Proton-M & 3 Glonass-M Satellites (March 1st, 2010)

[Zipi]

Launch time: 21:19 GMT (4:19 p.m. EST)
Launch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

A Russian government Proton rocket will launch a trio of spacecraft for the Glonass satellite navigation constellation. Delayed from September and October 2009 and February.

Live stream from TV Tsenki: http://www.tv-tsenki.com/livechoose.php

Proton Rocket Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket)
Proton-M Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-M
Khrunichev's Proton Page: http://www.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=42&lang=en
Khrunichev's Proton Photo Gallery: http://www.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=135&lang=en

Glonass Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS
Official Glonass Site: http://www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru/pls/html ... 3506720876
RIA Novosti's Small Article of the Coming Launch: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100215/157886795.html

Baikonur Space Port: intensive operations with Proton-M/DM-2/cluster of three Glonass-M satellites continue at Baikonur. Specialists of the rocket and space industry completed assembly and tests of the launch vehicle.
MLI cover is installed today on the space upper composite.
Proton-M undergoes final operations, to be followed by rocket accommodation on the transport car.
The roll-out is planned on Feb. 26.
The launch is to take place on March 2, at 0:19 Moscow time.

Quoted from: http://www.roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=8804&lang=en

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Khrunichev's Press Release:

Proton M With Three GLONASS Spacecraft Rolled Out To Launch Pad 26.02.2010

Today, on February 26, at 3 a.m. Moscow Time ( MT), the Proton M launch vehicle fully integrated with three GLONASS spacecraft was rolled out from the Launch Vehicle Assembly and Test Building (“MIK 92-A50) to Launch Pad 81, where the final pre-launch processing of the Integrated Launch Vehicle (ILV) will be performed by personnel of Russian space industry enterprises.

The Proton launch under global navigation satellite system GLONASS program is scheduled for March 2, at 0:19 MT, according to Roscosmos.

This will be the 3rd Proton lift off this year. Since the beginning of the year the Proton has already successfully performed two missions – a launch with a Russian military satellite and a commercial mission with the Intelsat 16 satellite under the auspices of ILS.

Quoted From: http://www.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=1&nid=511&lang=en

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

This is a third Proton launch this year, hard to say much new, so i will just drop in some old links :
Jan. 27 Proton - Raduga ( forum )


Feb. 11 Proton - Intelsat 16 ( forum )


and maybe some more pictures

Rocket pictures and info from International Launch Services,
Proton/Breeze M Rocket
I think this is the same :

1st Stage: Engine(s): Six RD-253

or RD-275 :
Designer : Glushko, Energomash
staged combustion
Picture

Energomash : RD-253

2nd Stage: Engine(s): Four RD-0210

I think, designer Kosberg, Chemical Automatics Design Bureau
Engine Cycle: closed (oxidiser pre-burner gas routed to main chamber after driving turbine)


3rd Stage :

Engine(s): One RD-0213

RD-0212
Credit - © Dietrich Haeseler

http://www.russianspaceweb.com :
Block D upper stage :

A propulsion section of Block D. Copyright © 2000 by Anatoly Zak

Wiki:
Block D
from S.P. KOROLEV ROCKET AND SPACE CORPORATION «ENERGIA»
Upper stages

Engines are probably ( Korolov - Energia )
Liquid-Propellant-Rocket Engine 11D58M

alternative upper stage:
ILS: Breeze-M :
Engines: RD-2000 - RD0146 ?
KBKhA : RD0146
Pratt&Whitney : RD0146 Propulsion System Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
(Info from http://www.russianspaceweb.com : RD-0146 rocket engine

from Norbert Brügge, Germany www-pages

General info from Wiki :
Liquid-fuel rocket

Liquid rocket propellants

Hypergolic propellant

Dinitrogen tetroxide

Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine

Liquid oxygen

Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1 or RP-1

Liquid hydrogen

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Some photos from Proton-M rollout:

Few more photos can be found from rollout article:
http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id= ... 13&lang=en

Rollout Youtube Video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9kbG5YRrM[/youtube]

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

New users of the system :
The First-Ever Russian Municipal Space Program Approved in Odintsovo Region

27.02.2010

Roscosmos and Odintsovo municipal region signed an agreement “Application of Space Technologies in Odintsovo Municipal Region” on Sept. 25, 2009.
On Feb. 19, 2010, the dedicated program for 2010-2011 prepared NPK-RECOD and Odintsovo Humanitarian Institute was approved.

and news from the pad:
Proton-M/Glonass-M Prelaunch Operations Continue: L-3

27.02.2010

After the rollout of the Proton-M/DM-2 with the cluster of three Glonass-M satellites yesterday and its erection on launch pad 81, specialist of the rocket and space industry began operations with the LV.

