Launch News (FAILURE) Proton-M/Briz-M launch with MexSat-1, May 16, 2015

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Уважаемые господа!

Пуск РКН Протон-M - Бриз-М с КА «MexSat-1» планируется провести с космодрома Байконур 16.05.2015 в 05 час. 47 мин. 39 сек. UTC (16.05.2015 в 08 час. 47 мин. 39 сек. московского времени).
Начало трансляции за 30 минут до старта.
Трансляция в реальном масштабе времени будет проходить по адресу:
http://coopi.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=201
б
ез пароля.
Владельцы портативных устройств могут следить в тестовом режиме за запуском на
http://www.space-center.ru .

Наилучшие пожелания,
[email protected].


Dear Sirs!

The Proton-M - Breeze-M launch vehicle with the «MexSat-1» satellite on board is scheduled to be launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 16.05.2015 at 05 h 47 m 39 s UTC (16.05.2015 08 h 47 m 39 s Moscow Local Time).
Real time broadcast of the launch will be available from 30 minutes before start on the Khrunichev Space Center web site:
http://coopi.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=201
without password.

Owners of the portable device can watch the launch in test mode on
http://www.space-center.ru .

Best regards,
[email protected]



Place holder for Galactic penguin....
 
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Cosmic Penguin

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Suffering from one of the most dramatic in space losses of spacecraft in recent years (maybe only topped by Phobos-Grunt), the Russians are in desperate need of some kind of luck in the spaceflight industry after the loss of the latest Progress spacecraft. Their shrinking budget isn't helping any of their flagship projects either.

Well, at least they can still enjoy some of their remaining commercial launch contracts they still have while facing a thinning back log for the time being! Today the Proton rocket is flying its 2nd commercial launch this year with MexSat-1 "Centenario", one of 3 satellites ordered by the Mexican government to drastically improve the nation's broadband and satellite mobile communications infrastructure (with the smaller MexSat-3 already in orbit since December 2012). The Boeing BSS-702HP satellite contains a large 22-meter diameter L-band reflector for mobile satellite services as well as other fixed communication transponders for general civil and government communication services.

The launch processing also had its hiccups, with it delaying from April 29 due to inspections on the satellite following a flaw found back in Boeing's factory on sistercraft MexSat-2 (which will fly this October as one of the very few current purely commercial payloads on United Launch Alliance's Atlas V). The launch will happen at late morning time in Baikonur, pretty uncommon for the Proton recently!

This is the 2nd commercial mission of the year for ILS and the 89th ILS Proton mission since the first commercial flight of the Proton in April 1996.

This is the 1st SCT satellite launched with Proton and the 12th Boeing-built satellite launched on Proton.

Centenario%20Poster.attached_images.jpg


200px-Khrunichev_logo.svg.png


ils.jpg


logoSCT_hoz.png


Boeing-Logo.svg


Launch location:

Baikonur Launch pad no. 200/39 46° 2'23.85"N, 63° 1'54.98"E

baik200-39.png


Launch dates and times:

{colsp=6}Launch times

Time Zone |
Baikonur / UTC+6
|
Moscow / UTC+3
|
Universal / UTC
|
Washington / EDT
|
Los Angeles / PDT
Launch time (Primary):
|
11:47:39​
|
08:47:39​
|
05:47:39​
|
01:47:39​
|
22:47:39​
on:
|
May 16, 2015
|
May 16, 2015
|
May 16, 2015
|
May 16, 2015
|
May 15, 2015

{colsp=6}
[highlight][eventTimer]2015-05-16 05:47:39?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] MexSat-1 Launch[/highlight]​

Live Coverage Of The Launch:


PAYLOAD

MexSat-1 communication satellite:

mexsat-1__1.jpg


Mission Summary
Boeing announced in December 2010 that it has received a contract for approximately $1 billion from the government of Mexico to deliver an end-to-end satellite communications system. The system, known as MEXSAT, will consist of three satellites, two ground sites, associated network operations systems and reference user terminals. MEXSAT will provide secure communications for Mexico’s national security needs, as well as enhanced coverage for the country’s civil telecommunications.

