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Atlas
5 Launches NRO Mission
The most powerful Atlas 5 to fly from Vandenberg AFB, a 541 model with four solid rocket
motors and a five meter diameter payload fairing, launched the classified National
Reconnaissance Office NROL-35 mission on December 13, 2014. The 522 tonne rocket lifted
off from Space Launch Complex 3 East at 03:19 UTC and quickly flew into a news blackout.
Analysts expected the launch to orbit a payload bound for an elliptical 12-hour Molniya
type orbit. Potential payloads included communications or signals intelligence satellites.
The use of an Atlas 541 indicated that the satellite would likely be heavier than any
previously launched by the U.S. to a Molniya orbit. A previous launch of a
"Trumpet"-type sigint to 1,120 x 37,600 km x 63.56 deg Molniya orbit used a
less-capable Atlas 5-411 with only one strap-on solid motor.
The AV-051 Atlas was the first equipped with an RL10C-1 Centaur engine. The
Aerojet-Rocketdyne powerplant was a modified RL10B-2 that came from excess stock from the
Delta 4 program. To make the conversion, the bottom two extendible nozzle sections of the
RL10B-2 were removed and an improved dual direct spark igniter was installed. The engine
produced 10.383 tonnes of thrust, a slight improvement from 10.115 tonnes of thrust
produced by the previous RL10A-4-2 Centaur engine.
It was the 455th RL10 launched. The engines have flown for 50 years on seven different
launch vehicle types, including Saturn I, Atlas Centaur, Atlas 3, Atlas 5, Titan 3E, Titan
4A/B, and Delta 3.
AV-051 was ninth Atlas 5 of the year, a record for Atlas 5. It was also the third Atlas 5
of the year to fly from VAFB.
China Orbits Sigints
A Chang Zheng 4C orbited three satellites from Chian's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on
December 10, 2014. The three-stage rocket lifted off from LC 43/603 at 19:33 UTC on the
Yaogan 25 mission, reported by China's Xinhua press service to be conducting scientific
experiments and land surveys, monitoring crop yields, and aiding in preventing and
reducing natural disasters.
Western tracking systems showed an initial object in a 908 x 1102 km x 63.46 deg orbit,
consistent with the location of a third stage after lifting a collection of three signals
intelligence satellites toward roughly 1,100 km x 63.4 deg orbits. Such satellite arrays
use spatial diversity to determine signal source locations and are typically used to track
naval activity. Yaogan 20, launched on August 9, 2014, was the most recent similar example
of the type.
It was the 13th CZ family, sixth CZ-4 series, and third CZ-4C, launch of the year. Twelve
of the launches occurred after the beginning of August. Four were launched during
the past month.
CZ-4B Orbits China/Brazil
Satellite
A Chang Zheng 4B rocket successfully orbited CBERS 4 (China-Brazil Earth Resources
Satellite) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The three-stage rocket lifted off from
Pad 9 at 03:26 UTC. CBERS-4 was inserted into a 738 x 748 km x 98.55 deg sun synchronous
orbit by a third stage burn about 45 minutes later. The third stage subsequently purged
its propellant tanks to lower itself into a 478 x 740 km x 98.44 deg orbit.
CBERS 4 is a cooperative earth resource monitoring project involving China and Brazil. The
1.98 tonne satellite was assembled by China Academy of Space Technology. It is similar to
CBERS 3, which was lost in a 2013 CZ-4B launch failure. As a result of the loss, the CBERS
4 launch was moved up by one year from previous plans.
It was the 200th orbital launch attempt by a rocket named "Chang Zheng" (Long
March), and the 206th attempt by a DF-5 based rocket. Two "CZ-1" launches, which
orbited China's first two satellites, were performed by smaller DF-3 based rockets during
1970-71. Eight of the DF-5 based launch vehicles were named "Feng Bao"
("Storm") instead of "Chang Zheng".
Ariane 5 Performs Sixth Launch of Year
Ariane 5 ECA L575 orbited DirecTV 14 and GSat 16, communication satellites for the U.S.
and India, on December 6, 2014. Arianespace Mission VA221, the year's sixth Ariane 5,
lifted off from Kourou's ELA 3 at 20:40 UTC. After a 25 minute ascent phase, the
satellites separated into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
DirecTV 14, a 6. 3 tonne Space Systems/Loral 1300 series 20-kilowatt satellite, was
equipped with 16 Ka-band and 18 Reverse DBS transponders for direct broadcast service from
geostationary orbit at 99 desgrees west. GSat 16, a 3.18 tonne satellite built by
ISRO, carried Ku and C-band transponders. It will be positioned at 55 degrees east.
VA221 was the fifth Ariane 5 ECA flight of 2014 and the 80th orbital launch attempt
worldwide of the year.
Orion
EFT-1
EFT-1 Liftoff
NASA's Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 began with a 12:05 UTC liftoff from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 37B on December 5, 2014. The eighth
Delta 4 Heavy launch vehicle boosted EFT-1, with the first unmanned Orion Command Module,
into an initial 186 x 894 km x 28.4 deg orbit after a 17 minute 39 second ascent. Delta
4's twin outer booster cores burned out and jettisonned 3 minutes 58 seconds after
liftoff. The core first stage shut down at the 5 minute 30 second mark. The
Delta Heavy Cryogenic Second Stage then performed an 11 minute 30 second first burn to
reach low earth orbit.
Orion remained attached to Delta 4's cryogenic second stage in orbit, awaiting a second
burn about 1 hour 55 minutes into the flight at the end of the first orbit. This
second burn was expected to loft EFT-1 to a nearly 6,000 km apogee on a suborbital
trajectory, creating high speed reentry conditions of up to 9,000 meters per second to
test Orion's Avcoat ablative heat shield. Orion uses the largest, heaviest ablative
heat shield ever flown in space.
Service Module Fairing Jettison
Important separation events were successfully performed during the ascent, including
separation of three 450 kg Service Module Fairings at the 6 minute 20 second mark, about
30 seconds into the second stage burn, and of the roughly 7.5 tonne Launch Abort System
(LAS) about 5 seconds later. The LAS had inert Abort and Attitude Control solid
motor simulators, but used a live Jettison Motor to pull itself and its large fairing away
from Orion.
Delta 4 Heavy weighed 740 tonnes at liftoff, including Orion, its dummy Service Module
and Stage Adapter, the mostly-inert Launch Abort System with its fairing, and jettisonable
Service Module panels. In orbit, the Orion Command Module and dummy Service Modules
together likely weighed roughly 11.5 to 12 tonnes. The CM alone weighed about 9 to 9.5
tonnes in orbit and 8.6 tonnes at splashdown. The LAS likely weighed about 7.7-7.8 tonnes.
Diagram Showing EFT-1 LAS and SM
Fairing Separation
After coasting in its initial low earth orbit, the second stage restarted its Pratt
& Whitney Rocketdyne RL10B-2 engine at the 1 hour 55 minute mark, performing a 4
minute 43 second burn to boost Orion into its final elliptical orbit, which had a -20 km
perigee, a 5,809 km apogee, and 28.77 deg inclination. The second stage was expected
to perform a third, de-orbit burn after the CM separated.
The CM and SM remained attached to the Delta 4 cryogenic second stage until the CM
separated for reentry about 3 hours 23 minutes after launch, after the vehicle began
falling back to Earth from apogee. At that point, the CM began using its own
reaction control system, consisting of 12 monopropellant thrusters, to control its
attitude. The CM performed a brief "Raise Burn" to test its capabilities
about 3 hours 57 minutes after liftoff.
Left: Orion EFT-1 Launch Abort System Fairing Installation at
Kennedy Space Center
Right: Orion Approaches Splashdown
Orion's entry interface occurred at about the 4 hours 13 minute mark. The capsule
was travelling at a velocity of nearly 9,000 meters per second when it hit the atmosphere.
This represented about 84% of the reentry velocity expected by a CM returning from
future planned SLS-launched deep space missions. During reentry, Orion experienced
peak heating of about 4,000 F and maximum g-forces of 8.0 to 8.3.
The Orion CM reentered and splash down under three main parachutes in the Pacific Ocean
about 444 km west of Baja, California about 4.5 hours after liftoff. Splashdown
occurred 4 hours 24 minutes after liftoff. The A U.S. Navy team, based on the U.S.S.
Anchorage (LPD-23, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock), recovered the
spacecraft.
Lockheed Martin assembled Orion at Kennedy Space Center's Operations & Checkout
Building during a two year buildup. The company bought the Delta 4 Heavy launch from
United Launch Alliance in 2010. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center built the Stage
Adapter. ATK built the Launch Abort System motors.
It was the first civilian payload carried by Delta 4 Heavy. After its initial
demonstration test flight in 2004, the world's heaviest lifter boosted six Defense
Department payloads, including five top secret missions for the National Reconnaisance
Office. EFT-1 may have been the heaviest payload at liftoff of a Delta 4 Heavy, but
it was likely not the heaviest payload placed into orbit. EFT-1 shed nearly half of
its mass en route to orbit.
LANDMARK LAUNCHES
On three launch pads, one each in Russia, India, and the United States, large launch
vehicles are being prepared for historic missions as December 2014 approaches. One
or more are likely to fly before year's end. Each flight will mark the public
unveiling of important new programs, products of years of development and spending.
EFT-1
Delta 4 Heavy and EFT-1 Orion at SLC 37B
At Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 37B in Florida, a Delta 4
Heavy has been topped by NASA's first Orion crew carrying spacecraft. This prototype
Orion, consisting of a live Command Module and a dummy Service Module, will orbit the
Earth twice during an unmanned test, reaching a nearly 6,000 km apogee, before the
spacecraft will reenter the Earth's atmosphere at nearly 9,000 meters per second to test
its Avcoat heat shield. Orion will splash down below three ringsail parachutes in the
Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
Buildup for this "Exploration Flight Test 1" mission has been underway in
Florida for months. Lockheed Martin crews spent nearly two years assembling this first
flight-capable Orion in the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center
(KSC), with its first power up occurring during November 2013. The Delta 4 Heavy stages
began arriving at the Cape during early March, 2014. They were stored in the Horizontal
Integration Facility at SLC 37 waiting out two Delta 4 Medium series launches, one to
orbit GPS 2F-6 on May 17 and another to launch the first two GSSAP satellites on July 28.
