Launch News Proton-M/Briz-M launch with Inmarsat 5-F1, December 8, 2013

[Cosmic Penguin]

To paraphrase an ad from a certain worldwide bank.....the Proton never sleeps. Oh yes, here comes another Proton launch! The 7th Proton launch of the year for ILS will carry the first of a series of large mobile communication satellites for the London based Inmarsat, one of the earliest satellite communication companies that started out (and still is) providing satellite telecom to ships around the world. With a huge number of 89 spot beams on each satellite, the Inmarsat 5 series will provide broadband Internet et al. services around the globe.

This is the 7th commercial mission of the year for ILS and the 84th ILS Proton mission since the first commercial flight of the Proton in April 1996.

This is the 3rd Inmarsat satellite launched with Proton and the 16th Boeing-built satellite launched on Proton.

Launch location:

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

Launch dates and times:

{colsp=6}Launch times

Time Zone |

Baikonur / UTC+6 ​

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Moscow / UTC+4 ​

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Universal / UTC ​

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Washington / EST ​

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Los Angeles / PST ​

Launch time (Primary): ​

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18:12:00​

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16:12:00​

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12:12:00​

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07:12:00​

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04:12:00​

on: ​

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Dec. 8, 2013​

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Dec. 8, 2013​

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Dec. 8, 2013​

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Dec. 8, 2013​

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Dec. 8, 2013​

{colsp=6}

[highlight][eventTimer]2013-12-08 12:12:00?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Inmarsat 5-F1 Launch[/highlight]​

Live Coverage Of The Launch:

• International Launch Services: http://inmarsat5f1.imgondemand.com/ (begins at 20 minutes before lift-off)
• TSENKI Video Streams: http://www.tv-tsenki.com/livechoose.php
• Khrunichev COOPI (login: ? password: ?): http://coopi.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=200
• Owners of PDA can watch the launch in test mode on: http://www.space-center.ru

PAYLOAD

Inmarsat 5-F1 communication satellite:

Mission Summary
Inmarsat ordered three Ka-band Inmarsat-5 satellites in August 2010 from Boeing for about $1 billion to deliver faster broadband to its commercial and government customers by end-2014.

The fixed-price contract, with options, calls for three BSS-702HP commercial spacecraft that will operate in geosynchronous orbit with flexible global coverage.

Each Inmarsat-5 satellite will carry 89 Ka-band beams that will operate in geosynchronous orbit with flexible global coverage. The satellites are designed to generate approximately 15 kilowatts of power at the start of service and approximately 13.8 kilowatts at the end of their 15-year design life. To generate such high power, each spacecraft's two solar wings employ five panels each of ultra triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. The BSS-702HP carries the xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS) for all on-orbit maneuvering. When operational, the Inmarsat-5 satellites will provide Inmarsat with a comprehensive range of global mobile satellite services, including mobile broadband communications for deep-sea vessels, in-flight connectivity for airline passengers and streaming high-resolution video, voice and data.

The Boeing satellites will provide Inmarsat with the ability to adapt to shifting subscriber usage patterns of high data rates, specialized applications and evolving demographics over a projected 15-year lifetime. In a separate arrangement, Boeing has also entered into a distribution partnership with Inmarsat to provide L- and Ka-band capacity to key users within the U.S. government.

The Inmarsat-5 spacecraft are compatible with the Ariane, Sea Launch, Proton and Atlas launch vehicles. Launch services were procured by Inmarsat.

In October 2013, Inmarsat ordered a fourth satellite as a spare.

{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter | Value

Working Orbit:​

| GEO

Orbital Location:​

| 63.0° East

Coverage:​

| Europe, Asia, Africa

ApA at separation:​

| 65000 km

PeA at separation:​

| 4341 km

Inc at separation:​

| 26.75°

Characteristics|

Inmarsat 5-F1​

Customer:​

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• Inmarsat

Prime contractor:​

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• Boeing

Platform:​

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• BSS-702HP

Mass at Separation:​

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• 6070 kg

Dry Mass:​

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• 3750 kg

Stabilization:​

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• 3 axis stabilized

Dimensions (stowed):​

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• 6.98 * 3.12 * 3.67 m

Batteries:​

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• Two solar array wings each with five panels of gallium arsenide solar cells, providing 13.8 kW at end of life