Under the contract, Boeing will deliver a complete turnkey satellite system comprised of Boeing 702HP geomobile satellites MEXSAT-1 and MEXSAT-2 and one extended C- and Ku-band satellite, MEXSAT-3, which will provide fixed satellite services from geosynchronous orbit. MEXSAT-3 is scheduled to launch first, at the end of 2012.

Each Boeing 702HP satellite will supply 14 kilowatts of power through five-panel solar array wings that use high-efficiency, ultra triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. Both satellites will carry a 22-meter L-band reflector for mobile satellite services, complemented by a 2-meter Ku-band antenna.

Boeing also will develop two ground sites in Mexico with advanced beam-forming flexibility to direct mobile user spot beams to government agencies operating in Mexico and its patrimonial seas, including the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

The MEXSAT 2 satellite is reportedly the modified SkyTerra 2 satellite.

{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter | Value
Working Orbit:​
| GEO
Orbital Location:​
| 113° West
Coverage:​
| Mexico
ApA at separation:​
| 35786 km
PeA at separation:​
| 8985 km
Inc at separation:​
| 20.1°

Characteristics|
MexSat-1
Customer:​
|
  • Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, Government of Mexico
    logoSCT_hoz.png
Prime contractor:​
|
  • Boeing
    Boeing-Logo.svg
Platform:​
|
  • BSS-702HP
Mass at Separation:​
|
  • 5325 kg
Dry Mass:​
|
  • 3200 kg
Stabilization:​
|
  • 3 axis stabilized
Dimensions (stowed):​
|
  • 9 x 3 x 4 meters
Batteries:​
|
  • Two wings each with five panels of ultra triple junction gallium arsenide solar cells, providing 13 kW at end of life
Payload:​
|
  • L-band transponders
  • Ku-band transponders
  • C-band transponders
Life time:​
|
  • 15 years
Coverage:​
|
  • ?


|
CDGyX_jVIAMeb4g.jpg:orig

Launch Vehicle:

{colsp=2}Characteristics

proton_m.jpg
|
{colsp=2}
Proton-M / Briz-M
Prime contractor:​
|
  • Khrunichev Space Centre
    khrunichev_logo.gif
GRAU Index:​
|
  • 8K82KM
Height:​
| 58.2 m with upper stage and payload fairing

Diameter:​
| max 7.4 m

Liftoff mass:​
| 705 metric 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:​
|
briz2b.gif
  • GRAU Index: 14S43
  • Common Name: Briz-M
  • Designer & Manufacturer: Khrunichev Space Centre
  • Dimensions: Length 2.654 m, Diameter 4 m
  • Empty Mass 2.2 tonnes
  • Propellants 6 660 kg UDMH + 13 260 kg N2O4
  • Flight time: no less than 24 hours
  • Main Engine: 1 X 14D30
  • Thrust in vacuum 2.0 tonnes of force
  • ISP 328.6 s
  • Main engine restarts: up to 8 times
  • Precision Manoeuvering Engines: 4 X 11D458
  • Thrust in vacuum 400 N each
  • ISP 252 s
  • RCS Engines: 12 X 17D58E
  • Thrust in vacuum 13.3 N each
  • ISP 274 s
Payload Fairing:​
|
  • Diameter 4.35 m
  • Length 11.6 m

The vehicle's reliability statistics according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2015.html#rate:

Code:
================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================
Proton-M/Briz-M   73    81    .90  .89      4    10/21/14 2001-


MexSat-1 Ascent Profile
The Proton-M first three stages place the orbital unit (OU), which consists of a Breeze-M upper stage, adapter system and MexSat-1, into a 51.5° inclination suborbital trajectory.