Launch stand modifications for the EFT-1 mission were completed and validated before the
Delta 4 Heavy stack was rolled out to its launch pad on September 30 and erected to
vertical on October 1. The rocket stages were loaded with propellant during a November 5
wet dress rehearsal. Over the night of November 11-12, the Orion spacecraft and its
integrated Launch Abort System was moved, during a 30 kilometer, six hour journey, from
the Launch Abort System facility, where LAS and fairing installation had occurred, to SLC
37B.
Illustration of EFT-1 Orion and Delta 4 Second
Stage in Orbit
Planning for the flight, which was expected to occur during early December, began in 2010, shortly after President Obama cancelled Project
Constellation and before continued development of Orion had been approved. The planning
also preceded approval of Space Launch System (SLS). Lockheed Martin bought the Delta 4
Heavy flight and, at the time, discussed plans to follow up the launch with crewed flights
beginning a couple of years later. Those plans were shelved after SLS was approved.
Delta 4 Heavy, currently the world's most capable rocket, will weigh 740 tonnes at liftoff
with EFT-1. The Orion EFT-1 payload will weigh about 21 tonnes at liftoff, including
the mostly-inert Launch Abort System, fairing, and jettisonable Service Module panels. In
orbit, the Orion Command Module and dummy Service Modules together will likely weigh
roughly 11.5 to 12 tonnes. The CM alone will likely weigh about 9 to 9.5 tonnes in orbit
and 8.6 tonnes at splashdown.
The CM and SM will remain attached to the Delta 4 cryogenic second stage until the CM
separates for reentry during the final phase of the 4.5 hour mission, after the vehicle
begins falling back to Earth from apogee. After coasting in a low earth initial
orbit, the second stage will perform a second burn to boost Orion into its final
elliptical orbit, which will have a negative perigee. The second stage will perform
a third, de-orbit burn after the CM separates.
Angara A5
At Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 35/1, Krunichev crews rolled out the first
multi-core Angara A5 rocket - the largest, most-capable rocket
ever seen in Russia - on November 10, 2015. Angara, named after a fast-flowing 1,800 km
long Siberian river, is Russia's first entirely post-Soviet space launch vehicle. After a
two decade long, stop-start development program, a single-core Angara performed the
program's first test launch from Russian soil on July 9, 2014. The suborbital flight from
Plesetsk Cosmodrome was made by a two-stage Angara 1.2PP, heralding the start of the new
modular launch vehicle family capable of lifting payloads ranging from light to
heavy. Now Angara A5 is being readied for its premier.
Angara 1.2PP (PP for Pervy Polyot, or "First Flight") consisted of a 2.9 meter
diameter URM-1 (Universal Rocket Module) first stage topped by a 3.6 meter diameter URM-2
second stage. Heavy lifter Angara A5, a rocket that when fully developed may eventually
rival Delta 4 Heavy, uses in its initial form five clustered URM-1 modules topped by a
URM-2 second stage and a Briz M third stage.
Each URM-1 is powered by a single, 196 tonne thrust Energomash RD-191 staged combustion
kerosene/LOX engine. RD-191 is derived from the four-chamber Energomash RD-171 engine that
powers the Zenit launcher. A two-chamber variant, RD-180, currently boosts Atlas 5
rockets. URM-2 is powered by a 30 tonne thrust LOX/kerosene RD-0124 engine. This
staged-combustion engine was developed to power the upgraded Soyuz-2 third stage, and has
already been proven in flight. The Briz-M hypergolic propellant third stage has flown for
several years atop Proton-M boosters.
Rollout
Assembly of the first Angara A5 was completed in a horizontal fixture in the Site 35
hangar at Plesetsk during October and early November, 2014. The rocket was rolled out on a
railroad transporter to its launch pad on November 10. A propellant loading test was
performed on or before November 20. The 770+ tonne rocket may lift off, rising on 980
tonnes of thrust from its five engines, before year's end, though an early 2015 test
flight is also possible.
The core will throttle down while the four strap-on boosters burn at full thrust before
separating about 3.5 minutes into the flight at an altitude of about 82 kilometers. The
boosters will fall to earth about 850 kilometers east of Plesetsk. The core stage will
separate less than two minutes later at about 148 kilometers altitude and fall about 2,320
kilometers downrange.
Angara A5 will be able to lift 24.5 tonnes to a 200 km x 63 deg low earth orbit (LEO), or
5.4 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from Plesetsk with a Briz M upper stage.
Use of a projected high energy KVRB stage could improve GTO performance to 6.6 tonnes.
Angara A5's LEO capability is currently only exceeded by the RS-68A powered version of
Delta 4 Heavy.
Fueling Test
The first Angara family vehicle to fly was the two-stage KSLV-1 (Korean Space Launch
Vehicle), which consisted of an Angara-derived first stage topped by a small solid fuel
second stage developed by South Korea's Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The
28.5 by 2.9 meter, 140 tonne first stage was very similar to Angara's URM-1, except that
it was powered by an Energomash RD-151 engine that produced 170 tonnes of liftoff thrust.
RD-151 was a lower-pressure, lower-thrust version of 196 tonne thrust RD-191.
The first KSLV-1 launch took place on August 25, 2009. It was an attempt to boost
STSat-2, a 100 kg test satellite, into a 306 x 1,500 km near polar orbit. The first stage
portion of the ascent was successful, but one of the two payload fairing halves failed to
separate. Orbital velocity could not be attained.
The second KSLV-1 failed on June 10, 2010. A "flash" was seen and telemetry
was lost 137 seconds into the flight, about 60% of the way into the burn of the vehicle's
Energomash RD-151 first stage engine. The cause of the failure was not immediately
apparent, and the Russian and South Korean teams disagreed about the cause. The rocket was
carrying a second engineering test satellite named STSat-2B.
A third attempt, on January 30, 2013, finally produced success. The final planned
KSLV-1 successfully orbited South Korea's STSAT-2C satellite from Naro. The flight added
South Korea to the list of 13 countries that have hosted orbital launches. STSAT-2C
separated into a 296 x 1,513 km x 80.3 deg orbit about nine minutes after liftoff.
GSLV Mk3
GSLV Mk 3 Facilities Test Mockup
At Sriharikota's Second Launch Pad in India, crews have begun stacking the country's
first GSLV Mk3 launch vehicle, in preparation for the GSLV Mk3
X1, or "LVM3-X", suborbital test flight. The 629 tonne, 42.4 meter tall rocket -
India's largest - will fly with an inert C25 LH2/LOX third stage in a test that will loft
a crew module demonstrator capsule thousands of kilometers downrange to test heat shield
materials for a possible future crewed Indian spacecraft. The launch may occur in
late 2014 or early 2015.
The second GSLV Mk 3 is planned to subsequently perform the "LVM3-D1" orbital
mission with a functional C25 third stage, a flight that may not occur until 2016 or
later.
GSLV Mk 3, designed by India's Space Research Organization's (ISRO), will be able to
lift 4-5 tonne satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and potentially serve
as a crew launch vehicle for India in the future. Although it shares the
"Geosynchronous Space Launch Vehicle" designation with ISRO's GSLV and GSLV Mk 2
rockets, GSLV Mk 3 is an all new design.
GSLV is fitted with a 5 meter diameter payload fairing. It will lift off on the thrust of
two S-200 solid propellant motors, each loaded with about 200 tonnes of propellant. The
L-110 liquid core second stage will ignite its two hypergolic propellant Vikas engines 110
seconds after liftoff, about 20 seconds before the solid motors burn out. After a 200
second burn by the second stage, the C-25 cryogenic LH2/LOX fueled third stage would
normally take over, performing two burns of its newly developed CE-20 Indian Cryogenic
Engine (ICE) for a total of 580 seconds during a typical GTO mission. On the
"LVM3-X" test flight, the propulsion phase will end when the Vikas engines of
the L-110 second stage shut down.
First Flight Core (Second) Stage
The 25 meter tall, three-segment, steel-case S-200 will be the second largest active
solid propellant motor in the world after the Ariane 5 EAP-E booster. NASA's Space Launch
System boosters will also surpass S-200 if and when they enter service. S-200 is 3.2
meters in diameter and is manufactured in a plant at Sriharikota.
The L-110 core stage is 17 meters long and four meters in diameter. It is powered for
200 seconds by two Vikas engines similar to the engines used on the second stage of PSLV
and GSLV. On those stages Vikas burns for 150 seconds in a single-engine configuration.
The cryogenic third stage requires development of the 20 tonne thrust CE-20 LH2/LOX
engine, which is a pacing item for GSLV Mk 3. India's less powerful Indigenous Cryogenic
Engine failed during its first flight in on April 15, 2010 during the GSLV Mk 2 D3
mission. It finally succeeded during the GSLV Mk 2 D5 flight of January 5, 2014.
Japan
Launches Asteroid Sampler
H-2A-202 F26 launched Japan's Hayabusa 2 on a six year mission to gather and return to
Earth samples from an asteroid on December 3, 2014. The 2.5 stage rocket lifted off from
Tanegashima Yoshinobu Launch Complex 1 at 04:22 UTC to begin its nearly two-hour flight.
For the first time, an H-2A second stage was to perform a one-orbit, 90 minute long
parking orbit coast before restarting its LE-5B engine to propel Hayabusa 2 and three
microsatellites away from Earth into solar orbit. White thermal paint was added to the
exterior of the second stage tank to minimize propellant boiloff during the long coast.
Hayabusa 2, built by NEC Corporation, weighed 600 kg at liftoff and was the year's first
satellite launched into solar orbit. It will fly by Earth again in December 2015 to
gain velocity before reaching asteriod 1999 JU3 in June 2018. After sampling the asteroid,
Hayabusa 2 will depart in December 2019 for a return to Earth one year later. Samples will
be returned in a small reentry capsule.
Hayabusa 2 was expected to separate 1 hour, 47 minutes, 15 seconds after liftoff. The
microsatellites, named Procyon, Shin'en 2 and Artsat 2, were expected to separate a few
minutes later. Together, the microsatellites weighed about 110 kg tonne.
The first Hayabusa spacecraft, also called MUSES-C, was launched on 9 May 2003 by an M-5
rocket. It rendezvoused with asteroid Itokawa in September 2005 and attempted to gather
samples. A sample capsule returned to Earth in June 2010.