Payload:​

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• 89 Ka-band transponders

Life time:​

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• 15 years

Coverage:​

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• 
  
  

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Launch Vehicle:

{colsp=2}Characteristics

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{colsp=2}

Proton-M / Briz-M​

Prime contractor:​

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• Khrunichev Space Centre
  

GRAU Index:​

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• 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:​

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• 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:​

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• 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:​

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• 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:​

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• 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:​

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• Diameter 4.35 m
• Length 11.6 m

The vehicle's reliability statistics according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2013.html#rate:

================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================
Proton-M/Briz-M  63    69    .91  .90      7    12/08/12 2001-

Inmarsat 5-F1 Ascent Profile
The Proton-M first three stages place the orbital unit (OU), which consists of a Breeze-M upper stage, adapter system and Inmarsat 5-F1, 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.

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.

Inmarsat 5-F1 Ascent Timeline

Event|Time rel lift-off|Time UTC|Comment
Ignition Start Sequence|-00:00:02.5|12:11:57.5|
Stage 1 Ignition (40% thrust)|-00:00:01.75|12:11:58.25|
Command Stage 1 (100% thrust)|-00:00:00.9|12:11:59.1|
Maximum Dynamic Pressure|00:01:02|12:13:02|
1st/2nd Stage Separation|00:02:00|12:14:00|
2nd/3rd Stage Separation|00:05:27|12:17:27|
Payload Fairing Separation|00:05:47|12:17:47|
3rd Stage/Breeze M Separation|00:09:42|12:21:42|
1st Burn Ignition|00:11:16|12:23:16|
1st Burn Shutdown|00:15:43|12:27:43|1st Burn's Duration 00:04:27
2nd Burn Ignition|01:50:30|14:02:30|
2nd Burn Shutdown|02:10:04|14:22:04|2nd Burn's Duration 00:19:34
3rd Burn Ignition|04:23:49|16:35:49|
3rd Burn Shutdown|04:33:13|16:45:13|3rd Burn's Duration 00:09:24
APT Jettison|04:34:03|16:46:03|
4th Burn Ignition|04:35:30|16:47:30|
4th Burn Shutdown|04:43:57|16:55:57|4th Burn's Duration 00:08:27
5th Burn Ignition|15:15:05|03:27:05|
5th Burn Shutdown|15:18:34|03:30:34|5th Burn's Duration 00:03:29
Spacecraft Separation|15:31:00|03:43:00|

Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan on December 8, 2013 (6 p.m.)

Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. High near 2C. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 kmh.

Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Cloud cover|Pressure|Wind|Weather
7 PM|-1°C|-6°C|70%|0%|0%|85%|1018 hPa|16 km/h ESE|

Overcast

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/inmarsat-5.htm
http://www.inmarsat.com
http://www.tsenki.com
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/q/locid:KZXX0055

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[N_Molson]

T-2 hours

---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------

Mission Status Center

By Stephen Clark

Live coverage of the International Launch Services Proton rocket carrying the Inmarsat 5 F1 telecommunications satellite.

1231 GMT (7:31 a.m. EST)
T+plus 19 minutes. International Launch Services confirms the Breeze M upper stage has completed the first of five burns in this mission. The first burn was designed to accelerate the rocket and payload from a suborbital trajectory into a low-altitude parking orbit.

The Breeze M is now in a coast phase until ignition of the second upper stage burn at about 1402 GMT (9:02 a.m. EST).

1227 GMT (7:27 a.m. EST)
T+plus 15 minutes. International Launch Services confirms the first ignition of the Breeze M upper stage has occurred to place the Inmarsat 5 F1 satellite into a preliminary parking orbit about 100 miles above Earth.

1224 GMT (7:24 a.m. EST)
T+plus 12 minutes. Officials confirm successful shutdown of the Proton's third stage and separation of the Breeze M upper stage, which should be firing now for the first of five burns. But ILS has not been able to confirm the successful ignition yet.

This first burn should last about four-and-a-half minutes, placing the Breeze M and Inmarsat 5 F1 in a circular parking orbit 107 miles high with an inclination of 51.5 degrees.

1220 GMT (7:20 a.m. EST)
T+plus 7 minutes. Proton's second stage has been confirmed to have separated, and the third stage RD-0213 engine has begun its burn, producing 131,000 pounds of thrust. The rocket's payload fairing has also been released now that the launcher is in the upper atmosphere.