Proton-M powered flight lasts 582 seconds. The OU powered flight begins at the moment of the third stage separation.

shemrn_r_b.jpg


Immediately after the separation of the third stage booster, the Breeze-M stability engines start, damping the angular velocities of the third stage separation and then providing orbital unit orientation and stability during coast flight along a suborbital trajectory to await the first burn. The upper stage follows a five-burn injection profile.

orbit_r_b.jpg


MexSat-1 Ascent Timeline

Event|Time rel lift-off|Time UTC|Comment
Ignition Start Sequence|-00:00:02.5|05:47:36.5|
Stage 1 Ignition (40% thrust)|-00:00:01.75|05:47:37.25|
Command Stage 1 (100% thrust)|-00:00:00.9|05:47:38.1|
Maximum Dynamic Pressure|00:01:02|05:48:41|
1st/2nd Stage Separation|00:02:00|05:49:39|
2nd/3rd Stage Separation|00:05:27|05:53:06|
Payload Fairing Separation|00:05:47|05:53:26|
3rd Stage/Breeze M Separation|00:09:42|05:57:21|
1st Burn Ignition|00:11:46|05:59:25|
1st Burn Shutdown|00:16:13|06:03:52|1st Burn's Duration 00:04:27
2nd Burn Ignition|01:07:33|06:55:12|
2nd Burn Shutdown|01:25:19|07:12:58|2nd Burn's Duration 00:17:46
3rd Burn Ignition|03:28:30|09:16:09|
3rd Burn Shutdown|03:41:49|09:29:28|3rd Burn's Duration 00:13:19
APT Jettison|03:42:39|09:30:18|
4th Burn Ignition|03:44:06|09:31:45|
4th Burn Shutdown|03:48:18|09:35:57|4th Burn's Duration 00:04:12
5th Burn Ignition|08:51:33|14:38:12|
5th Burn Shutdown|08:59:27|14:44:27|5th Burn's Duration 00:06:15
Spacecraft Separation|09:13:00|15:00:39|

Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan on May 16, 2015 (11 a.m.)

Becoming partly cloudy after some morning rain. High near 25C. Winds NW at 15 to 30 km/h. Chance of rain 80%.

Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Cloud cover|Pressure|Wind|Weather
11 AM|20°C|11°C|57%|10%|0%|66%|1007 hPa|19 km/h NW|
mostlycloudy.svg
Mostly Cloudy

References
http://www.federalspace.ru
http://tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.khrunichev.ru
http://www.ilslaunch.com
http://tihiy.fromru.com/Rn/RN_Proton.htm
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/mexsat-1.htm
http://www.sct.gob.mx
http://www.tsenki.com
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/q/locid:KZXX0055
 

Alfastar

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Good lift-off, but I be worried about the telemetry lose. Hopeful there is nothing wrong with the flight self :shifty:
---
Oh no, not again....
---
So likely the third stage failed again. Almost creepy that happened almost exactly a year ago. Exactly the last thing ILS and the Proton self needs to have.
 
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Cosmic Penguin

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Strange reports about this one (including the meager Roscosmos press release) suggest to me that Khrunichev et al. have no idea about what's going on after loss of telemetry (ILS claimed that they can still confirm some of the events after that with nominal radar tracking) rather than a confirmed LOV. There is still a chance that the flight was still going nominally (though I won't bet on it).

Either way, it is bad enough that the 404th Proton ended up with a 404RocketNotFound error..... :shifty:
 

Alfastar

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Strange reports about this one (including the meager Roscosmos press release) suggest to me that Khrunichev et al. have no idea about what's going on after loss of telemetry (ILS claimed that they can still confirm some of the events after that with nominal radar tracking) rather than a confirmed LOV. There is still a chance that the flight was still going nominally (though I won't bet on it).

Either way, it is bad enough that the 404th Proton ended up with a 404RocketNotFound error..... :shifty:

I see so much different sounds still saying otherwise. ILS clams nothing was wrong, but Russian sources says a problem happened with the third stage.