Russia Orbits Glonass-K
A Russian Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat rocket launched a Glonass-K navigation satellite into orbit
from Plesetsk Cosmodrome November 30, 2014. Lift off from Area 43 Pad 4 took place at
21:52 UTC. After the Soyuz rocket boosted Fregat and its payload into low earth orbit, the
Fregat upper stage performed three burns to lift the 0.935 tonne satellite into a roughly
19,130 x 19,150 km x 64.8 deg orbit. Spacecraft separation occurred about 2.5 hours after
launch.
It was the third Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat launch with a Glonass payload from Plesetsk in 2014. It
was only the second Glonass-K launched to date. The first took place in 2011.
Soyuz Orbits ISS Crew
A Soyuz FG rocket successfully launched Soyuz TMA-15M with three crew to the International
Space Station on November 23, 2014. The 2.5 stage R-7 based launch vehicle lifted off from
Baikonur Cosmodrome Area 31 Pad 6 at 21:01 UTC, beginning a 5 hour, 48 minute fast-track
ascent to the station.
The crew included Russia's Anton Shkaplerov, Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti, and USA's
Terry Virts. They joined Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev, and Elena Serova on ISS.
It was the year's fourth crewed orbital space flight. All have been performed by Soyuz
vehicles from Russia. The launch was also the 50th by a Soyuz FG variant, all of
which have been successful.
China
Launches Second Kuaizhou (Updated 11/24/14)
China launched the second quick response orbital launch vehicle named "Kuaizhou"
("Quick Vessel") on November 21, 2014 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The
rocket boosted a "disaster monitoring satellite", according to China's Xinhua,
named Kuaizhou 2 into a 293 x 298 km x 96.56 deg orbit after a 06:37 UTC liftoff.
The first Kuaizhou launch from the same site occurred on September 25, 2013. No
photos of either launch were initially released. Photos of the second launch vehicle
in a hangar and being launched were made available on November 23, 2014.
Kuaizhou is believed to be a small solid fuel based launched vehicle developed by China
Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). It may be based on the DF-21/25 or
DF-31 solid fuel ballistic missiles already in China's inventory. Since those missiles are
road mobile, the launch may have been performed from a mobile transporter erector launcher
from a flat pad at Jiuquan.
Kuaizhou
uses grid fins at the base of its first stage to provide, or augment, initial steering.
It may have three solid stages and a fourth, potentially liquid insertion stage.
The fourth stage of propulsion may be built in to the satellite.
China attempted to develop a DF-31 based solid fuel orbital launch vehicle named KT-1
about ten years ago, but KT-1 failed in two test flights. The country then developed a
DF-21 based ASAT launch vehicle named KT-2 that it used to destroy a satellite in orbit in
2007. On May 13, 2013, China launched another unknown solid fuel rocket on an extremely
high altitude suborbital launch from XiChang.
It was the year's 75th known orbital launch attempt and the 12th by China. Five
of the world's last 10 orbital attempts were performed by China.
CZ-2D Orbits Yaogan 24
China's Chang Zheng 2D orbited Yaogan 24, likely a Jianbing-6 series electro-optical
military observation satellite, from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on November 20, 2014.
The 232 tonne, two-stage rocket lifted off from LC 43/-603 at 07:12 UTC. The rocket
delivered the satellite, which likely weighed about one tonne, into a 630 x 653 km x 97.91
deg sun synchronous orbit. Previous satellites of this series included Yaogan 2, 4, 7, and
11, launched in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively.
Chinas Xinhua news agency reported that Yaogan 24 was a remote sensing satellite
that will mainly be used for scientific experiments, natural resource surveys, crop
yield estimates and disaster relief".
It was the 11th CZ launch of 2014, all but one of which have flown since the beginning of
August.
China Orbits Yaogan 23
A two-stage Chang Zheng 2C rocket orbited China's Yaogan 23 remote sensing satellite from
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on November 14, 2014. Liftoff of the 213 tonne
launch vehicle from LC 9 took place at 18:53 UTC. Yaogan 23, which likely weighed less
than one tonne, was lofted into a 470 x 497 km x 97.14 deg sun synchronous low earth
orbit.
China described the satellite's mission to be for "scientific experiments, land
resources survey, crop yield assessment, disaster prevention and reduction, and other
fields". Western observers believed that Yaogan 23 was a radar ground mapping
satellite with a primary military mission.
It was the 10th CZ launch of 2014.
Dnepr Orbits Japanese Satellites
On November 6, 2014, a modified Russian R-36MUTTH "Satan" ICBM named Dnepr
orbited five Japanese Earth observation satellites from the Yasnyy launch site at
Dombarovsky. The launch from an underground missile silo took place at 07:35 UTC.
Dnepr boosted ASNARO (Advanced Satellite with New system ARchitecture for Observation),
a 500 kg satellite for optical Earth observation built by NEC Corporation of Japan for the
Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and four Japanese university microsatellites,
each weighing between 49 and 60 kg, to a roughly 550 km x 97.46 deg sun synchronous orbit.
Russian Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense performed the launch
for ISC Kosmotras, which is a consortium of Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstan companies.
Orbital Announces Accident
Recovery Plans
On November 5, 2014, Orbital Sciences announced its plans to recover from the October 28,
2014 Antares launch failure. Its plans included steps both to restore Antares to flight and to fulfill the company's contractual
requirements under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program.
Orbital's decisions were informed in part by early findings of the Antares launch failure
Accident Investigation Board (AIB), which was focusing on a "probable
turbopump-related failure in one of the two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 stage one main
engines". As a result of the findings, Orbital announced that it would likely
discontinue use of the engines on future Antares launch vehicles.
The company was already planning to replace the AJ26 engines, which are refurbished forty
year old NK33 engines made by Kuznetsov for the USSR's N1 rocket. Even before the failed
Antares launch, Orbital had decided on an alternate, modern engine, thought most likely to
be an Energomash RD-18x or RD-19x series staged combustion kerosene/LOX engine.
The new engines would not have flown on Antares until 2017 at the earliest, but Orbital
now intends to accelerate the replacement effort and aim for a 2016 first flight of the
re-engined rocket from Wallops. If no more AJ26 engines are flown, a two year or more gap
in Antares flights will result. To compensate, Orbital said that it plans to fly one or
two Cygnus cargo missions to the International Space Station on "non-Antares"
rockets during 2015-2016.
Likely potential temporary Antares stand-ins include Atlas 5, Delta 4, Falcon 9, and
Soyuz.
The company planned to take advantage of the heavier lifting capabilities of both the
"non-Antares" rockets and of the upgraded Antares after 2016 to carry more cargo
in each Cygnus than originally planned. The result will be one less Cygnus mission than
originally planned, eliminating the need to build a spacecraft to replace the Cygnus lost
on October 28.
Rockets and Failure
For as long as rockets and rocket-powered craft have flown, there have been failures.
Space Launch Report readers know that roughly one out of every 16 orbital space launch
attempts on average end in failure, a record that has been repeated steadily for more than
forty years.
It should not have been a surprise, then, when the fifth Orbital Science Antares launch
vehicle failed on October 28, 2014, or when Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo broke up in
flight three days later, killing Scaled Composites pilot Michael Alsbury and
injuring pilot Peter Siebold. The Antares loss was the fourth known orbital space launch
vehicle failure world-wide in 2014. At least 23 such failures have occurred since the
start of 2010, and 126 since 1990.
Modern rocketry is a frightening balancing act. To accelerate from a dead stop to more
than seven times faster than a rifle bullet in a few minutes, an orbital launch vehicle
must create, contain, and endure extreme pressures, temperatures, and forces. All it takes
to trip up the process is one loose connection, one small piece of sand or rust, a bad bit
of metal or insulation, a misplaced bit in a control program, or an unexpected vibration.
Still, the general public continues to express surprise when a failure occurs. Perhaps it
is because most failures occur out of sight, downrange or in orbit. Maybe it is because,
increasingly, some launch providers refuse to show their failures. SpaceX, for example,
has never showed external videos of its fiery, explosive Falcon 1 failures. If not
for a bystander with a camera, the world would not have seen its F9R test stage destroyed
in a fireball above Texas earlier this year. SNC never showed the crash of its Dream
Chaser prototype. North Korea and Iran don't show launches in real time and usually don't
announce failures. China and now Russia don't show launches live which allows them to
restrict videos of failures.
Fortunately, NASA TV did not restrict coverage of the spectacular Antares failure. It
served as a necessary reminder to everyone that rockets fail. The network also showed a
press conference held shortly after the launch that exhibited the type of resilience
required to be in the rocket business. David Thompson, chairman and chief executive of
Orbital Sciences, said during that conference, shortly after witnessing the $200+ million
failure that, "Orbital has experienced adversity in the past, some of which was more
difficult than this. And the company has always emerged stronger as a result. I am
determined that we will do so again this time.
Soyuz 2-1A/Fregat Orbits Milcomsat
A Soyuz 2-1A launch vehicle with a Fregat upper stage orbited Meridian 17L, a Russian
military communications satellite, from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on October 30, 2014. The 3.5
stage rocket lifted off from Site 43 Pad 4 at 01:42 UTC, beginning a 2 hour 16 minute
mission that placed the 2 tonne satellite into an elliptical 12 hour "Molniya"
orbit that was initially tracked to be 968 x 39,749 km x 62.81 deg.
It was the first flight of an NPO Lavochkin built Fregat stage since the August 22, 2014
failure of a Fregat stage launched from Kourou left two of Europe's Galileo navigation
satellites in incorrect, useless orbits. That failure was subsequently found to have been
caused by frozen propellant lines for attitude control thrusters. An investigation found
that the propellant lines were routed next to helium lines. On some stages, the lines were
in direct contact, allowing the cold helium line to freeze propellant in the propellant
line during long coast periods.
Meridian 17L was described as the seventh next-generation Meridian satellite. The first
such satellite was launched in 2006, but failed less than 2.5 years later. The second was
placed in an incorrect orbit due to a Fregat failure in 2009. The fifth was lost in a
Soyuz launch vehicle failure. The third and fourth next-generation Meridians were
successfully launched in 2010 and 2011.
50th Atlas 5 Orbits GPS 2F-8
The 50th Atlas 5 rocket, a two-stage 401 variant, orbited U.S. Air Force Global
Positioning Satellite 2F-8 from Cape Canaveral SLC 41 on October 29, 2014. Liftoff
occurred at 17:21 UTC to begin a 3.5 hour mission designed to place the 1.63 tonne
navigation satellite into a 20,200 km x 55 deg circular orbit.
