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Russian communications satellite launched by Proton
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: December 26, 2013
Updated with spacecraft separation


A Proton rocket fired away from the snow-covered Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, completing a series of maneuvers before deploying a Russian civil communications satellite in orbit nine hours later.


The Proton rocket launched at 1049:56 GMT (5:49:56 a.m. EST; 4:49:56 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: TsENKI TV/Spaceflight Now

Liftoff of the workhorse Russian rocket from the Central Asia launch base was at 1049:56 GMT (5:49:56 a.m. EST; 4:49:56 p.m. local time).

The 19-story rocket quickly disappeared into a soupy cloud deck hanging over the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where temperatures hovered near freezing and a coating of snow blanketed the arid terrain.

The three-stage Proton launcher hurled the Express AM5 communications satellite and a Breeze M upper stage on a ballistic trajectory just shy of the velocity required to attain a stable orbit around Earth. Ten minutes after liftoff, the Breeze M separated from the Proton's third stage, according to the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Moments later, the Breeze M began an initial engine firing to reach a low-altitude parking orbit.

The Breeze M's engine ignited four times to boost the Express AM5 satellite into the correct orbit. It released the payload at 2012 GMT (3:12 p.m. EST), according to the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The Express AM5 spacecraft is owned Russian Satellite Communications Co., the country's state civil satellite operator.


Photo of the Express AM5 satellite being attached to the Proton rocket's Breeze M upper stage. Credit: Roscosmos

With a launch mass of 3.4 metric tons, or about 7,500 pounds, Express AM5 was manufactured by an industrial consortium led by ISS Reshetnev, a Russian satellite contractor. Express AM5 was the first satellite built around the heavy-class Express 2000 platform, according to ISS Reshetnev's website.

Canada's MDA Corp. built the satellite's repeater and antennas. Russia's Radio Research and Development Institute, known by the acronym NIIR, designed and manufactured the craft's communications payload, according to Reshetnev.

The satellite is designed for a 15-year lifetime and will be positioned in geostationary orbit at 140 degrees east longitude, covering Russia's Far East, Southeast Asia and Australia. Such an orbit allows the spacecraft to remain in a fixed location in the sky for users on the ground.

Express AM5 carries 40 Ku-band, 30 C-band, 12 Ka-band and two L-band transponders, according to RSCC.

The satellite will provide digital television and radio broadcasting, telephone, video conferencing, data transmission and Internet services. Like other satellites owned by RSCC, Express AM5 will also be used for mobile communications among between the Russian president and other government leaders, the company says on its website.

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Russia push forward with Saturday attempt to debut Soyuz-2-1v
December 25, 2013 by Nathaniel Downes and Chris Bergin no alt
The debut of the new Soyuz-2-1v rocket that was set to launch on Wednesday has been realigned for an attempt on Saturday at 12:30 UTC. The secretive launch of the new Soyuz – that does not sport any of the boosters familiar to the other members of the Soyuz family – is set to loft the Aist satellite and two SKRL-756 calibration spheres from launch pad 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.


UPDATE:

The launch was classed as “delayed until the new year”, following an issue with the vehicle’s pneumatic-hydraulic system at the T-10 minute mark of the countdown. However, the next attempt has since been recycled to Friday, with a T-0 of 12:30 UTC, with 14:00 UTC as a back up window. Information then arrived claiming the next attempt will be Saturday, using the same windows.

New Soyuz Launch Overview:

The Soyuz is one of the best known launch vehicles on the planet, with a rich history that ranges back into the early days of the space program,

The new vehicle is a member of the Soyuz-2 family, a direct descendant of the older and wildly successful Soyuz-U family of rockets.

Several variants of the Soyuz-2 family include the Soyuz-2-1a, an upgrade of the Soyuz-U with modern digital electronics and revised upper stage functions.

Soyuz-2-1b replaced the upper stage with a new unit, powered by an improved avionics suite and more powerful engine.

The Soyuz-ST – flown out of Kourou, French Guiana - provided a customized version of the Soyuz-2 for use by the European Space Agency (ESA).

For the 2-1v, the program is making a large change, replacing the 55 year old design for the first stage and its boosters. This initiative came after successful inaugural flight of the Soyuz-2-1b in 2008, with final approval granted for what is known as the Soyuz-2-1v program.

The Soyuz-2-1v marks an increase in the first stage diameter from 2 meters to 2.7 meters, and replaces the aged RD-108 with a new engine.

The vehicle will carry over the control and guidance systems from the Soyuz-2-1b and will interface with the already existing ground support equipment.

Per an array of presentations in the L2 Russian Section – L2 LINK - the vehicle stands 44 meters tall on the launch pad.

Replacing the legacy R-7 first stage and boosters, the new first stage sports a replacement engine, designated as the 14D15, built by the NK Engines Company.

Images of the engine show it is based on the NK-33, from Sergei Korolev’s ambitious moon rocket, the N-1.

Notably, Orbital’s Antares launch vehicle also utilizes engines derived from the NK-33 – the Aerojet-supplied AJ26-62.

