Launch News (Failure) Meridian #5 atop Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat on December 23, 2011

[Cosmic Penguin]

I have tried a very rough simulation of the actual launch, with a custom scenario created with several add-ons (notably the French Soyuz add-on modified by me) and custom configuration files to fit approximately with the parameters of the Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat and the Meridian payload. With a shutdown of the engine at T+ 421 seconds, I have the ground speed at ~ 5.67 km/s, the altitude at ~166 km, the nominal point of re-entry south-southwest of Novosibirsk, and the time of re-entry at about 11 minutes after launch (~12:19 UTC, in agreement of the photos taken on the ground). More information will come later when I can do another refined simulation...

OK here's a slightly refined simulation of the launch. I will leave the pictures to speak for themselves.... (note that to follow the launch simulation chronologically, you should look at the last picture and work backwards to get a sense of what's going on!)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Awesome! Did you save a kml/kmz for use in Google Earth?

upd: http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=223495

Novosibirsk, December 24. INTERFAX-SIBIR. A fragment of Meridian spacecraft punched a hole sized 1m x 1.5m in the roof of a house in Vagaitsevo village of Ordynsky district of Novosibirsk territory, told us one of the local inhabitants.

According to him, the house's owner located at Cosmonauts street and the moment of impact was outside his house, collecting firewood, and still refuses to discuss the event.

Again, it's not a part of the spacecraft itself, it's can only be a steel spherical tank for pressurized Helium, originally placed iside the LOX tank (so, phew, it's not toxic) of Block I:

Its diameter is 40 cm, empty weight is 47 kg.

http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=223498

Local powers are ready to lend their assistance in repairing the house that suffered from an impact of space debris from the failed Meridian spacecraft launch. "At present, the damage is being assessed by specialists, after which we agree on the amount of aid required", said us the District's head. According to him, the metal piece "Punched a hole 1m x 1.5m in the roof and damaged the chimney-breast. "I spoke to the host, the piece of metalware didn't do very much havoc", he said.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Awesome! Did you save a kml/kmz for use in Google Earth?

Nope. I don't think this is even possible without using Throton's add-on (I am using [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3898"]this one[/ame]).

 

[SiberianTiger]

Some videos are made available.

The launch video on Vesti:
http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=385610

The roof hole video:
http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=385710

 

[RisingFury]

I'm surprised at how little damage there is. This was a very lucky moment in a very bad situation.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Pic of the object that ended up at the attic of Andrey Krivoruchkin's house.

Findings of other debris were reported in adjacent settlements today. People most often locate them in their gardens.

 

[N_Molson]

That could be a typical pressurization tank, no ?

 

[SiberianTiger]

That could be a typical pressurization tank, no ?

Yes, although I'm not completely sure which part of the stack it's from.

Two in-flight videos of the rocket.

The 1st is taken from a window of an airplane flying somewhere precisely downrange:

People speaking in the background managed to identify it as a Soyuz LV launch and stage separation.

The 2nd is a footage by someone on the ground who had no clue what the "UFO" was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=rKfjdpli5DA

This might be a 2nd or 3rd stage burning (not sure which was the observation location).

 

[SiberianTiger]

Here's the recorded news conference: http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7252

Actually, it was Andrey Krasilnikov (he's a guy) from NK asking when will be the next time a Block DM-3 upper stage flies. Popovkin did attempt to respond, but his mike got shut down somehow. And maybe the press conference time has run out. So everybody just stood up and left.

I don't see any sign of a bad PR here.

 

[SiberianTiger]

OK here's a slightly refined simulation of the launch. I will leave the pictures to speak for themselves.... (note that to follow the launch simulation chronologically, you should look at the last picture and work backwards to get a sense of what's going on!)

Galactic Penguin SST, do you mind posting your scenario?

 

[SiberianTiger]

Magnified picture of the residual cloud at about T+450 over the city of Tobolsk. (source)

The spiral structure in the centre is notable.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Interestingly, the next Soyuz launch: the December 28 launch of 6 Globalstar satellites on a Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat from Baikonur will NOT be delayed (indeed the rocket has been transferred to pad 31/6 today!). Presumably the Russians are confident that the RD-0124 is to blame...

 

[SiberianTiger]

Two videos taken by car video loggers.

1st, from Chelyabinsk, shows how a luminous gas cloud suddenly appeared at 18:15:18 local time.

The next one is the final reentry seen from Novosibirsk:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHFi-r4X01U"]Падение спутника под Новосибирском - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

I finally found a good news report about the launch itself.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Some good photography work from photographer Dmitriy Christoprudov:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_le1J1kr-7k"]Запуск «Меридиана» с ракетой-носителем «Союз» [/ame]

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://academ.info/news/19255

Search in Novosibirsk territory continues to yield more fragments of the satellite
28.12.2011 14:39

A search group consisting of hunters and foresters have located two more fragments of the Meridian satellite that crashed last Friday in Novosibirsk territory, reports Interfax news agency.