Atlas climbed on a northeast azimuth from the Cape, paralleling the Eastern Seaboard of
the United States. Centuar performed a 12 minute 50 second long first burn as it
flew up the coast and halfway across the Atlantic to lift itself into an elliptical 176 x
20,279 km x 55 deg transfer orbit. After coasting for just over 3 hours to
first apogee south of Australia, Centaur burned again for about 1.5 minutes to complete
the mission.
It was the 8th Atlas launch of 2014, the 15th orbital launch from Cape Canaveral during
the year, and the 70th orbital launch attempt world-wide since January 1.
Soyuz
2-1A Inaugural Progress Launch
Russia's Soyuz 2-1A, an improved version of the long-flying Soyuz-U rocket, launched the
Progress M-25M cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station from Baikonur
Cosmodrome on October 29, 2014. It was the first use of Soyuz 2-1A, which incorporates
upgraded engines and a digital control system, for a Progress mission, though the improved
rocket has flown other missions for a decade. Liftoff from Area 31 Pad 6 took place at
07:09 UTC, with the launch vehicle targeting a 193 x 240 km x 51.67 deg insertion orbit.
The robot spacecraft docked with ISS about six hours later after a fast-track, four
orbit ascent.
Progress M-25M weighed 7.29 tonnes at liftoff, including 2.351 tonnes of cargo.
Russia plans to begin using Soyuz 2-1A for crew launches after two years of testing on
Progress missions.
Antares/Cygnus Launch Fails
First Antares 130 on Pad 0A with Orb-3/Cygnus Payload
The fifth Orbital Sciences Antares rocket suffered a fiery failure moments after
liftoff with the Orbital CRS-3 (Orb-3) Cygnus ISS resupply mission from Wallops Island,
Virginia on October 28, 2014. Flying for the first time as an Antares 130 variant with a
lengthened Castor 30XL second stage, the rocket lifted off from Pad 0A at 22:22 UTC.
The two AJ-26 first stage main engines ignited at T+0 seconds, followed by liftoff at
about T+2 seconds. The initial moments of the ascent seemed normal until about T+14
seconds when the engine exhaust plume suddenly changed color from its usual intense white
to a yellowish color. About one second later a ball of fire erupted from the aft section
of the rocket and propulsion ceased.
The big rocket momentarily hung in midair before beginning to fall, engine section
first, trailing a stream of fire. At about T+24 seconds, the nearly fully fueled Antares
rocket impacted between the beach and the pad itself, creating a huge fireball that flung
debris in all directions. An intense post-impact fire that appeared to involve pieces of
the second stage solid propellant burned for many minutes.
Although Pad 0A exhibited signs of obvious damage, the basic reinforced concrete structure
of the launch pad and other elements of the facility appeared on NASA TV to still be
intact - one hopeful sign amidst the otherwise catastrophic scene.
The Initial Fireball
Orbital CRS-3 included a Cygnus spacecraft loaded with 2.215 tonnes of cargo for the
International Space Station, heaviest-ever for Cygnus which weighed about 5.644 tonnes
including cargo. The cargo included crew provisions, research hardware, emergency
equipment, spacewalk supplies and packing materials. It was slated to stay at ISS for
about one month until returning to a destructive reentry with about 1.36 tonnes of trash.
It was the first Antares failure. The Ukrainian/Russian/American rocket first flew on
April 21, 2013. The second Antares carried the first Cygnus to ISS on the Orb-D1 mission
on September 18, 2013. The subsequent operational Orb-1 and Orb-2 missions lifted off on
January 9 and July 13, 2014, respectively.
Ground Impact
Although the cause of the failure was not known immediately after launch, attention was
expected to focus on the AJ-26 main engines, which are decades-old NK-33 Russian rocket
engines that have been refurbished by U.S. Aerojet-Rocketdyne. On May 22, 2014, an AJ-26
being test fired at Stennis Space Center suffered a catastrophic failure 30 seconds into a
planned 54 second burn. The failure destroyed the engine and triggered an investigation.
Orbital did not reveal the cause of the failure and damage to the test stand had
prevented renewed testing by the time of the Orb-3 liftoff. The Orb-2 and Orb-3 Antares
engines, which had previously been tested at Stennis before the May failure, were cleared
for flight following borescope inspections and a review of their own test firing data.
CZ-2C Orbits Shijian 11-08
A CZ-2C rocket launched China's Shijian 11-08 into sun synchronous orbit from Jiuquan
Satellite Launch Center on October 27, 2014. It was the third Shijian 11
("Practice") launch of the year and the second in a month. It was also likely
the final launch of the Shijian 11 series.
The 213 tonne, two stage rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 43, Pad 603 at 06:59 UTC.
The satellite, eigth in a series, entered a roughly 700 km x 98.22 deg orbit.
Shijian 11-08 was developed by China Spacesat Co. Ltd for China Aerospace Science and
Technology Corporation. It likely weighed less than 1 tonne, given CZ-2C's near-polar
orbit capability.
China announced that the satellite would be used to "conduct experiments in
spece". No further details of the satellite mission were announced. It was the ninth
Chang Zheng orbital launch of the year and the fourth launch in a month.
Dragon Returns
SpaceX Dragon CRS-4 returned from a nearly five week stay at the International Space
Station on October 25, 2014. The cargo hauling capsule splashed down off Southern
California's coast with 1.486 tonnes of cargo. The CRS-4 mission began with a
September 21, 2014 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. CRS-4 was the fourth of at
least 12 missions to ISS that SpaceX is contracted to fly under NASA's $1.6 billion
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
China Launches Lunar Sample Return Precursor
China launched its Chang'e-5-T1 lunar sample return precursor test flight from XiChang
Satellite Launch Center on October 23, 2014. Chang'e-5-T1, bound for a lunar free-return
trajectory, lifted off from Launch Complex 2 atop the first Chang Zheng 3CE (Enhanced)
launch vehicle at 18:00 UTC. The spacecraft was inserted into a 209 x 413,000 km
lunar transfer orbit.
After circumnavigating and passing about 13,000 km from
the Moon's surface about four days after liftoff, the satellite is slated to return toward
Earth and, a little more than eight days after liftoff jettison a reentry module that will
return to be recovered in Inner Mongolia. The module is shaped like a scaled version of
China's manned Shenzhou reentry module. It will have to endure an 11.2 km/sec high speed
reentry that includes a skip-type profile.
Chang'e-5-T1 is a test of elements of the Chang'e-5
mission planned for 2017. Chang'e-5 will return a 2 kg sample of lunar soil and rocks to
the Earth using a reentry module similar to the Chang'e-5-T1 module.
CZ-3CE is an enhanced version of the CZ-3C launch
vehicle that uses a first stage stretched by 1.488 meters and boosters stretched by about
0.76 meters. The lengthened stage and boosters have both previously flown on the CZ-3BE
launch vehicle, beginning in 2007. CZ-3CE can lift 3.9 tonnes to a standard GTO, an
increase of 0.1 tonnes from CZ-3C. These "Enhanced" variants will become the new
standards as China phases out the previous versions.
Proton
Orbits Express AM6 (Updated 10/24/14)
Russia's 399th Proton orbited the Express AM6
communications satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 21, 2014. The 705 tonne,
four-stage rocket lifted off from Site 81 Pad 24 at 15:09 UTC to begin a nearly 9.5 hour
mission that included four burns by the Briz M upper stage.
Express AM6, a 3.358 tonne Express 2000 series satellite built by ISS Reshetnev, carried
72 transponders in Ku-band, C-band, Ka-band and L-band.
Ekpress-AM6 ended up in a 31,307 x 37,784 km x 0.7 deg
orbit, short of the expected 33,800 x 37,787 km x 0.18 deg by about 50 meters per second
delta-v. During its fourth burn meant to raise the perigee and reduce the
inclination of a 369 x 37,736 km x 49.56 deg transfer orbit, the Briz M stage cut off 24
seconds before its planned 779 second duration, leading outside observers to believe that
some type of failure had occurred during the final burn even though Russian authorities
insisted that the launch was successful. Briz M used its own smaller thrusters to
subsequently lift itself into a 34,984 x 39,549 km x 1.0 deg disposal orbit.
Express AM6 should be able to use its electric
propulsion system to maneuver itself from its "quasi-geosynchronous" insertion
orbit to a final geostationary orbit at 53 degrees east longitude. It is not known
if the extra delta-v needed to reach GSO will affect the planned 15 year lifetime of the
satellite.
The mission used Proton-M serial number 935-48 and Briz-M serial number 995-50. It was the
sixth Proton launch, and fifth success, of 2014.
CZ-4C
Orbits Yaogan Weixing 22
A Chang Zheng (Long March) 4C rocket orbited China's Yaogan Weixing 22 reconnasaince
satellite from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on October 20, 2014. The three-stage rocket
lifted off from Launch Complex 9 at 06:31 UTC. YG-22 was inserted into a roughly 1,200 km
x 100.32 deg orbit.
As usual for a satellite of this type, China announced that it had a remote sensing
mission for "scientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster
monitoring". Outside observers believe that YG-22 is an optical reconnaisance
satellite that likely has a military mission, at least in part.
X-37B Lands at
Vandenberg AFB
After 674 days in orbit, the third X-37B unmanned reusable space plane mission (OTV-3)
ended with a successful landing at Vandenberg AFB Runway 12. Touchdown occurred at 16:24
UTC. It was the second flight of the first of two X-37B spacecraft.
OTV-3 was orbited by Atlas 5-501 AV-034 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 11, 2012.
It initially entered a low earth orbit inclined 43.5 degrees to the equator. Previous OTV
mission launches took place on April 22, 2010 and March 5, 2011, lasting 224 and 469 days,
respectively.
The X-37B spaceplane's specific mission and what it
carried in its small payload bay were classified. The Air Force only described the mission
in general terms as "risk reduction, experimentation, and concept of operations
development for resuable space vehicle technologies".
After the landing, the Air Force announced plans to launch a fourth X-37B mission from
Cape Canaveral in 2015. Boeing recently announced plans to move its X-37B operations into
two former Shuttle orbiter hangars (OPF-1 and OPF-2) at nearby Kennedy Space Center.