While the Soyuz-2-1v uses one main engine – with a separate engine for vector and roll control – Orbital’s rocket utilizes two AJ-26′s together, in order to handle vector and roll control requirements.

This engine’s stats include a thrust rating listed at 1,545 KN (Sea Level), 1,720 KN (Vacuum), with a Thrust Specific Impulse of 297.6s (Sea Level), 331.2s (Vacuum), with a thrust range of 55 percent to 100 percent of rating.

Documentation also shows another engine on the core, the RD-0110R called the 14D24. The 14D24 handles the vector and roll controls for the first stage.

The stats for this engine include a thrust rating listed at 24.28 KN (Sea Level), 27.81 KN (Vacuum), with a Thrust Specific Impulse of 260.5s (Sea Level), 298.3s (Vacuum), while the dry weight of the engine is 425 kg, compared to 1,250 kg for the 14D15.

In addition, the new launch vehicle will debut with the new Volga insertion stage. Said to be cheaper than the Fregat stage currently in service, the Volga will cater for orbital insertion to orbits as high as 1700 km.

Built to endure up to 24 hours of operation – with multiple restart capability – the Volga is targeted at the largest base of Fregat customers on the Soyuz, those seeking mid to high orbits.

This unit has been developed internally by TsSKB, who are aiming to ensure the Volga will be compatible with the entire Soyuz-2 fleet of launch vehicles.

The company predicts it could replace the more expensive Fregat on half of missions it is currently used for.

The engine details for the Volga Upper Stage have not been disclosed at this time.

The most striking element for the Soyuz-2-1v is the removal of the distinctive boosters that are usually seen surrounding the core stage. However, careful examination of the booster reveals that there is still provision to add four boosters to the design as a potential upgrade path for the future.

Several concepts relating of this projected upgrade have appeared over the years, but have remained on the drawing board. One such upgrade is called the Soyuz-2-3, which sports boosters using the RD-0155 engine, RD-193 engine or RD-120 engine.

The design of these boosters have varied over time, but a model on display in Vienna shows a vehicle with four cylindrical boosters topped with a nose reminiscent of that found on the Energia.

Further evolution is noted in the notional Soyuz-3 project, which replaces the Soyuz-2 upper stage with a new unit, based on a Hydrogen-driven – as opposed to Kerosene – Soyuz-2 upper stage, using the new RD-0146 engine co-developed with Pratt & Whitney.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

If they are then Cool's report is the first of the plan to leak. Me though I am thinking it's more likely just another capsule. and the "news" is like the Chinese SU35 buy that never materializes.
even if they did build new Buran I would bet it would be a massive redesign. perhaps more like Kliper,

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Is Russia capable of new Buran? Yes
Do they have the need? questionable.
Do they have the Cash? Questionable.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

If they are then Cool's report is the first of the plan to leak. Me though I am thinking it's more likely just another capsule. and the "news" is like the Chinese SU35 buy that never materializes.

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Kurt said:

They do have the cash. Russia is still suffering from a major tax evasion sheme. It's normal that only 50-60% are transferred and taxed officially and 40-50% are untaxed black transfers. For this reason you have to roughly double official figures of the Russian economy.
They have yet reached a per capita status in between South Korea and Japan. This money is spent to a great part on fashionable items.
The state's high income is through exploitation of natural resources and less through direct taxation of the population. The space industry helps in discovering more such resources and is the major prestige object of Russian aspirations.

These reports are not clear, but I guess an improved Buran could be a better transport for persons and fragile load, while a cargo launcher rocket doubles for cheap satellite launches.

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Equation said:

They could do the Buran shuttle, but the question is do they still have the same engineering and scientific expertise and personnel to pull it off? After the fall of the Soviet Union a lot of those space engineers and scientist left to Europe or the US for work. So whatever direction they're going, it will mostly consist of a lot of new people to work with.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

not to mention Age. most of the top people are retired by now if not beyond that. those that remain in the program were the entry level people of the program back then. the Russians would have to find and reconstruct form scratch redesign for newer engines, technologies
the whole possess is basically clean slate which is why i find the Idea foolish.

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BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - From rocket-shaped playground equipment to faded murals of cosmonauts, mementos of the heyday of Soviet space exploration are scattered around this sandswept town that launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961.

When President Vladimir Putin described the space port on the remote Kazakh steppe as "physically aged" in April, he could have been speaking about Russia's space industry itself.

In Baikonur as elsewhere, the once-pioneering sector is struggling to live up to its legacy, end an embarrassing series of botched launches, modernize decaying infrastructure and bring in new blood and new ideas.

Putin hopes a sweeping reform he signed off on this month will not come too late to turn the industry around - part of a push to make Russia a high-technology superpower by salvaging leading Cold War-era industries and research centers.

Built far from prying eyes in a desert-like flatland in central Asia, the once-secret launch site of Sputnik and the first man in space lives on in a strange limbo, marooned in western Kazakhstan by the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Today it is the only gateway for manned flights to the International Space Station, hosting astronauts from the world, and the site of about one-third of all satellite launches.

