Launch News (FAILURE) Zenit-3SL with Intelsat 27, February 1, 2013

[Cosmic Penguin]

It's already mind boggling to have rocket engines from the same producer to power three orbital launches within 48 hours. It's even more mind boggling to know that it comes from the same engine family and that it was used by three different launch organizations around the world! Yet this is exactly happening right now, as we got a Zenit rocket out on the Pacific waiting to launch a communication satellite for the largest commercial satellite operator of the world, Intelsat. This comes after the two launches yesterday, which all uses a variant of the RD-170 engine family first used on the boosters of the mighty Energia rocket, made by NPO Energomash of Russia.

Launch location:

Odyssey Launch Platform, located at 0°N, 154°W

Launch dates and times:

[table="head"]{colsp=5}Launch times

Time Zone
|

Local / UTC-10 ​

|

Universal / UTC ​

|

Los Angeles / PST ​

|

Moscow / UTC+4/ ​

Launch time (Primary): ​

|

20:55:59​

|

06:55:59​

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22:55:59​

|

10:55:59​

on: ​

|

Jan. 31, 2013​

|

Feb. 1, 2013​

|

Jan. 31, 2013​

|

Feb. 1, 2013​

{colsp=5}

[highlight][eventTimer]2013-02-01 06:55:59?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Intelsat 27 Launch[/highlight]

​

[/table]

Live Coverage Of The Launch:

• Sea Launch Video Streams: http://www.sea-launch.com/current_index_webcast.html - coverage will begin at 06:42 UTC / 22:42 PST

PAYLOAD

Intelsat 27 communication satellite:

Spacecraft Overview

Four Boeing-built geostationary satellites - called Intelsat 21, Intelsat 22, Intelsat 27 and Intelsat 29e - will refresh and add new telecommunications capacity to Intelsat's global satellite fleet.

The new spacecraft feature C- and Ku-band capacity optimized to distribute video, network and voice services from Asia and Africa to the Americas and Europe.

Intelsat 27 will carry a UHF hosted payload and offer 20 25-KHz UHF channels capable of serving the U.S. government and other Intelsat General clients around the world. The satellite is expected to launch in early 2013 and will be positioned over the Atlantic Ocean region as a replacement for the Intelsat 805 satellite.

The Intelsat satellites incorporate low-risk, proven technologies based on the Boeing 702HP satellite. The payload is powered by two solar wings, each with three to four panels of ultra triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells.
Intelsat's new satellites will utilize Boeing Lean manufacturing, which streamlines manufacturing and test through reduced assembly steps, more efficient operational layout and an enhanced supplier management philosophy based on a product line rather than program approach. Because of the modular design, common manufacturing processes such as pulse line and manufacturing line production can be leveraged to accelerate the manufacturing cycle, leading to a faster delivery for the customer.

The 702MP satellite represents the first major evolution since the introduction of the Boeing 702HP in 1999.
Boeing introduced the 702MP spacecraft in 2009 to meet the needs of customers seeking satellites in the middle-level power ranges. Its flexible design supports payloads that range in power from six to 12 kilowatts. The 702MP provides the high-capability features inherent in the flight-proven Boeing 702HP satellite model, but with a substantially updated satellite bus structure and simplified propulsion system.
Designed to provide 15 or more years of satellite service, the 702MP platform is able to accommodate hosted payloads (such as sensors, UHF and Ka-band) for additional flexibility in customer business planning. The Boeing 702MP is compatible with the Atlas, Ariane, Proton and Sea Launch launch vehicles.
The 702MP satellite is designed and built at The Boeing Company's satellite integration and test complex in El Segundo, Calif.

[table="head"]{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter|Value

Working Orbit:​

|GEO

Orbital Location:​

|55.5° West

Coverage:​

|North/Central/South America, Western Europe

ApA at separation:​

|35275 km

PeA at separation:​

|200 km

Inc at separation:​

|0°
[/table]

[table="head"]Characteristics|

Intelsat 27​

Customer:​

|

• Intelsat
  

Prime contractor:​

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• Boeing
  

Platform:​

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• BSS-702MP

Mass at Separation:​

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• 6215 kg

Dry Mass:​

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• ?