Ariane 5
Launches Comsats for Latin America
An Ariane 5 ECA L574 orbited Intelsat 30/DLA 1 and Arsat 1, communication satellites for
Latin America, on October 16, 2014. Arianespace Mission VA220 began from Kourou's ELA 3
launch complex with a 21:43 UTC liftoff. The satellites separated into geosynchronous
transfer orbits about 30 minutes later.
Intelsat 30/DLA 1, a 6.32 tonne Space Systems/Loral satellite, carries 72 Ku-band and 10
C-band transponders and will raise itself into geostationary orbit at 95 degrees west. The
2.973 tonne Arsat 1 satellite, which rode to orbit below Intelsat 30, was built by INVAP
in Argentina. It be positioned at 71.8 degrees west.
It was the fifth Ariane 5, and fourth Ariane 5 ECA, flight of 2014. It was also the 45th
consecutive Ariane 5 ECA success, a streak that has lasted nearly 12 years.
India
Launches Navsat
PSLV-XL C26 successfully orbited India's IRNSS-1C navigation satellite on October 15, 2014
after launch from Sriharikota. The four stage rocket lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space
Center's First Launch Pad at 20:02 UTC. The 1.425 tonne satellite separated into a
subsynchronous transfer orbit about 20 minutes 18 seconds later.
The satellite will fire its liquid propulsion engine multiple times to raise itself from
its initial 283 x 20,670 km x 17.9 deg transfer orbit into a 35,786 km x 0.0 deg
geostationary orbit. IRNSS-1C had to be inserted into a subsynchronous orbit due to mass
limits of the PSLV-XL launch vehicle.
It was the third Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System launch of seven planned by
the end of 2015. Three will be placed in geostationary orbit while the other four will
occupy inclined geosynchronous orbits.
It was the third PSLV launch, and fourth Indian launch, of 2014, the most-ever in a
calendar year.
H-2A Orbits
Weather Satellite
Japan's H-2A boosted the Himawari 8 weather satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit
on October 7, 2014 from Tanegashima Space Center. H-2A F25, a "202" variant with
two strap-on SRB-A solid motor boosters, lifted off from Yoshinobu Launch Complex Pad 1 at
05:16 UTC.
The 53 meter tall, 286 tonne rocket's liquid hydrogen fueled upper stage fired its LE-5B
engine twice to boost the 3.5 tonne Mitsubishi Electric Corp. built satellite toward a
planned 250 x 35,976 km x 22.4 deg transfer orbit. Spacecraft separation occurred 27
minutes and 57 seconds after liftoff.
Himawari 8 will use its own propulsion system to gradually move itself into a circular
geostationary orbit above the equator at 140 degrees east longitude. It will work for the
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
It was the third of four planned H-2A launches in 2014.
CZ-2C Orbits
Shijian 11-07
A CZ-2C rocket launched China's Shijian 11-07 into sun synchronous orbit from Jiuquan
Satellite Launch Center on September 28, 2014. It was the second Shijian 11
("Practice") launch of the year.
The 213 tonne, two stage rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 43, Pad 603 at 05:15 UTC.
The satellite, seventh in a series, entered a roughly 700 km x 98.1 deg orbit.
Shijian 11-07 was developed by China Spacesat Co. Ltd for China Aerospace Science and
Technology Corporation. It likely weighed less than 1 tonne, given CZ-2C's near-polar
orbit capability.
Details of the satellite mission were not announced. It was the 60th orbital launch
attempt of the year, world wide.
Proton Returns
to Flight
On September 27, 2014, four and a half months after it
suffered a costly failure, Russia's Proton returned to flight with a successful launch for
the Russian Ministry of Defense. The 398th Proton, a three-stage Proton M with a
Briz M fourth stage, boosted a secret satellite known as Luch ("Beam") or Olymp
("Olympus") into a geosynchronous orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Liftoff
from Area 81 Pad 24 took place at 20:23 UTC to begin a roughly nine hour mission that
involved four or five firings by the Khrunichev built storable propellant Briz M stage.
Analysts believe that the roughly 3 tonne satellite,
built by ISS Reshetnev in Zheleznogorska, could have a data relay or a signals
intelligence mission. The Luch name has in the past been given to civilian data
relay satellites, and no more were believed to be planned. For that reason some
believe that Luch is a diversionary cover name for this Olymp satellite.
Proton failed on its previous, May 15, 2014 flight when
its third stage RD0214 steering engine suffered a turbopump failure about 540 seconds
after liftoff, causing loss of control. With the return to flight success, Proton
M/Briz M scored its 69th success in 75 attempts.
Soyuz Crew Ascends to ISS
Three new International Space Station crew members transited to the station in Soyuz
TMA-14M during a 6-hour, 4-orbit ascent following liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome on
September 25, 2014. Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore,
and Elena Serova, the first Russian woman to travel to ISS, lifted off from Area 1 Pad 5
atop a Soyuz FG rocket at 20:25 UTC.
They reached orbit nine minutes later, but problems arose when one of the spacecraft's
two solar arrays failed to deploy. Flight controllers decided that the balky array was not
a constraint and the crew pressed on without delay toward ISS.
Soyuz TMA-14M Approaches ISS with Only
One Solar Array Deployed
Sometime after docking, before the crew opened the Soyuz hatch, the solar array sprung
free and deployed.
The three will join the Expedition 41 crew. When that crew departs in November, Wilmore
will take command of Expedition 42.
It was the 15th R-7 launch, and third crewed Soyuz launch, of 2014.
Falcon Lofts Dragon
A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 successfully orbited the Dragon CRS-4 spacecraft on a resupply
mission for the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 21,
2014. The more than 500 tonne two-stage rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at
05:52 UTC to begin its 9 minute 30 second ascent to a 199 x 359 km x 51.644 deg orbit.
Dragon was loaded with 2.216 tonnes of cargo for ISS. The spacecraft weighed more than 8.6
tonnes at liftoff, including cargo. Included was the first 3D printer to be launched into
space, 20 mice riding in a specially-made habitat, a radar scatterometer to measure ocean
winds, and a metal plating experiment flown by a golf club manufacturer. that could
improve the design of golf clubs.
Dragon Separation
CRS-4 is slated to return to a splashdown off Southern California's coast with 1.486
tonnes of cargo after a four week stay at the station. It is the fourth of at least 12
missions to ISS that SpaceX is contracted to fly under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
(CRS) contract.
This Falcon 9 was not fitted with landing legs, but the first stage performed reentry and
landing burns after separating from the second stage. During the ascent the first stage
fired for about 2 minutes 50 seconds and the second stage for about 6 minutes 40 seconds.
Dragon separation occurred about 10 minutes 15 seconds after liftoff. Some time
after separation, the second stage reignited to perform a brief deorbit burn that targeted
a reentry south of New Zealand during the first orbit.
The launch came after a September 17, 2014 static test firing of the Falcon 9 first stage
engines on SLC 40. It followed by only 14 days the previous Falcon 9 launch of Asiasat 6
from the same launch pad. A 13 day turnaround might have occurred were it not for a
weather scrub on September 20.
It was the 13th Falcon 9, the 8th Falcon 9 v1.1, the 8th Falcon 9 launch during the
past 12 months, and the fourth launch during the past two months.
ULA/Blue Origin to Develop Powerful New Engine
BE-4 Model at Press Conference
On September 17, 2014, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, a privately held company
owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, announced that they were teaming to jointly fund
development of Blue Origin's new BE-4 rocket engine. The development effort would last
four years, with full-scale testing in 2016 and first flight in 2019. The new engine would
be available for use by both companies.
BE-4 will burn liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in an oxygen rich staged
combustion cycle to produce 550,000 pounds (249.5 tonnes) of sea level thrust. ULA
boosters would use two BE-4s to produce 1,100,000 pounds (499 tonnes) of total thrust at
sea level.
Blue Origin has been working on BE-4 development for three years, with component testing
underway at the company's test site near Van Horn, Texas and in facilities near Kent,
Washington. Completed testing has included subscale oxygen-rich preburner development and
staged combustion testing of the preburner and main injector assembly. Testing of the
turbopumps and main valves is the next major step. A large new test facility was completed
in May, 2014 in Texas to support full-scale engine testing.
BE-4 should operate at a higher specific impulse than the Atlas 5 RD-180, but not as high
as Delta 4's RS-68. The engine could be heavier than RD-180, and the less dense propellant
would force use of bigger, heavier tanks than those used by Atlas 5, but BE-4s higher
thrust compared to RD-180 would help offset those factors.
ULA noted that BE-4 is not a direct replacement for RD-180, but that "two BE-4s are
expected to provide the engine thrust for the next generation ULA vehicles". The
company said that the "next generation vehicles" would "maintain the key
heritage components of ULAs Atlas and Delta rockets", including the strap-on
solid boosters, and said that details would be announced at a later date.
NASA Awards Commercial Crew to
Boeing, SpaceX
CST-100 Approaching ISS
On September 16, 2014, NASA awarded commercial crew contracts to Boeing and SpaceX.
Boeing was alloted $4.2 billion to develop and fly CST-100. SpaceX won $2.6 billion
to develop its Dragon V2. Although the awards differed in value, both companies responded
to identical requirements. Both will develop and certify their spacecraft and launch
systems, will perform a single crewed demonstration mission, possibly before the end of
2017, and both then will fly two to six missions to the International Space Station,
carrying four astronauts during each flight. Both spacecraft will be designed to stay at
ISS for up to 210 days to provide a lifeboat function.
The announcement left out Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser, a lifting body design
that would have glided to runway landings.
CST-100, a 4.56 meter diameter, 5.03 meter tall spacecraft, was expected to be launched by
United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft will use four Aerojet Rocketdyne
RS-88 launch abort engines mounted in a pusher configuration on the aft end of a small
cylindrical service module to provide emergency aborts. The engines will burn NTO and
Hydrazine to together create about 72 tonnes of thrust. Aerojet Rocketdyne will also
provide orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters for the spacecraft.
Dragon V2
An Atlas 5-422 version fitted with two strap on solid motors and a Centaur second stage
powered by two RL-10 engines was a likely CST-100 launch vehicle. Development and
certification of the two-engine Centaur would be required. Launches would take place from
Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41.