Is it just bad journalism because almost exactly a year ago the third stage also failed, or (what is sadly more likely) is it again a failure of the third stage?

Any reports on a re-entry in Russia/China?
 

Cosmic Penguin

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Seems to be a goner I'm afraid - reports came in that the 3rd stage engine was stopped at around T+495 seconds. Debris have been reported south east of Lake Baikal near the Mongolia border, which would fit in with the claim above.

This is, what, my 6th Proton failure thread? :shifty:
 

Urwumpe

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This is, what, my 6th Proton failure thread? :shifty:

You should be careful, to avoid that you are regarded as bad omen by superstitious Russian politicians. Maybe you will be blamed for the failures.

:rofl:
 

Artlav

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Scav

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:rofl: And I doubt they ever will, unless their idea of "found" is equivalent to pointing to a large area of Russia the size of Australia and yelling "THERE he is!"...

Right there with you:

2b5a0d34-d3af-4c98-945e-d4e906f15a54_zps0f3d4d1e.jpg
 

Thunder Chicken

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Another tough break.

No worries though. NASA has been working hard developing that space trampoline that the Russians recommended; I'm sure they'll be happy to let them borrow it:

Rogozin%27s%20trampoline.jpg
 

boogabooga

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Perhaps time to retire Proton in favor of Angara?
 

N_Molson

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So 355 successful launches for 47 failures now (reliability : 88.31%).

The big problem is that a worrying number of those failure happened in a very short time, in regard of the operational career of the launcher (1966-).

Which points again and again at the manufacturing and QC (if any ?!) process. :mad:

Interesting Spaceflightnow summary on those failures :

...Saturday’s rocket crash occurred one year to the day after the last Proton launch failure, which destroyed a Russian communications satellite after an anomaly in the booster’s third stage propulsion system

An investigation into the May 2014 launch failure concluded the “probable cause of the failure was the loss of structural integrity of a bolted interface that attaches the
steering engine turbopump to the main engine structural frame,” ILS said in a statement released in September.

Officials did not disclose how engineers planned to resolve the structural problem on future launches, but the ILS press release said in September that the “corrective action plan will adequately address the identified probable cause and contributors to the failure.”

The Proton rocket flew successfully six times since the May 2014 mishap.

According to Tass, same type of third stage steering engine is the early focus of the investigation into Saturday’s mission, which was the sixth failure of a Proton rocket or its Breeze M upper stage in 43 flights since December 2010.

Two other Proton/Breeze M missions in that period put their payloads into off-target orbits, but the satellites were able to recover from the shortfalls and continue their missions.

Commercial missions under the management of ILS amassed a mostly successful string of launches during the patch of Proton/Breeze M failures. ILS officials credited the company’s mission assurance services for the disparity in the Proton’s success record on commercial and government flights.

An ILS mission placed the Russian Yamal 402 communications satellite in the wrong orbit in 2012, but the spacecraft had enough on-board fuel to salvage its primary mission.

A malfunction in the Breeze M upper stage on an ILS mission in 2008 left the AMC 14 commercial telecom platform off its target. The satellite’s owner declared the satellite a total loss and collected an insurance payment, then insurers sold the spacecraft to the U.S. Defense Department, which maneuvered the satellite into a usable orbit...

So it seems that the RD-0212 is the culprit again. Or, more specifically, the RD-0214, which are the verniers (the small ones near the top of the image).

rd0212.jpg


Kosberg N2O4/UDMH rocket engine. 613 kN. Proton stage 3. Engine unit consisting of 1 RD-0213 maine engine and 4 RD-0214 vernier/steering engines. 8D48 essentially similar to 8D411 and 8D412 and has the same combustion chamber. Isp=324s. First flight 1967.

Application: Proton stage 3.

Chambers: 1 + 4.

AKA: RD-473; RD-0212; 8D49.
Thrust: 613.00 kN (137,807 lbf).
Specific impulse: 325 s.
Burn time: 230 s.
First Launch: 1962-68.
 
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