Sea Launch A G suffered a major, and possibly crippling setback in efforts to regain a meaningful market position in the early hours of Friday morning (EST) when its Zenit 3-SL launch vehicle veered off its course immediately following liftoff. 50 seconds later, the main engine shut down, terminating thrust and sending the rocket and its Intelsat -27 payload […]
Source: Russianspaceweb.com The year 2012 was a difficult one for the Russian space program, which ended on a sour note when its workhorse Proton boosted placed a Yamal-402 satellite in the wrong orbit. It was eventually boosted to the correct orbit using onboard fuel, albeit at a cost to its expected lifespan. This came on the heals of […]
Source: RIA Novosti The Russian space agency Roscosmos released a document Saturday prioritizing space goals through 2020. The plan, which was apparently approved in December, calls for a $69 billion investment and continues the focus on consolidating the sprawling space infrastructure into a much smaller number of holding companies with the ultiamte goal of attracting commercial investment. New starts in human spaceflight […]
Sources: RIA Novosti, Spacepolicyonline.com Investigation of a December 8 launch incident which saw a Proton booster deliver the Yamal 402 satellite to the wrong orbit has focused on a failed turbopump bearing in the Briz-M upper stage. Although the satellite was eventually boosted to the proper orbit using its own on-board propellant, the mission saving manuever did not come without a cost, most likely […]
Source RIA Novosti: A Russian Proton-M rocket marked by International Launch Services failed to place a Gazprom Space Systems communications satellite into the correct orbit following a 5:13 PM launch (Moscow time) from the Baikononur Space Center in Kazakstan on Saturday, December 8. According to early reports, the Yamal-402 satellite, built by Thales Alenia and consisting of 46 KU band transponders, separated four minutes earlier […]
Source: RIANOVSTI It would perhaps be more than a little overreach to describe the state of the Russian space industry as a “train wreck,” but news that a Proton rocket, scheduled to launch the Satmex-8 telecommunications satellite was damaged during rail transport last week and will be need to be replaced, does little to bolster confidence in the […]
NASA’s Mars Program Planning Group delivered its summary report today, a copy of which is here. The 66 page document firmly establishes a Mars Sample Return as the next logical goal for Mars exploration, but examines a number of different architectures for achieving that goal, some of which involve multiple pre-cursor missions. Certain to be debated and offering […]
With the failed launch of the fourth Russian Proton rocket in the last 48 missions on August 6, 2012 due to a failed Briz-M upper stage, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatening reprisals for producing “low quality products” one has to wonder if the commercial launch market is due for a major shakeup. The Proton, which is marketed commercially by International Launch Services of Reston, Virginia, […]
According to an article in SpaceNews, Asiasat has recently placed a launch order with ILS for a Proton launch as a hedge against possible delays in the introduction of the Falcon 9 V1.1. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the article is the fact that it contains pricing information for both launch vehicles. Specifically, SpaceX pricing for both Asiasat launches […]
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