But Baikonur has no movie theatre - let alone many of the trappings of the 21st century. Camels graze the barren steppes near rocket launch sites, and what little seems to have changed since Soviet times often looks the worse for it.

View galleryThe Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is set up on its launch …
The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is set up on its launch pad at Baikonur cosmodrome December 13, 2010. RE …
"Visitors expect a city of steel and glass like in science fiction films, but for a long time no one even knew this place existed," said Evelina Shchur, director of the space museum in a city she describes as "provincial".

Despite bigger budgets and Putin's pledge to revive the sector, Russia's space industry has been in crisis for years.

"The whole industry needs to be overhauled because the old doesn't work and the new hasn't been built," said Igor Marinin, editor of the spaceflight journal Novosti Kosmonavtiki.

REFORM LONG OVERDUE

By separating space agency Roskosmos from its contractors, the Kremlin hopes the reform will boost quality control and end a calamitous series of blunders like July's crash of a Proton rocket carrying a $200-million payload.

"We have big plans," the new Roskosmos chief, Oleg Ostapenko, told Reuters last month. "We will do everything possible to get rid of the black marks on our reputation."

The reform also aims to streamline production by uniting suppliers into a new state-run firm.

View gallerySpecialists move the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft in the …
Specialists move the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft in the assembling hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Se …
Roskosmos will be left in charge only of policy, research and ground infrastructure such as the Baikonur cosmodrome.

"It will be very difficult, but the Kremlin realizes it can't keep living the old way," said Sergey Pekhterev, head of Russian sat-com firm SetTelecom. "The latest Proton accident showed the inexplicable degree of degradation in the sector."

The United Rocket and Space Corporation is to be created by mid-April on the grounds of a space research institute, and officials say the restructuring will cost nothing extra. An experienced plant manager, the former head of car-maker Avtovaz, Igor Komarov, 49, has been tapped to lead it.

Critics of the plan say it will eliminate competition and that the shake-up may bring more confusion to the industry, but many insiders say reform is long overdue.

"The industry has been stagnant, it's been rotting, there were big problems, but now a path has been decided on to fix them," Marinin said.

While Russia is the world leader in space launches and Russian-built engines equip U.S. rockets, it holds less than 10 percent of the multi-billion dollar global space market.

'NOTHING TO SHOW FOR THE MONEY'

Despite the cash, the industry is so inefficient it cannot deliver on orders, and funds are misused or even stolen. "The money is received but there is nothing to show for it," Marinin said.

A scathing report by the Russian Audit Chamber said the industry spends four times more than the global norm on satellites that are poor in quality and prone to accidents.

"Satellites are decades in the making with no hope of market returns," the state agency, which supervises the use of government finances, said in a July report.

Russia's lead in a global satellite launch industry estimated to be worth around $55 billion over the next decade is now also on the line.

Launch failures have driven up insurance costs and caused lengthy delays, giving a boost to launch rival Arianespace and helping newcomer SpaceX to enter the market.

Since 2010, botched launches have rendered useless or slashed the lifespan of 12 Russian satellites.

View galleryWorkers renovate a model of a Proton booster rocket …
Workers renovate a model of a Proton booster rocket, with an illustration of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri G …
"Today the state of our orbital grouping is catastrophic," Yuri Koptev, a former space agency chief, told parliament on December 19. "We lag behind not only the United States and Europe but also China and India."

The Russian-made orbiters lofted in the late 1980s and 1990s had such poor electronics that some lasted no more than a year compared to 10 years for U.S. craft.

Up to 80 percent of the equipment on new Russian spacecraft is imported, built in tandem with Europe's ThalesAlenia Space or Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA).

BRAIN DRAIN

Russia meanwhile has lost a generation of experts who would be in management positions today but left the industry or the country after the Soviet collapse. Of 240,000 people employed by the sector, almost 90 percent are either older than 60 or younger than 30.

"There's trouble at all the factories - a whole layer of engineers is lost," Soviet cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, 73, said.

"It's the same at Roskosmos. There are no experts left there, only colonels and generals," he grumbled, in a dig at the selection of Roskosmos' last three heads from the military.

In Baikonur, a school tries to fire up students' interest in space at an early age with rocket modeling design classes and test flights in the yard. But it will be years before any become engineers.

The legendary space port's future itself is clouded. Russia has agreed to lease Baikonur from Kazakhstan until 2050, but it plans to move the majority of space launches to a new cosmodrome it is building in the Far East.

Russians have been leaving since the heyday of Soviet spending on space in the 1980s. Only 30 percent of the 70,000 residents are now Russian. On the edge of town, Kazakh migrants squat in apartment blocks vacated by space technicians.

"You'll be preparing to launch into space, running along this historic river, and there is a camel herder," said NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, recalling his preparations for launch aboard the Soyuz craft in 2011.

"We joke that it's not the end of the world but you can see it from here."

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