Stabilization:​

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• 3 axis stabilized

Dimensions:​

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• 36.85 x 7.4 x 9.25 m

Power at end-of-life:​

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• 8.4 kW

Primary Payload:​

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• 20 Ku-band transponders
• 20 C-band transponders
• 20 UHF-band transponders

Coverage area:​

|

• 
  
  

|

• 
  
  

|

• 
  
  

|

• 
  
  

Life time:​

|

• 15+ years

|

[/table]

Launch Vehicle:

[table="head"]{colsp=2}Characteristics

|[table="head"]{colsp=2}

Zenit-3SL / Blok DM-SL​

Prime contractor:​

|

• Yuzhmash (A.M. Makarov Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant) - Ukraine
  

GRAU Index:​

|

• 11K77

Height:​

| 58.7 m with upper stage and payload fairing

Diameter:​

| max 4.1 m

Liftoff mass:​

| 473 metric tonnes

Payload mass:​

| ~6 tonnes at GTO

1st stage:​

|

• 1 X RD-171 engine
• Empty 33.9 tonnes
• Propellants 318.8 tonnes (RG-1 Kerosene and LOX)
• Thrust in vacuum 7 908 kN
• Thrust at sea level 7 259 kN

2nd stage:​

|

• 1 X RD-120 engine + 1 X RD-8 vernier engine
• Empty 9.3 tonnes
• Propellants 80.6 tonnes (RG-1 Kerosene and LOX)
• Thrust in vacuum 834 + 78 kN

Upper Stage:​

|

• GRAU Index: - 11S861
• Common Name: Block DM-SL
• Designer: Designer: RKK Energia
• Manufacturer: "Krasmash" Krasnoyarsk Machine Building Plant
• Dimensions: Length 5.5 m, Diameter 4.1 m
• Empty Mass: 2.2 tonnes
• Propellants load: 15.095 tonnes (RP-1/LOX)

• Main Engine: 1 X RD-58M
• Thrust in vacuum 8.67 tonnes of force
• ISP 352 s

Payload Fairing:​

|

• Diameter 4.1 m
• Length 10.4 m

[/table]
[/table]


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

For Zenit-3SL,

================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================
Zenit 3SL/DMSL   31    34    .91  .89     10    1/30/07  1999-

Intelsat 27 Ascent Profile

[TABLE="head"]Orbit #|Orbit Nature|Perigee h, km|Apogee H, km|Inclination
1|2nd stage separation|-2280|182|0°
2|GEO-transfer|196|35450|0°
3|Target GTO|200|35275|0°
[/TABLE]

Intelsat 27 Ascent Timeline

[TABLE="head"]Event|Time UTC|Comment
Lift-off|06:55:59|
1st Stage Separation|06:58:29|
Payload fairing Separation|06:59:51|
2nd/upper Stage Separation|07:04:30|
1st Burn Ignition|07:04:40|
1st Burn Shutdown|07:16:19|1st Burn's Duration 00:11:39
Spacecraft Separation|07:26:09|
[/TABLE]

Photos of preparations of the launch will come soon.

References
http://www.sea-launch.com
http://www.yuzhmash.com
http://www.yuzhnoye.com
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/intelsat-27.htm
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://www.intelsat.com/_files/resources/satellites/IS-27-factsheet.pdf
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/intelsat/intelsat.html
http://www.intelsat.com/network/satellite/
http://blog.intelsat.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[N_Molson]

Why are the technicians in blue suit "inflated" ?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Strange things happening..... the webcast was lagging and have no sound, then liftoff occurred on time, but it went all downhill from there and the webcast just cut out at around fairing separation.....

.....

..... FAILURE!? :huh:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

FAILURE! First stage failure at T+50 seconds.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

It all went wrong at liftoff - the rocket wasn't flying straight at liftoff already and quickly pitched over. The engine shut down (under control, apparently) 25 seconds later.

 

[IronRain]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013
0803 GMT (3:03 a.m. EST)
Sea Launch has issued a statement confirming today's launch has failed:

"Sea Launch AG announced today that approximately 40 seconds after liftoff of the launch of the Intelsat 27 spacecraft, all telemetry was lost indicating a loss of mission. The spacecraft, built by Boeing Satellite Systems was launched on a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle from the equator on the ocean-based Odyssey launch platform, positioned at 154 degrees West longitude.

"Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of the incident and will provide additional information, as it becomes available, on the Sea Launch website at: www.sea-launch.com.

