Launch News Proton-M/Breeze-M with «Express-AM4» satellite on Aug. 18, 2011

[Wishbone]

Am afraid it's more on the human side of this business... I would not rule out a broken sliderule, though.

 

[N_Molson]

The results of the taken measures and analysis of the information received the Commission allowed to conclude that during the forming of the "Breeze-M" upper stage's timeline, an unreasonable "narrow" time interval was picked for rotation adjustment of the gyro-stabilized platform. This led to an incorrect orientation of "Breeze-M" upper stage, and, as a consequence, to putting of the spacecraft to an unplanned orbit.

I'm working on a rocket add-on and it's striking how I can have similar problems

 

[SiberianTiger]

Unfortunately, I could not find a hard reference to the document issued by the ILS company in aftermath of this failure's investigation, but NK forum members quoted few pieces from it. I translated them back to English:

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=792945#792945

Quote:
between the third and fourth main engine burns the "Briz-M" upper stage has lost inertial reference system.


Quote:
Telemetry from "Briz-M" upper stage was obtained after the 4th burn. Telemetry was unstable, the signal continued to decline up to the loss of telemetry in approximately 12 minutes after receiving it.


Quote:
It was concluded that the middle gimbal ring (Pitch ring), reached a hard stop. The remaining 2 rings - yaw and roll - have a degree of freedom of 360°. At this point, inertial reference system was lost, and the error in the orientation of the pitch continued to accumulate over the length of flight.


Quote:
The entire flight program was studied. According to it, before maneuvering, guidance system of "Briz-M" upper stage performs a delta-turn of the second gimbal ring (pitch ring) in order to avoid the risk of locking the gyro. Analysis of the mission program revealed that the time allocated for the
delta-turn introduced into the program was incorrectly too little for preparing the maneuver before the third main engine burn.

This is a pretty good explanation of what have happened.

 

[orb]

Aviation Week: Proton M/Breeze M Launch Failure Human Error:

The anomaly that caused an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Breeze M rocket to deliver a Russian telecommunications satellite into the wrong orbit last month has been attributed to a workmanship error, according to ILS President Frank McKenna.

McKenna says officials knew within a week that the Aug. 18 launch mishap, which dropped the Russian-owned, Astrium-built Express-AM4 satellite into a useless orbit, was caused by a worker who fed a faulty parameter into the rocket’s flight software system.

Evert Dudok, president of Astrium Satellites of Europe, says the Express-AM4 is now operating nominally, albeit in an orbit far from its intended dropoff point (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 13).

McKenna says it took several days for Astrium, ILS and their customer, the Russian Satellite Communications Co. of Moscow, to establish communication with the spacecraft, though officials knew “within 12 hours” after the satellite was delivered to the wrong orbit that the cause of the launch mishap was not an equipment failure.

“It was a human error and it was an individual input,” McKenna says, adding that “the verification was run, but it was not caught.” However, “all the Proton stages operated properly from an equipment standpoint,” he says, and “all the mission parameters . . . were nominal.”

Based on the findings of an interagency failure review board convened in Russia shortly after the launch mishap, McKenna says three or four corrective actions will be taken, including verifying human input into the launch vehicle flight software and the process of running flight-software simulations on the ground prior to missions, as well as checking equipment and programming at the launch site prior to liftoff.

“All of that’s being verified now for every upcoming mission in terms of its flight software, including the two that are going to be launched in September,” McKenna says. “Additional checks are to be done at the launch base in this area, as we will do [for] every mission from this point forward.”

ILS is planning a “relatively quick return-to-flight program” as the company implements corrective actions in advance of seven remaining planned missions on tap this year, including launch of a Russian military satellite and the SES Quetzsat-1 this month, both of which have been delayed roughly three weeks as a result of the launch mishap.

{...}

 

[SiberianTiger]

Sudden coming back from the land of shadows for Express-AM4. :blink:

Wondering if it has enough delta-V for lowering periapsis low enough for soonest decay.

Name			EXPRESS AM-4
NORAD #			37798
COSPAR designator	2011-045-A  
Epoch (UTC)		2011-09-13 05:33:28
Orbit # at Epoch	108
Inclination		51.145
RA of A. Node		270.744
Eccentricity  		0.5805891
Argument of Perigee	31.360
Revs per day		3.97174450
Period			6h 02m 33s (362.55 min)
Semi-major axis		16 843 km
Perigee x Apogee	686 x 20 243 km
BStar (drag term)	0.005970900 1/ER
Mean anomaly		11.768
Propagation model	SDP4
Element number / age	41 / 1 day(s)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Apparently, there was a bit of problem with payload fairing during this launch, too!

|

:rofl:

 

[Wishbone]

:facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Dead Russian Satellite to Fall From Space on Purpose Next Week:

WASHINGTON — The Russian government will guide the large Express–AM4 telecommunications satellite, which was launched into a useless orbit in August, into a controlled atmospheric descent starting March 20 so that any surviving pieces will land in the Pacific Ocean, a senior official from Russia’s state-owned satellite telecommunications operator said March 15.