Dragon V2, a 3.7 meter diameter, 6.7 meter tall spacecraft, will be launched by a SpaceX
Falcon 9 v1.1. The launch site would be either SLC 40 at Cape Canaveral or LC 39A at
Kennedy Space Center, which SpaceX is currently refurbishing for Falcon Heavy.
One reason for the contract price difference is likely that SpaceX has a head start on
Boeing. SpaceX is already launching Dragon cargo missions to ISS. Dragon V2 will be built
in the same factory and launched by the same, already proven rocket as Dragon. Boeing
still has to have its launch vehicle developed and still has to outfit a production
facility for its spacecraft. The company plans to build and process CST-100 in a former
Orbiter Maintenance Facility building at KSC.
Atlas 5 Orbits Mystery Satellite
AV-049 Liftoff from SLC 41
The 49th Atlas 5 launched "CLIO", a satellite with a secret mission launched
for an unnamed government customer, from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 17, 2014.
The two stage "401" rocket lifted off from SLC 41 at 00:10 UTC after
being delayed by weather.
RL-10 Performing First Burn
The Centaur stage performed a roughly 14 minute long first burn to place itself and its
Lockheed Martin A2100 series satellite into a roughly 176 x 28,871 km x 27.9 deg initial
orbit.
The stage was expected to perform a second burn of about 70 seconds duration after a
cost of about 2.5 hours that would likely place the satellite into a geosynchronous
transfer orbit with a high perigee.
It was the seventh Atlas 5 launch of 2014.
Ariane
5 Launches Measat 3b/Optus 10
Ariane 5 Launcher Number 573, an Ariane 5 ECA, lofted Measat 3b and Optus 10 into
geosynchronous transfer orbit from Kourou on September 11, 2014. The 780 tonne rocket
lifted off from ELA 3 at 22:05 UTC to begin Arianespace Mission VA-218. The upper stage
and payloads were inserted into a 249.8 x 35,786 km x 6 deg orbit about 25 minutes after
liftoff, with spacecraft separation occurring sequentially over the next 10 minutes. Optus
10 rode in the lower position inside a SYLDA adapter and separated after Measat 3b.
Ariane 5's EPC core stage burned for nearly 9 minutes to push the upper stage into a
suborbital trajectory. The ESC-A upper stage then performed a single, roughly 16 minute
long burn to complete the ascent.
Measat 3b, built by Airbus on a Eurostar 3000L platform, weighed 5,897 kg at launch. It
will use 48 Ku-band transponders and one experimental S-band payload to provide direct to
home TV service in Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Australia.
Optus 10, a 3,270 kg Space Systems/Loral 1300-series satellite, will use 24 Ku-band
transponders to transmit direct television, Internet, telephone and data to Australia, New
Zealand and the Antarctic region.
It was the 45th Ariane 5 ECA launch and 44th success. It was also the 75th Ariane 5 launch
and 71st success of all variants.
China
Launches Remote Sensing Satellite
A Chang Zheng 4B launched China's Yaogan 21, a remote sensing satellite, into orbit from
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on September 8, 2014. A secondary, 67 kg experimental
"smart satellite" named Tiantuo 2 also rode to orbit. The three-stage storable
propellant rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 9 at 03:22 UTC. The payloads entered a
476 x 493 km x 97.42 deg sun synchronous low earth orbit. The third stage
subsequently lowered its orbit.
Yaogan 21 is thought to be an electro optical imaging satellite. China announced that it
will be used for "scientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and
disaster monitoring". Western anaylsts believe it has a military observation mission.
The Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) built Yaogan 21. Tiantuo 2 was designed and
built by the National University of Defense Technology.
It was the year's fifth CZ launch, four of which have occurred during the last month.
Falcon 9
Launches Asiasat 6
A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 boosted Asiasat 6 into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on September 7, 2014. The 500-plus tonne two stage rocket
lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 05:00 UTC to begin a 32 minute long mission
that featured two burns of the Merlin 1D Vacuum powered second stage. The first burn
placed the vehicle into a 202 x 175 km x 27.7 deg parking orbit about 9 minutes after
liftoff. The second, roughly one-minute burn began after a 17 minute coast downrange to
the equator. Asiasat 6, a 4.428 tonne Space Systems Loral 1300 series satellite, was
targeted toward a 185 x 35,786 km x 25.3 deg GTO.
AsiaSat of Hong Kong owns the satellite, which will use 28 C-band transponders to transmit
video and data across China and Southeast Asia. Transponder sharing with Thaicom will give
the satellite a second moniker: Thaicom 7. AsiaSat 6's launch came just over one month
after the previous Falcon 9 launched similar Asiasat 8.
The first stage restarted three of its Merlin 1D engines after stage separation. The
duration of the burn was not announced, but it was likely only a brief ignition test.
No landing burn was attempted.
It was the seventh Falcon 9 v1.1 launch, the 12th Falcon
9, and the fifth SpaceX launch of 2014.
The launch was delayed two weeks to allow SpaceX engineers to review data from an August
22 failure of the company's Falcon 9R Dev 1 landing test rocket stage at the company's
McGregor, Texas test site. On that date the test stage lifted off on the thrust of three
Merlin 1D engines, but one of the outboard engines suffered a sensor failure at startup,
creating conditions that ultimately led to loss of control and the triggering of an
automatic destruct sequence after the stage had risen several hundred meters. The review
confirmed that Falcon 9 v1.1 would not have encountered the problem because it uses
redundant sensors while Falcon 9R Dev 1 used a single string setup.
Falcon 9R Dev 1 failed during its fifth test flight. It first flew on April 17, 2014. On
subsequent tests it flew to 1,000 meters, maneuvered, and landed successfully. On its
third test on June 17 it used steerable grid fins for the first time to augment control.
The August 22 flight was apparently the first to use three engines, with the two outboard
engines expected to be throttled and then shut down prior to landing.
China
Launches Two Comsats
A Chang Zheng 2D launch vehicle boosted two communications satellites into low earth orbit
from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center for China on September 4, 2014. On board the two
stage rocket were Chuangxin 1-04, a store dump communication satellite from the Chinese
Academy of Sciences designed to transfer data for
"hydrology, weather, electric power, and disaster relief", and Ling Qiao, a 135 kg experimental communication satellite
from the Tsinghua University.
CZ-2D lifted off from LC 43/603 at 00:15 UTC, bound for
a sun synchronous orbit. The satellites entered 770 x 807 km x 98.47 deg and 778 x
809 km x 98.46 deg orbits, while the second stage was left in a 254 x 837 km x 98.00 deg
orbit after venting its propellant.
It was the fourth CZ orbital launch of 2014 and the 21st CZ-2D flight. All have
succeeded.
Soyuz
2-1b/Fregat Launch Fails (October 17, 2014 Update)
A Soyuz 2-1b with a Fregat upper stage placed a pair of
European Galileo navigation satellites into incorrect, and possibly useless, orbits after
an August 22, 2014 launch from Kourou Space Center. Flying the VS09 mission for
Arianespace, the 3.5 stage rocket lifted off from the ELS pad at 12:27 UTC to begin a
planned 3 hour 47 minute mission designed to loft the two 730 kg satellites into 23,522 km
x 55.04 deg circular orbits.
Arianespace initially reported that the mission was a success, but hours later had to
announce that tracking data had found a "discrepancy between [the] targeted and
reached orbit". Tracking data showed three objects in roughly 13,720 x 25,920 km x
49.7 deg orbits, consistent with a problem occurring during the second and final Fregat
burn at first apogee. The burn was expected to last five minutes.
Since the launch vehicle flew a direct azimuth toward a 55 deg inclination and the
final inclination was only 49.7 deg, it seemed likely that the Fregat stage performed an
unplanned out-of-plane burn at apogee that wasted most of its planned delta-v increment.
On August 28, Russian newspaper Izvestia, quoting an unnamed source from Russia's
Roscosmos, reported that the Fregat failure was likely caused by an "embedded
software error" that resulted in the provision of an "incorrect flight
assignment" for the stage. On that same date, Anatoly Zak's Russianspaceweb
reported that the stage had been improperly oriented prior to the final burn for reasons
as-yet unknown. Two attitude control thrusters had not provided an expected control
impulse during an orientation maneuver, but the flight control system thought that the
thrusters had worked and therefore did command a correction.
Subsequent investigation found that propellant lines for the thrusters were routed next
to helium lines. On some stages, the lines were in direct contact, allowing the cold
helium line to freeze propellant in the propellant line during long coast periods.
The Galileo mission included a longer coast period than previous missions, allowing the
long-unknown design flaw to be exposed. A fix would involve precise configuration
control of propellant line routings in all future Fregat stages.
Russia's TsSKB Progress built the 2.5 stage R-7 rocket. NPO Lavochkin built the
Fregat stage. Both companies performed launch and flight operations.
OHB-System and SSTL built the satellite bus and payload,
respectfully, for the fifth and sixth Galileo satellites, which were to be named
"Doresa" and "Milena". They were expected to be the first two
Full Operational Capability" satellites of a planned 22 satellite
constellation.
Gaofen
2 Launch
Chang Zheng (Long March) 4B serial number Y27 orbited China's Gaofen 2, a civilian high
resolution earth observation satellite, along with BRITE-PL-2, a 7 kg microsatellite from
Poland, from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on August 19, 2014. The three-stage rocket
lifted off from Launch Complex 9 at 03:15 UTC. Gaofen 2 separated into a 604 x 631 km x
98.03 deg sun synchronous orbit.
Gaofen 2 is based on the CS-L3000A bus. It has 80 cm panchromatic and 3.2 meter
multi-spectral resolution, with a designed lifespan of over 5 years. The satellite mass is
unknown, but CZ-4B can lift about 2.0 to 2.5 tonnes to the Gaofen 2 orbit.
After separating Gaofen 2, the CZ-4B third stage pitched sideways to release BRITE-PL2.
BRITE-PL-2 will take images of star fields to precisely measure the star brightness.
It was China's third orbital launch of 2014 and was the
year's 50th known orbital launch attempt.