"We are very disappointed with the outcome of the launch and offer our sincere regrets to our customer, Intelsat, and their spacecraft provider, BSSI," said Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG. "The cause of the failure is unknown, but we are evaluating it and working closely with Intelsat, BSSI, Energia Logistics Ltd. and our Zenit-3SL suppliers. We will do everything reasonably possible to recover from this unexpected and unfortunate event."

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/is27/status.html

 

[Urwumpe]

Can it be that the launch took place during a very strong wind gust? I had seen some ice falling away almost horizontally.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Can it be that the launch took place during a very strong wind gust? I had seen some ice falling away almost horizontally.

An NK forum user who knows Zenit well says (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic13320/message1027141/#message1027141):
"It would take a tilt of more that 15 deg from vertical to make the guidance fall back into emergency withdrawal manoeuvre".

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Can it be that the launch took place during a very strong wind gust? I had seen some ice falling away almost horizontally.

One Russian report claims that the launch platform was not stabilized at launch - probably the waves were rocking? But this does not explain that how does the rocket flew south instead of flying east....... :uhh:

Oh and this is chilling...... :leaving:

A monitor in MC shown on the live stream. Upper right box titled, "Worst Case Toxic Corridor Analysis"

 

[SiberianTiger]

The rocket's tail could hit parts of the launch pad during the lift-off due to plaform's rocking on waves.

 

[Urwumpe]

An NK forum user who knows Zenit well says (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic13320/message1027141/#message1027141):
"It would take a tilt of more that 15 deg from vertical to make the guidance fall back into emergency withdrawal manoeuvre".

I don't mean that the platform was strongly tilted, rather, that the guidance platform had to deal with a strong acceleration by wind forces during the initial seconds, which caused it to misalign, maybe by saturating the acceleration sensors. A strong wind gust on a rocket could produce enough acceleration to bring the lateral acceleration sensors on the limits (which are usually designed for around +/- 1 G, unlike the longitudinal sensors, which are covering multiple Gs, depending on rocket)

 

[IronRain]

NASASpaceflight.com: Sea Launch Zenit 3SL with Intelsat 27 fails during first stage flight

 

[SiberianTiger]

I don't mean that the platform was strongly tilted, rather, that the guidance platform had to deal with a strong acceleration by wind forces during the initial seconds, which caused it to misalign, maybe by saturating the acceleration sensors. A strong wind gust on a rocket could produce enough acceleration to bring the lateral acceleration sensors on the limits (which are usually designed for around +/- 1 G, unlike the longitudinal sensors, which are covering multiple Gs, depending on rocket)

How strong a gust should be to throw 460 tonnes aside at 9.81 m/s^2 acceleration? :blink: Maybe I've not seen enough gusts in my life, but...

 

[Urwumpe]

How strong a gust should be to throw 460 tonnes aside at 9.81 m/s^2 acceleration? :blink: Maybe I've not seen enough gusts in my life, but...

A 140 km/h gust was capable of throwing TEU containers on two trucks in the harbor of Hamburg only two days ago. A derecho in the USA even knocked a freight train from the rails.

On the oceans, you have nothing that slows the wind down... and to quote a hot air ballooner: "a few tons of air have quite an inertia"

Also, a 55 meter high rocket with 3 meter diameter means only ~3 tons per square meter from the POV of the wind.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

This is the weather report at the launch site before launch:

 

[MattBaker]

Doesn't sound like harsher conditions than Baikonur, I remember russian launches in heavy snowfall and with much stronger wind than 6 knots...

I hope this doesn't put an end to SeaLaunch and/or the Zenit-3 since they were already in such a situation.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Doesn't sound like harsher conditions than Baikonur, I remember russian launches in heavy snowfall and with much stronger wind than 6 knots...

That was an R-7 family (designed for launching in harsh conditions), and the launch complex wasn't rocking...

I hope this doesn't put an end to SeaLaunch and/or the Zenit-3 since they were already in such a situation.

We'll see.

 

[Urwumpe]

I still wonder than, what made the ice debris fall almost horizontally during launch. The exhaust was also blown away pretty fast for just 10 km/h wind.

 

[N_Molson]

Well, there is no way that 6 knots winds have caused this. I've been sailing a bit and this is hardly enough to power a small sailboat. And usually, winds gusts peak at 50% of the wind speed, so that would make 9 knots. I call this a gentle sea breeze.