1215 GMT (7:15 a.m. EST)
T+plus 3 minutes, 30 seconds. The second stage's RD-0211 main engine and RD-0210 vernier engines continue firing at full power of 540,000 pounds of thrust.

1214 GMT (7:14 a.m. EST)
T+plus 2 minutes, 50 seconds. The Proton's first stage has shut down and jettisoned, and the second stage engines are firing with a half-million pounds of thrust.

1213 GMT (7:13 a.m. EST)
T+plus 70 seconds. The Proton rocket has passed the speed of sound and the phase of maximum aerodynamic pressure as it heads northeast from Baikonur.

1212 GMT (7:12 a.m. EST)
Liftoff of the Proton rocket with Inmarsat 5 F1, a 6.7-ton satellite to transmit broadband communications services for Inmarsat's new Global Xpress service.

1211 GMT (7:11 a.m. EST)
T-minus 60 seconds minutes. The ignition sequence for the six first stage RD-276 engines begins at T-minus 2.5 seconds, reaching a 40 percent thrust level at T-minus 1.75 seconds and 100 percent thrust at T-minus 0.9 seconds.

1210 GMT (7:10 a.m. EST)
T-minus 2 minutes. The countdown is being run by a master computer sequencer.

Weather at the launch site is favorable, but the Baikonur Cosmodrome is blanketed in clouds and fog with a temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

1206 GMT (7:06 a.m. EST)
Inmarsat 5 F1 will become the first member of Inmarsat's next-generation Global Xpress fleet. It will be positioned at 63 degrees east longitude for a 15-year mission.

1204 GMT (7:04 a.m. EST)
T-minus 8 minutes. The readiness of the Proton core vehicle, the Breeze M upper stage and Inmarsat 5 F1 will be verified over the next few minutes.

1202 GMT (7:02 a.m. EST)
T-minus 10 minutes. The Proton launcher on the pad weighs about 1.5 million pounds, and it will be powered into the sky by six first stage RD-276 engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust.

The Inmarsat 5 F1 satellite weighs 6,100 kilograms, or 13,448 pounds at liftoff. Inmarsat 5 F1 was transitioned to internal power a few minutes ago.

1200 GMT (7:00 a.m. EST)
T-minus 12 minutes. The final launch pad workers evacuate to a safe distance away from the rocket.

1157 GMT (6:57 a.m. EST)
With 15 minutes left in the countdown, everything remains on schedule for launch at 1212 GMT (7:12 a.m. EST; 6:12 p.m. Baikonur time). It will take more than 15 hours to deploy Sirius FM6 in the proper orbit.

The Proton rocket's first stage will blast off powered by six RD-276 engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust. The 191-foot-tall launcher will ascend northeast from Baikonur, dropping its first stage 2 minutes after liftoff, giving way to the Proton's second stage RD-0211 main engine for a three-and-a-half minute burn.

The Proton's third stage, using a RD-0213 main engine with 131,000 pounds of thrust, next will fire for about four minutes. Separation of the 13.1-foot-diameter nose cone occurs during the third stage burn at T+plus 5 minutes, 47 seconds.

The Breeze M upper stage will assume control at T+plus 9 minutes, 42 seconds, when it separates from the Proton's third stage. Five Breeze M engine burns are planned over a 15-hour period to inject Inmarsat 5 F1 in the proper geosynchronous transfer orbit.
1150 GMT (6:50 a.m. EST)
Liftoff of the Proton rocket is 30 minutes away. This will be the:

392nd Proton rocket launch since 1965
84th International Launch Services Proton since 1996
70th Proton M using a Breeze M upper stage since 2001
16th Boeing satellite on ILS Proton
3rd Inmarsat satellite on ILS Proton
9th Proton of 2013

1130 GMT (6:30 a.m. EST)
The launch pad gantry has moved away from the Proton rocket at Baikonur, revealing the silver booster as the countdown is inside the final hour until liftoff.

The Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage are fully fueled with liquid hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants as dusk falls on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where it is currently 5:30 p.m. local time.

---------- Post added at 11:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 PM ----------

Things continue to go smoothly :

2250 GMT (5:50 p.m. EST)
International Launch Services confirms the completion of the Breeze M's third burn, a successful jettison of the stage's auxiliary propellant tank, and a good fourth firing of the upper stage.