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Glonass Manufacturer's Web Site:
http://www.iss-reshetnev.com/

Their Glonass-M Page:
http://www.iss-reshetnev.com/?cid=meoca&caid=34

Service type: navigation
Orbit: Middle-high circular
Lifetime: 7 years
Launching mass: 1415 kg
Power supply system: 1400 W
Flight test beginning: December, 10, 2003
Launch vehicle: Proton

ISS-Reshethev seem to have more information at their Russian language pages:
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=ru&tl=en
(without Google Translation: http://www.iss-reshetnev.ru/)

ISS-Reshetnev's Glonass-M Program Page:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... 5NhLdohaRw
(without Google Translation: http://www.iss-reshetnev.ru/?cid=prj_ca_glonassm)

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

This includes some nice footage about cleaning up used Proton wrecks:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWSUm46IAqg[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

SiberianTiger has posted his excellent info package: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=14661

Glonass launch with Proton:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9wc18fMv4A[/youtube]

Processing of the satellite cluster:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd5FYngCPMw[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

TV Tsenki's live coverage has already started. For me this stream seems to work better:

http://www.tv-tsenki.com/live3.php

The other one:

http://www.tv-tsenki.com/live1.php

When using the first one (live3.php), you can switch to full screen mode by moving your mouse above the video and clicking the text (pa3BepHVTb) which appears to top right corner of the video.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

GMT 21:13

On the pad :


and awaaaay ..

There will be some nice shots, but i will wait for HD video.

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Really nice looking launch once again. :mrgreen:

Shame though that their live stream don't make justice how beautiful machines they are. But luckily in a day or two there will be official Roscosmos Youtube video available which should be as awesome as always.

If the history repeates itself soon will come the launch replays from live stream.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

That flash on the pad was very nice, and than that cloud tube, lovely :mrgreen:

I must learn to pay closer attention to the clock though ..

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Poor quality rip from the live stream:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6txBC4FNjn0[/youtube]

The official one will be so much better and more detailed...

 

[edkyle99]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Rocket pictures and info from International Launch Services,
Proton/Breeze M Rocket

This launch vehicle was a Proton M with a Blok DM-2 fourth stage. It was the fifth flight using this combination.

- Ed Kyle

 

[Zipi]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Rocket pictures and info from International Launch Services,
Proton/Breeze M Rocket

This launch vehicle was a Proton M with a Blok DM-2 fourth stage. It was the fifth flight using this combination.

- Ed Kyle

Yep, Block DM-2 configuration with Proton is solely used for Glonass satellite launches. It is quite rare compared to Breeze-M upperstaged Protons and quite hard to find charts about it. The cutout image in my first post have also Proton with Breeze-M upper stage.

But seems that the information about used upperstage was not properly advertised in this thread at all. But perhaps in the next launch thread I or somebody else remembers to mention it somewhere in the beginning.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: March 1, Proton-M Launch with 3 Glonass-M Satellites

Thank you for noting this. I was in a bit of doubt about it too, but after a couple of hours digging into it i got lost. I will post technical data for DM-2 upper stage ASP.

 

[Zipi]

EarthlingX, update your old post to contain correct information about Block DM-2 instead of Breeze-M (but copy&paste the current for your own archives, since you'll need it for the next Proton-M launch ).

Two photo reports have been released from the launch: (seems that currently only Russian version is available)

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id= ... 97&lang=ru
http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id= ... 00&lang=ru

Two photos for teasers: (more from above links)





SPACE.COM Launch Article:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ru ... 00301.html

 

[nimbus]

It's very rude to point this out - but it would be fair to wikipedia to save the pics to disk and reupload them on some free hosting service like flickr or photobucket, etc. Wikipedia still chronically shows those "please donate" ads complete with the founder's pleading mugshot.

That said, thank you for taking the time to compile these.

