 

[MattBaker]

Video version for everyone interested:

The guidance seems to have trouble immediatley or a few seconds in.

And to prove my omniscience: 90% of all YouTube comments to this launch will include KSP references.

 

[boogabooga]

I'm suspecting one of the engines failed to light. (It also did seem to be windy)

My first thought was "wow, that's a lot of red gas." It seemed as if one of the engines was spitting out a thick red cloud of N2O4 instead of flame. I understand some is normal, but it seemed like a LOT. It pitched to the "left" and looked ok, then pitched to the right, and went past horizontal. That's when I knew for sure that there was a problem. As it tipped upside down, the fairing and the top part of the rocket disintegrated, and and the payload probably got dumped there. The rocket fell to a tremendous explosion a few hundred meters from the pad, and live coverage stopped.

Now I worry about the toxic gas cloud :uhh:

Edit :ninja: by MattBaker

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

A note of historical reference - the last time a Proton failed during first stage powered flight was in 1982...... :uhh:

And to prove my omniscience: 90% of all YouTube comments to this launch will include KSP references.

 

[MattBaker]

I'm suspecting one of the engines failed to light. (It also did seem to be windy)

Well, comparing the video me and GPS ninja:'d you:lol posted with this one this flame-thingy *insert technical term* seems to be normal. At least at this (successful) launch it's visible for at least 15 seconds.

This time it appears roughly at the same point and stops after 4 seconds. Although it starts again when pointing towards Earth, they haven't gone to space today.

 

[Kyle]

WOW--! That was dramatic. :shifty:

---------- Post added at 03:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:28 AM ----------

Hearing conflicting reports, people on the NK forums are reporting there were fatalities while other reports are saying otherwise.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The good news: no causalities were reported
The bad news #1: This thing crashed near area 200 (the other Proton launch pad, usually used for ILS commercial launches)
The bad news #2: This must be the most dramatic crash of a hypergolic fueled rocket since, um, I can't count how many years. (not even the horrific 1996 Chinese rocket crash can compare)
The bad news #3: GLONASS is one of the most important Russian space projects under the guidance of Putin et al., and heads are certainly rolling at the Kremlin..... :shifty:

Source for the first two news: http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php/topic,18118.msg2476731.html#msg2476731

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Hearing conflicting reports, people on the NK forums are reporting there were fatalities while other reports are saying otherwise.

I checked the Cyrillics - I spot "nyet" untranslated, so it actually is saying that there are NO causalities.

 

[MattBaker]

The bad news #1: This thing crashed near area 200 (the other Proton launch pad, usually used for ILS commercial launches)

The one which should have seen a Proton-M launch on the 20th?

So, part of the 19th-27th launch streak of Atlas, Proton, Ariane and Soyuz will be canceled since the Proton will be grounded, dammit.

 

[Kyle]

Yup, no reported deaths at this time.

 

[Athena]

Woah....that's some serious fireworks over there...

 

[Pipcard]

Video version for everyone interested:
Seems like this forum hates Kyrillic - YouTube

The guidance seems to have trouble immediatley or a few seconds in.

And to prove my omniscience: 90% of all YouTube comments to this launch will include KSP references.

But the comments on that video turned out to be mostly Russian with no KSP references.

 

[Alfastar]

Well, it looks that there is a problem with one of the six engines. Maybe one of them got (almost) no power, or a control problem of one of the engine caused this failure.

"It's either the control system or the engine that has caused the accident. If the accident occurred in the first 10 to 20 seconds, than the engine is likely to be the cause

Unknown person from Roscosmos told this to RIA.

And to prove my omniscience: 90% of all YouTube comments to this launch will include KSP references.

Typical the mass :facepalm:

 

[boogabooga]

And to prove my omniscience: 90% of all YouTube comments to this launch will include KSP references.

No, I think at least 30% will reference the XKCD Up goer Five:

"This end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space. If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today."

Pretty much fits.


So, I assume the Proton will be grounded for some time. Is this going to delay ISS module Nauka further?

 

[MattBaker]

So, I assume the Proton will be grounded for some time. Is this going to delay ISS module Nauka further?

Nauka isn't planned to launch until December (although I would bet it gets 2014...) and it took not even two months after the Syouz/Progress failure for a Soyuz to fly again.
So, no.

 

[Belisarius]

If I understand the thread correctly, they've lost 6 Glonass satellites in a year. Does this significantly affect the Glonass system?

I read somewhere that it was 100% operational and just as good as GPS. But will it start failing as units go out of action with no replacement?

PS Thanks boogabooga for reference to Up Goer Five - That was really fun!