A top specialist of Main Operations Directorate of Emergency Command Anatoly Rosyansky said: "Now we have confirmed information of location of one more satellite's fragment in a remote settlement Borisovskoye in Ordynsky district. Right now our group is returning from there with that piece."

According to him, in Novosibirsk territory from the moment of disaster 12 pieces of the satellites have been located. "One of the fragments was doubled, so we have counted it as 11th, but now there are 12 fragments in total".

http://www.utro.ru/articles/2011/12/26/1019532.shtml

The family which suffered from Meridian satellite impact will sue Roscosmos
The Siberians who made a too close encounter with space technologies are preparing to claim a retribution from Roscosmos

A family from the village Vogaytsevo from Ordynsky district of Novosibirsk territory, on whose house the wreckage crashed "Meridian" fell on Friday, are going to submit an application against the Federal Space Agency to a court. A fragment of a satellite with a diameter about half meter almost crashed through their roof.

"We talked yesterday with my husband what to do and how to do that" - told RIA Novosti the victim Galina Krivoruchenko. - "We do not know where and to whom to sue. Some people say we should claim from Roscosmos, and others say that we should go after the Army. I asked my daughter to look up any information on the Internet. "

The amount Krivoruchenko are planning to claim from the agency, has not been determined yet. The hole in the roof of the house have already been patched by Andrew, head of the family. Previously, he claimed that the district's administration had decided to pay him for the damages incurred, and therefore he wasn't going to sue anyone in a court.

However, Krivoruchenko had to do his home's repair on his own expense eventually. "The military initially asked us not to worry about anything and promised me to repair the damage in a short time, and told me that my family and me would forget about the fall of the satellite on our home as a nightmare. But the next day no one was repairing the roof and it seemed that every official got to hide away somewhere. I had to apply to the administration. The administration told me that they could not repair my home now. They had no money for it. And the Ministry of Defense simply disown eliminating the effects of the fall of the satellite. They did not even contact us after that"- quoted his words "Liga Novosti".

By the way, another victim of the falling satellite - a resident of the same village Alexander Klyushev, is not complaining about Roscosmos. A piece of the Meridian punched a hole in the roof of his barn, but the retired resident isn't going to submit a claim file. "I was about to take that barn down anyway, but just not had got down to that." - he said.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Few probably valuable pieces of information from NK forum:

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=861496#861496

It seems like the engine is not to blame. An abnormal function of the tank pressurization system is suspected.

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=861530#861530

"How to explain abnormal pressure only in one chamber of the four by abnormal tank pressurization?"

"If you drive the turbopump in cavitation conditions, everything is possible."

"Pressurization was OK, but close to the lower margin. Pressure at the engine's feed was just 0.11 kgf/cm^2 more than the operating margin. This engine with old design of the inlet manifold, there were problems with that manifold's soldering. A firing test was failed once with this version. After that all engines in that run were scrutinized, and one got a chamber replaced. The manifold was redesigned after that test. Common sense's call was to cull away this engine, but CADB have given their clearance again, and everybody agreed with them due to number of reasons, and chief customers also signed it off."

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=861411#861411

(commenting on Putin's opinion that quality checks should be more strict in the space industry)

I want to say that "it began when the space industry was transformed to self sufficiency and profit has become paramount". A design bureau can no longer plan any expenses for failed tests in its budget. No customer would ever agree to pay for such things. All difference should now be paid away from the profit of the bureau. And how much of that profit do we have? We have to pull the belt in on everything! At the same time, in addition to losses we suffer from accidents, we can "go negative" due to "nonfulfillment of a plan". Go try to disqualify any satellite/rocket/engine for your own expense, if you can't deny there's a sort of workaround for an issue.

When CPUs are produced, the percentage of culling is between 20% and 80%, and when it comes to rocketry, they demand 0% of rejected production and "triple nine" reliability...

They on top like to talk about quality, but they don't like to provide for the much desired quality and pay for it.

 

[orb]

RIA Novosti: Engine Failure Behind Meridian Satellite Crash:

The crash of Russia’s Meridian communication satellite late last year was caused by the destruction of one of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket’s engines, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, said on Tuesday.

“An inter-agency commission has concluded that the reason was an early opening of the combustion section of the rocket’s third stage,” Popovkin said during a meeting dedicated to Russia’s space industry development.

As a result, he said, the combustion section has “virtually burned through.”

{...}

 

[SiberianTiger]

A combustion chamber was meant.