 

[Zipi]

It's very rude to point this out - but it would be fair to wikipedia to save the pics to disk and reupload them on some free hosting service like flickr or photobucket, etc. Wikipedia still chronically shows those "please donate" ads complete with the founder's pleading mugshot.

That said, thank you for taking the time to compile these.

Probably true, but I have to admit that I have been too lazy to do so and the bandwidth consumption is pretty minor if we are looking the counters of these threads and the size of the images. And in most cases I always use the smallest image available in Wikipedia while linking it to the bigger one. So far I have posted only one Wikipedia image to this thread and EarthlingX have posted 6. I don't like those free image hosting services and if I start copying images away from Wikipedia then I'll use my own web hosting space for that. Also in copyright point of view I have wanted to keep the images there where they have been before without republishing them (I always try to provide links to the original material as well).

Having this said, I can copy the needed images to my web hosting space if the audience (or some official party) wants so, but I'm not doing that eagerly.

 

[nimbus]

Mostly for traffic (copyright's a non issue unless I'm mistaken), and mostly by principle, yes. Just pointing it out, no sweat.

 

[EarthlingX]

I updated post with DM upper stage info, but i'am not sure about the engines. I think it should be DM-3 or 4 type, and i think i saw somewhere something about it. Please check if there's any more silliness :roll:

 

[Zipi]

Mostly for traffic (copyright's a non issue unless I'm mistaken), and mostly by principle, yes. Just pointing it out, no sweat.

No problem, for now on I will only use Wikipedia links and find images from the other sites (or if I have to use Wikipedia images I'll copy them to my web hosting space). I have already changed the first post on this thread to Wikipedia image free, so I don't have any more bad karma about this in this thread. I also changed the next Ariane 5 thread to Wikipedia image free.

 

[EarthlingX]

I think, that if i can't link pictures from another site, then they don't appreciate it, like astronautix, which i will not link anymore. If they keep linked images online, then i think it's only fair from me, to link it to the picture's page, with annotations and choices of resolution, type, and all sorts of copyright and advertising messages they think are required.
In other words, if i can't link it, they probably don't appreciate me reposting it either.

For me, this is preferred way, but i don't expect other people to follow my example, i'm just trying to explain what i do and why.

 

[Zipi]

EarthlingX: nimbus have some sort of point behind his opinion about trying to reduce Wikipedia's unnecessary bandwidth usage. Still the number of how many times these threads containing Wikipedia images are loaded is meaningless to their bandwidth usage which leaves this in principle level. Wikipedia is such great source of information that I decided not to encourage anyone to use content from their pages by embedding it to our own content other than link level. Basically this same applies to all image linking but I don't care about commercial parties since I give them credit of their content in form of links back to their sites. I'm not judging you or I'm not denying you to use Wikipedia images, but I just wanted to tell what made me to do my decision. So by all means you can continue as you have been doing by my opinion. But enough OT for this thread.

Energia has published a press release since Block DM-2 is built by them:

March 2, 2010, RSC Energia after S.P. Korolev, the Baikonur branch - Baikonur Cosmodrome
At 00 hours 19 minutes Moscow Time (MSK), launch vehicle (LV) Proton-M together with Upper Stage (US) DM and three spacecraft (SC) GLONASS-M were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The launch objective is to augment the Russian group of global navigation satellite system GLONASS.

Under the Mission Program, US DM succeeded in these SC delivery to target near-earth orbit from low near-earth orbit where LV had delivered US with the three clustered SC.

Following two sequential firings of the US Main Engine, which had been carried out with no remarks, SC were separated from US at the estimated time.

US prelaunch processing on the Cosmodrome was conducted under S.P. Korolev RSC Energia's technical management. The Corporation specialists took part in the US launch and function monitoring during its operation.

For reference:

US of DM type developed and manufactured by RSC Energia after S.P. Korolev are designed to deliver SC from low near-earth orbits to high-energy orbits (including geosynchronous orbit), as well as to flight paths leading to Moon and Solar system planets. They run on ecosafe propellant components (liquid oxygen and kerosene). They have history of long-term operational use verifying their high technical and operational characteristics. At the present time, their modern modifications are in use.

Quoted from: http://www.energia.ru/en/news/news-2010/news_03-02.html

 

[EarthlingX]

Roger. I apologise for being a bit jumpy, will consider it in the future.

Actually, i'll get to it, like right now.

edit:
Darn ..

Any better ?