The Breeze M and Inmarsat 5 F1 should now be in a transfer orbit with a low point of 295 miles, a high point of 40,416 miles, and an inclination of 50.5 degrees.

The upper stage will coast for nearly 6 more hours before igniting a fifth and final time to inject Inmarsat 5 F1 into a "supersynchronous" transfer orbit.

Separation of the 6.7-ton Inmarsat 5 F1 satellite is scheduled for 0343 GMT (10:43 p.m. EST).

1650 GMT (11:50 a.m. EST)
The Breeze M upper stage has finished the second of five burns planned for today's mission, ILS says. The more than 19-minute burn was supposed to place the stage and Inmarsat 5 F1 in an intermediate orbit with a low point of 183 miles, a high point of 3,728 miles and an inclination of 51 degrees.

After a two-hour coast, the Breeze M was supposed to ignite its main engine again at about 1635 GMT (11:35 a.m. EST) for two back-to-back burns separated by a brief intermission to jettison the stage's auxiliary propellant tank.

ILS says these maneuvers will occur when the Breeze M is out of communications with ground stations, so confirmation of their completion will come when antennas re-acquire signals from the rocket shortly after 2200 GMT (5 p.m. EST).

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The spacecraft has been put into the targeted orbit!

 

[N_Molson]

Notice that :

The Breeze M and Inmarsat 5 F1 should now be in a transfer orbit with a low point of 295 miles, a high point of 40,416 miles, and an inclination of 50.5 degrees.

The upper stage will coast for nearly 6 more hours before igniting a fifth and final time to inject Inmarsat 5 F1 into a "supersynchronous" transfer orbit.

Proton commonly uses supersynchronous orbits since... a very long time, with an Apoapsis of roughly 80,000 kilometers. Its just that nobody ever cared about that. When SpaceX is involved, it suddenly becomes a subject of mass hysteria... :hmm:

 

[Mader Levap]

Proton commonly uses supersynchronous orbits since... a very long time, with an Apoapsis of roughly 80,000 kilometers. Its just that nobody ever cared about that. When SpaceX is involved, it suddenly becomes a subject of mass hysteria... :hmm:

Now that everyone cares about that, let's hope this kind of important detail will be reported for any GTO launch.

 

[Urwumpe]

Is already reported in the presskits - mass media simply does not care about what happens to the rocket after it is out of sight.

 

[MattBaker]

When SpaceX is involved, it suddenly becomes a subject of mass hysteria... :hmm:

What kind of media (mass media) reports do you see about Proton launches? Compare to SpaceX launches.
How big is the space media coverage of Proton launches? Compare to SpaceX launches.

SpaceX simply grabs much more attention. And especially people who aren't orbinauts (or kerbonauts:uhh and don't understand the use of such an orbit may wonder why that is. While they usually don't follow Proton launches at all or not so detailed and don't know about their launch profile.

It's a game of "Spot the better PR department."

Disclaimer: In case of Protons doing flips from the launchpad mass media might cover it as much as a SpaceX launch. But let's count that as something special. Although the russian space industry seems eager to fix that and make the failure the most likely outcome.

 

[N_Molson]

Also, mentionning SpaceX in a thread that usually is very calm creates an avalanche of posts :hmm:

 

[Urwumpe]

Also, mentionning SpaceX in a thread that usually is very calm creates an avalanche of posts :hmm:

If Proton would be reuseable, they could cut their launch prices by factor 10,000 !!!1111111

 

[MattBaker]

But can they make it an SSTO? That would cut the costs by at least another four orders of magnitude! And a reusable SSTO would cost 0$ per launch, setting to price to 0$/kilogram to GTO. This is incredible and only UniverseY can accomplish this, they're the first and only ones!

 

[N_Molson]

:lol:

In fact, the Proton is pretty much all the opposite : a dangerously chemical first stage, and four stages in total if you count the Breeze-M.

And it works, too. And it is currently the most powerful launcher around the world. Sometimes I'd like they try it at Kourou. I don't exactly remember my experiments, but if I remember well, the result was above 30 tons to LEO. Not bad. But of course, the fishes don't like nitric acid too much, and I can understand them. :yes: