Satellite News

The International Launch Servies (ILS) Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) concluded its review on 7 February concurring on the most probable root cause and the associated corrective action plan of the 8 December 2012 anomaly of the Yamal 402 Proton launch.

Sea Launch said that the failed launch of Intelsat 27 likely is related to a problem with the thrust-vector control of the first stage engine. The first meeting of the Failure Review Oversight Board is planned for the end of February or early March.

The first stage engine of the Zenit-3SL rocket that failed shortly after launch on 1 February operated normally during and after the lift-off, Roskosmos said.

Sea Launch AG announced that approximately 40 seconds after lift-off of the launch of the Intelsat 27 spacecraft aboard a Zenit 3SL, all telemetry was lost indicating a loss of mission. The spacecraft, built by Boeing Space & Intelligence 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.

Roskosmos management has reviewed and approved the report provided by the Russian working group investigating the Proton launch anomaly during the Yamal 402 mission and have provided the report to Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center (Khrunichev). The findings on the identified most probable root cause of the anomaly and the required corrective actions will be released to ILS after the report clears Russian security during the week of 21 January.

The instrument aboard CNES’ CoRoT (Convection, Rotation & planetary Transits) spacecraft stopped producing scientific data on 2 November. Efforts to revive the instrument have so far been unsuccessful, and scientists are reportedly losing optimism in the recovery of the instrument.

27 December 2012 – The Russian Commission, convened by Khrunichev, continues its investigation and is preparing a report concerning the root cause of the ILS Proton launch anomaly on 8 December with the Yamal 402 satellite. Various root cause scenarios are being evaluated prior to the issuance of a final conclusive report.

Russian space agency Roskosmos experts say the destruction of a bearing inside the turbopump of the Briz-M upper stage’s engine is the most likely reason for the initial failure of Russia’s Yamal-402 satellite to reach its designated orbit, the Kommersant business daily reported.