Atlas 5 Launches
Commercial Spysat
Flying for Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, a two-stage United Launch Alliance
Atlas 5-401 boosted Worldview 3, a commercial optical imaging satellite, into sun
synchronous low earth orbit from Vandenberg AFB on August 13, 2014. Liftoff of the
333 tonne rocket took place from Space Launch Complex 3 East at 18:30 UTC. After a four
minute first stage burn, the AV-047 Centaur stage flew a direct insertion ascent using a
single RL-10A-4-2 burn that lasted 11 minutes 43 seconds. The 2.812 tonne Ball
Aerospace-built satellite separated into a 607 x 629 km x 97.97 deg orbit about 19 minutes
after liftoff.
Worldview 3 will provide 31 cm optical resolution from its operational 617 km orbit for
DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado. It is the sixth observation satellite for
DigitalGlobe, which sells imagery to the U.S. government and to commercial companies.
Atypically, ULA did not provide a prelaunch press-kit with launch timing information.
Since Atlas 5-401 should be able to lift 6 tonnes or more to the Worldview 3 orbit,
it seems likely that the Centaur stage performed one or more post-separation burns.
It was the sixth Atlas 5 launch of 2014, and the second
Atlas 5 of the year to fly from Vandenberg AFB.
China
Launch from Jiuquan
A Chang Zheng 4C boosted multiple objects into orbit from Chian's Jiuquan Satellite Launch
Center on August 9, 2014. The three-stage rocket, tail number Y14, lifted off from LC
43/603 at 05:45 UTC, officially carrying the Yaogan 20 remote sensing satellite.
China's Xinhua press service only discussed the Yaogan 20 satellite, which it said will
"conduct scientific experiments, carry out land surveys, monitor crop yields and aid
in preventing and reducing natural disasters". After the launch, however, western
tracking systems showed five objects in roughly 1,087 x 1,104 km x 63.4 deg orbits, along
with the spent third stage in an 898 x 1,111 km x 63.45 deg orbit. Some analysts believe
that the launch carried multiple satellites designed to monitor naval activity.
It was the second CZ launch of the year, and the first CZ-4 series launch since a December
9, 2013 launch failure that involved a CZ-4B third stage. Both CZ-4B and CZ-4C use
hypergolic propellant fueled third stages powered by twin YF-40 engines, but the CZ-4C
stage can be restarted.
Falcon 9 Launches Asiasat 8
The 11th SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and the sixth v1.1
variant, boosted the Asiasat 8 communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit
from Cape Canaveral on August 5, 2014. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 took place at
08:00 UTC, only three weeks after the previous Falcon 9 launch from the same pad.
Falcon 9's second stage performed two burns during a 32 minute mission to aim the 4,535 kg
Space Systems Loral 1300 series satellite toward a 185 x 35,786 km x 24.3 deg insertion
orbit. Asiasat 8 will burn its own propellant to provide roughly 1,750 meters per second
delta-v to reach geostationary orbit.
Before the encapsulated Asiasat 8 satellite was attached, the rocket was rolled out to
perform a brief static test firing on July 31, 2014. Like recent payloads, Asiasat 8
was processed in the SPIF (Satellite Processing and Integration Facility) at Cape
Canaveral. The SPIF, part of the former Titan Integrate Transfer Launch (ITL) launch
complex, formerly handled Shuttle, Titan IV, Altas II, and EELV Defense Department
payloads.
Asiasat 8 was the heaviest beyond LEO payload carried by
a Falcon 9 to date. Falcon 9 flew in expendable mode without landing legs as a
result. It was the year's fourth Falcon 9 launch.
Atlas 5 Orbits GPS 2F-7
A two-stage Atlas 5-401 orbited U.S. Air Force Global
Positioning Satellite 2F-7 from Cape Canaveral SLC 41 on August 2, 2014. Liftoff of
the year's fifth Atlas 5 at 03:25 UTC began a 3.5 hour mission that put the 1.63 tonne GPS
2F-7 navigation satellite into a 20,200 km x 55 deg circular orbit.
Atlas climbed on a northeast azimuth from the Cape,
parallelling the U.S. Eastern seaboard. Centuar performed a 12 minute 48 second long
first burn to lift itself into an elliptical transfer orbit with a 20,000+ km apogee.
After coasting for just over 3 hours to first apogee south of Australia, Centaur
burned again for just over 2 minutes to complete the mission.
It was the 10th orbital launch from Cape Canaveral in
2014.
Final ATV Launch
An Ariane 5ES orbited European Space Agency's fifth and
final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), with cargo for the International Space Station
(ISS), from Kourou on July 29, 2014. ATV-5, named "Georges Lemaître" after the
Belgian scientist who formulated the Big Bang Theory, separated into a 255.3 x 260.5 km x
51.64 deg orbit about one hour after the VA219 mission lifted off from ELA-3 at 23:47 UTC.
Ariane 5s hypergolic propellant fueled EPS upper stage performed two burns prior to
spacecraft separation, followed about 1.5 hours later by a third deorbit burn.
ATV-5 weighed 19,926 kg at liftoff - heaviest ever for an Ariane 5. The mass included
2,628 kg of dry cargo and 3,933 kg of propellant, water, and gases, for a total of 6,561
kg of cargo. The robotic spacecraft will dock to ISS several days after launch, beginning
a six month stay.
Previous ATV launches took place in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Delta 4 Launches
"Neighborhood Watch" Spysats
A Delta 4 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 28, 2014 with two U.S. Air Force
Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites. They were the first
two satellites in a planned GSSAP constellation that will drift above and below the
geosynchronous belt to monitor other objects in space.
The Delta 4M+4,2, with two strap on boosters and a four-meter diameter payload fairing,
lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37B at 23:28 UTC. The mission was expected to
directly insert both GSSAP satellites and a microsatellite named ANGELS (Automated
Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space) into near geosynchronous orbit about
six hours later, using a three-burn upper stage profile. ANGELS was expected to test
"autopilot space situational awareness" by navigating around the second stage
after separation.
Orbital Sciences built all three satellites. The two GSSAP satellites likely weighed
0.7 tonnes or less each. Two additional GSSAP satellites are planned to be launched
by an Atlas 5 in 2016.
The launch required five countdowns over six days. The initial attempt on July 23
was scrubbed due to a problem with ground support equipment. Attempts on the following
three days were stopped by bad weather.
It was the 20th Delta 4 Medium launch, all of which have
been successful.
Progress
M-24M Flies to ISS
Russia's Soyuz U launched Progress M-24M, with cargo for the International Space Station,
into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 23, 2014. The robot spacecraft flew a fast
track, four-orbit, six hour approach to ISS. Progress M-24M lifted off from Area 1
Pad 5 at 21:44 UTC. The spacecraft carried about 2.6 tonnes of cargo and fuel to the
station.
ISS currently houses a crew of six that includes NASA's Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman,
European Space Agency's Alexander Gerst, and Russia's Maxim Suraev, Alexander Skvortsov
and Oleg Artemyev.
It was the 56th Progress flight to ISS, and the 151st
flight of any type to the station since construction began in 1998.
Soyuz 2-1a
Launches Foton M4
A 2.5 stage Soyuz 2-1a launch vehicle orbited Foton M4 from Baikonur Cosmodrome on July
18, 2014. Liftoff from Area 31 Pad 6 took place at 20:50 UTC. 6.84 tonne Foton M4,
equipped with a recoverable reentry capsule packed with biological samples, entered low
earth orbit about 10 minutes later. The capsule is expected to return after about two
months in orbit.
Russia's webcast of the launch was not available in the United States and the United
Kingdom.
Long
Falcon 9 Campaign Ends with Success
The fifth SpaceX Falcon 9
v1.1, and tenth Falcon 9 overall, launched six Orbcomm data
relay satellites into low earth orbit following a July 14, 2014 Cape Canaveral
launch. Liftoff from SLC 40 took place at 15:15 UTC. The second stage
performed a single direct insertion burn to place the Orbcomm OG 2 payload, consisting of
an adapter with six 172 kg Orbcomm satellites and two 172 kg mass simulators, into a 614 x
743 km x 47 deg orbit. Sierra Nevada Corporation and Boeing Corporation built the
satellites, which will maneuver themselves into 715 km circular operational orbits.
The launch culminated a difficult campaign that endured more than two months of delays.
An early May launch date had to be postponed after a May 8, 2014 static test was
called off due to ground support equipment issues. A helium leak occurred inside the
first stage during propellant loading for a second static test attempt on May 9, 2014.
The leak required rollback of the rocket for inspection and replacement of an
unspecified part from the stage, along with a review of designs and procedures.
The Orbcomm payload was deencapsulated and removed from the rocket after the leak.
After the rocket was repaired, the launch campaign restarted, leading to a successful
static test on June 13, 2014. Then the launch was delayed for five days due to
issues that appeared during testing of the Orbcomm satellites after their period of
storage at SLC 40.
On June 20, 2014, a launch attempt was scrubbed several
minutes before liftoff due to a decay in second stage pressurization, apparently due to an
issue with ground support equipment. A June 21 attempt was scrubbed due to weather
after the propellant was loaded. Another attempt was scrubbed on June 22 before
propellant loading began after a problem with a first stage thrust Vector Control actuator
was detected. Once again, Falcon 9 was rolled back into its hangar for repairs.
While repairs were underway, the Cape Canaveral range entered a pre-planned two-week
shutdown for maintenance, which prevented launch attempts. The rocket was static
tested on July 1, 2014. On the evening of July 10, 2014, Falcon 9 No. 10 rolled out
to its pad for the final time.
The Falcon 9 first stage burned for about 2 minutes 38 seconds as the rocket climbed on a
steeper than typical trajectory while aiming for a 620 km insertion altitude. The
trajectory also allowed the first stage to attempt a landing closer to Cape Canaveral than
achieved during the previous flight. The second stage fired for about 6 minutes 46
seconds to reach its insertion orbit. Orbcomm deployment began about 15 minutes after
launch.
After staging, the first stage perrformed a reentry burn, followed by reentry and a final
landing burn to attempt soft landing in the Atlantic Ocean, in a continuation of a test
series evaluating the possibility of recovering the first stage by having it fly back and
land near its launch site. SpaceX head Elon Musk tweeted that the burn and leg
deployment were successful, but that the stage "lost hull integrity right after
splashdown (aka kaboom)". He said that a review of data was needed to determine if
the issue was due to splashdown forces or to the tip over and "body slam" after
landing. A few days later, he reported that the "body slam" was likely
responsible, suggesting that the landing itself had been successful. SpaceX
subsequently released on-board video that showed a successful landing. The released
video cut off just before the safely landed stage tipped sideways into the ocean.