{...}

Discovery News: Dead Russian Satellite to Fall From Space

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

SPACE.com: Dead Russian Satellite to Fall From Space on Purpose Next Week:

​

Interestingly Aviation Week is reporting that the Russian company that owns the satellite is considering selling the satellite to a new company named Polar Broadband (founded by several industry veterans including ex-shuttle commander William Readdy and Dennis Wingo, of "newspace" fame). The satellite will be maneuvered to provide a broadband communication link from science bases in the North and South Poles.

Aviation Week: Stranded Satellite Could Be Salvaged

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Time Running Out to Salvage Doomed Russian Satellite:

The clock is ticking for an innovative plan to recycle a doomed Russian communications satellite that's been stranded in the wrong orbit since its launch last August.

One Russian official has said the plan is to ditch the $265 million Express-AM4 satellite over a stretch of empty ocean sometime before March 26. But a company called Polar Broadband Ltd. says the spacecraft can not only be saved, but also moved into a new orbit to provide improved communications services to scientists in Antarctica.

{...}

 

[SiberianTiger]

Current Orbit geometry view (http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2012/03/a-second-chance-for-express-am.html):

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/new...atellite-for-antarctic-broadband-access-68139

According to Denis Pivnyuk, deputy financial director of Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), the satellite hasn’t been damaged, but after spending seven months in the miscalculated orbit, constantly going through earth’s radiation fields, its life span has been drastically reduced.

RSCC has confirmed that the use of the satellite for tasks it was designed for is impossible. Underwriters have declared it a total loss and paid the insurance claim to the owners of the spacecraft.

But William Readdy, a former NASA astronaut and the co-founder of PBL, thinks the expensive heap of space metal can still be useful. At the Satellite 2012 conference last week, the told reporters that the spacecraft could be easily placed into a new orbit which would provide Antarctic research bases with vastly superior communication links to those currently available. According to Readdy, after repositioning, there will be enough fuel on board for more than 10 years of orbit maintenance.

This is not the first satellite repurposing project for Readdy. In 1998, he helped reposition Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TRDSS) for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) U.S. Antarctic Program. This allowed transmission and reception of data from the Antarctic region. TDRS F1 served this mission for twelve years, before its second retirement in 2010.

If only they manage to conquer the maze of bureaucracy inside Roscosmos... Who seem to be more busy trying to save some of their CEO's public reputation these days. :dry:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Looks like the fate of Express-AM4 is decided, anyway.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=25364.msg876337#msg876337

According to http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=237513, Ekspress-AM4 deorbit burn is planned at 09:45-10:33 UTC on March 25th, impact - at 13:32 UTC.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=25364.msg876415#msg876415

Related navigational warnings

NAVAREA  [B]NO.12-0176       Date:2012/03/20 12 UTC [/B]

 NORTH PACIFIC.  
 DANGEROUS TO NAVIGATION AREA DESIGNATED  
 DUE TO SPACE VEHICLE ELEMENTS FALL.  
 251250Z TO 251450Z AND 261310Z TO  
 261510Z MAR. AREA BETWEEN 35-00N 45-00N  
 AND 170-00E 165-00W.  
 CANCEL THIS MSG 261610Z MAR. 

NAVAREA  [B]NO.12-0183       Date:2012/03/22 12 UTC [/B]

 NORTH PACIFIC.  
 DANGEROUS TO NAVIGATION AREA DESIGNATED  
 DUE TO SPACE VEHICLE ELEMENTS FALL.  
 271330Z TO 271530Z MAR. AREA BETWEEN  
 35-00N 45-00N AND 170-00E 165-00W.  
 CANCEL THIS MSG 271630Z MAR.

 

[orb]

Spaceflight Now: Russian satellite destroyed despite promise for scientists

 

[orb]

Aviation Week: Russia Deorbits Satellite Despite Salvage Plea

SPACE.com: Fiery Death of Wayward Russian Satellite Mourned by Company

 

[boogabooga]

Looks like someone couldn't pony up more than the insurance write-off...