The second stage performed a reentry burn after payload
separation, a maneuver aided by the substantial excess delta-v for this mission.
Total deployed operational mass was only 1.032 tonnes. Total mass including the two mass
simulators and deployment adapter was likely only about 1.5 tonnes. Falcon 9 v1.1
capability to the Orbcomm insertion orbit was likely more than 10 tonnes, though some of
that capability was likely expended in the steep ascent.
Antares
Launches Cygnus/Orb-2
Orbital Sciences' Antares boosted a Cygnus spacecraft
into orbit from Wallops Island, Virginia on July 13, 2014 to begin NASA's Orb-2
International Space Station resupply mission. Cygnus Orb-2, named "Janice Voss"
in honor of the late former Orbital employee and NASA astronaut, carried 1,493.8 kg of
crew supplies, vehicle hardware, science equipment, and other equipment inside its
cylindrical pressure hull. Including cargo, Cygnus weighed about 4.923 tonnes at
liftoff.
Liftoff of the fourth Antares rocket took place from Wallops Mid-Atlantic Regional
Spaceport Pad 0A at 16:52 UTC. Antares' twin AJ-26 engines produced about 332 tonnes of
liftoff thrust and burned for 3 minutes 55 seconds to lift the vehicle to more than
158 km altitude and a velocity of about 4.5 km/sec. The second stage and payload section
separated and coasted for about 1 minute 45 seconds before the Castor 30B second stage
motor ignited to produce an average of more than 28 tonnes of thrust during a 2 minute 17
second burn. Just before second stage ignition, the payload fairing and interstage
sections separated. Cygnus separated into a 191 x 284 km x 51.64 deg orbit.
"Janice Voss" approaches ISS
It was the fourth Antares launch, the third Cygnus
spacecraft flight, and the second contracted ISS cargo supply mission for Cygnus.
"Antares 120", a variant with a Castor 30B second stage, flew for the second and
final time during the mission. "Antares 130" with a longer, more powerful Castor
30XL motor will perform subsequent ISS cargo missions beginning later in 2014.
The launch was originally scheduled for May, 2014, but ISS conflicts forced an initial
delay. Then, on May 22, 2014, an AJ-26 being test fired at Stennis Space Center suffered a
catastrophic failure 30 seconds into a planned 54 second burn. The failure destroyed the
engine and triggered an investigation. Orbital did not reveal the cause of the failure.
The Orb-2 Antares engines were cleared for flight following borescope inspections and a
review of their own test firing data.
Cygnus "Janice Voss" reached ISS on July 16,
2014.
Soyuz Completes Internet
Constellation
A Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat orbited four broadband Internet trunking satallites for O3b Networks
(O3b stands for the "Other 3 billion") from Guiana Space Center at Kourou on
July 10, 2014. The 3.5 stage Russian rocket lifted off from Kourou's ELS pad at 18:55 UTC
to kick off the VS08 mission for Arianespace. After a nearly 2.5 hour mission involving
four Fregat upper stage burns, the four 700 kg satellites were released into 7,850 km x
0.04 deg equatorial orbits designed to provide coverage for emerging markets in Asia,
Africa, Latin America, Australia and the Middle East.
Thales Alenia Space built the O3b constellation satellites, which join the first four that
were launched in June, 2013 by an identical rocket to form an initial, fully operational
constellation.
After satellite deployment, Fregat performed two more burns to raise itself into a planned
8,003 x 8,041 km x 0.02 deg disposal orbit.
It was the fourth Russian space launch in seven days.
Russia's
Angara Flies from Plesetsk
After a two decade long, stop-start development program, Russia's new LOX/kerosene fueled
Angara rocket performed its first test launch from Russian soil on July 9, 2014. The
suborbital flight from Plesetsk Cosmodrome was made by an Angara 1.2PP, a special
two-stage version specifically prepared by Khrunichev for this inaugural test. The launch
should herald the start of a new modular launch vehicle family capable of lifting a range
of payloads ranging from light to heavy.
Angara 1.2PP (PP for Pervy Polyot, or "First Flight") consisted of a 2.9 meter
diameter URM-1 (Universal Rocket Module) first stage topped by a 3.6 meter diameter URM-2
second stage. Heavy lifter Angara 5, planned to fly later this year, will use five
clustered URM-1 modules topped by a URM-2 second stage, so the flight served served as an
Angara 5 precursor test. The 171 tonne, 42.8 meter tall white rocket lifted off from
Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 35/1 at 12:00 UTC, rising slowly on 196 tonnes of thrust produced
by a single Energomash RD-191 staged combustion engine.
First stage burnout was expected to occur about 3 minutes, 39 seconds after launch, as
Angara headed east across Russia's missile test range. Stage separation was planned to
occur about 3 seconds later, followed 2 seconds after that by ignition of the 30 tonne
thrust RD-0124A second stage engine. This staged-combustion, four-chamber engine, similar
to the engine developed to power the upgraded Soyuz-2-1b upper stage, was expected to
perform a 4 minute 28 second burn to boost the stage and instrumented test payload to
near-orbital velocity with an apogee of nearly 190 km. The rocket's 2.9 meter diameter
payload fairing was to separate shortly after second stage ignition.
According to official Russian media, the remains of the stage and payload impacted the
Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula about 21 minutes after liftoff, some 5,700 km
downrange.
The launch took place after an aborted launch attempt on June 27 that was caused by a loss
of pressure in the first stage LOX tank. That, like most non-defense launch
attempts, was broadcast live to Russian citizens and to the world, but such long-standard
live coverage was not provided for both the June 8 Meteor M2 launch and the inaugural
Angara launch.
Soyuz 2-1b
Orbits Seven Satellites
Russia's Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat orbited that country's Meteor M2 weather satellite, along with
six smaller satellites from several countries, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on
July 8, 2014. Liftoff from Area 31 Pad 6 took place at 15:58 UTC to start a slighly-more
than 1.5 hour mission.
The storable propellant Fregat stage performed two burns before deploying the 2.7 tonne
primary payload into an 835 km x 98.8 deg sun synchronous orbit about one hour after
liftoff.
During the next 30+ minutes, Fregat performed two more burns while maneuvering into lower
orbits to deploy the smaller satellites. The first to be released was Russia's Relek
(MKA-FKI), a 0.25 tonne magnetospheric science satellite. Next was the 0.1 tonne U.S.
Skysat 2 commercial imaging satellite. A 0.15 tonne UK satellite named TechDemoSat 1 was
released next, followed by 6.5 kg AISSat 2 and 3 kg UKube 1, two nanosatellites from
Norway and Scotland, respectively.
A 9.5 kg dummy mass was carried in place of Canada's M3MSat, which was pulled from the
manifest by Canada's government in protest of Russia's 2014 actions in Ukraine.
After the payloads were deployed, Fregat performed a
fifth, deorbit burn to remove itself from orbit.
Roscosmos cancelled its previously announced webcast of the launch only minutes before it
was expected to begin, without explanation.
Rokot
Orbits Gonets 3M Satellites
Russia's Rokot/Briz KM orbited three Gonets 3M data
relay satellites from Area 133 Pad 3 at Plesetsk space center on July 3, 2014. The
three stage rocket lifted off at 12:43 UTC. Its Briz-KM thired stage performed two
burns to lift the 282 kg satellites, identified as 18L, 19L, and 20L, into 1,480 x 1,510
km x 82.5 deg orbits.
The first Briz KM burn began about five minutes after
liftoff and lasted for about 9.5 minutes to insert the vehicle into an elliptical parking
orbit. The second, circulization burn began about 1.5 hours after liftoff near apogee and
lasted for less than one minute. Spacecraft separation occurred at about 14:28 UTC.
It was the year's second Rokot launch.
Delta
2 Returns with OCO-2 Launch
After a three year hiatus, and a one-day delay caused by
a faulty launch pad water deluge system, Delta 2 returned to
service on July 2, 2014, successfully orbited NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2)
satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The 2.5 stage United Launch
Alliance Delta 2-7320-10, with three strap-on solid boosters and a 10 foot diameter
composite fairing, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2 West at 09:56 UTC. The 39 meter
tall, 152 tonne rocket lifted off on 227 tonnes (about 500,000 lbs) of thrust produced by
three Graphite Epoxy Motors (GEMs) and the RS-27A RP/LOX first stage engine. Delta's
hypergolic (Aerozine 50 and Nitrogen Tetroxide) fueled second stage fired its 4.47 tonne
thrust AJ-10-118K engine twice during a 56 minute long mission to aim OCO-2 toward a
targeted 686 km x 98.2 km sun synchronous orbit.
OCO-2 is NASAs first spacecraft dedicated entirely to measuring atmospheric carbon
dioxide (CO2). The 453 kg satellite, built by Orbital Sciences for NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, will map the geographic and seasonal variations of both human and natural
sources of carbon dioxide, and the "sinks" that pull CO2 out of the atmosphere.
OCO-2 replaces OCO-1, which was lost in a Taurus launch failure on February 24,
2009 due to a payload fairing separation failure.
During the ascent, the three GEM boosters burned out 64
seconds after liftoff, but were not jettisonned until the 99 second mark in order to clear
offshore oil rigs. The RS-27A main engine shut down at T+264 seconds, followed 8 seconds
later by stage separation. The first second stage burn extended from T+278 seconds to
T+621 seconds (T+10m 21s), leaving the stage and payload in an elliptical transfer orbit.
Payload fairing separation occurred during the burn at the 301 second mark.
After coasting over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to Madagascar on the east African
coast, Delta's second stage reignited 50 minutes and 50 seconds after liftoff for a 12.4
second burn that circularized the orbit. OCO-2 separated about five minutes later.
Vandenberg AFB SLC 2W was one of seven Thor launch pads built during the late 1950s at the
California launch site. Known originally as 75-1-2, the pad hosted its first Thor
launch on September 17, 1959. After serving as a Thor-Agena launch pad during the
1960s, it was converted to host NASA's Delta launch vehicles beginning in 1967.
It was the 152nd Delta 2 launch, the 51st NASA Delta 2,
the 42nd Delta 2 from SLC 2W, and the 97th consecutive success. Only three more
Delta 2 flights are currently scheduled. Parts for a fourth, unassigned Delta 2
exist.
See Older Launch Reports in the Space Launch Report Archive
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