Launch News Arianespace Soyuz-STA flight VS07 with Sentinel 1A, April 3, 2014

[Cosmic Penguin]

One of Europe's most expensive space program ever, a large scale Earth observation satellite program that promises to provide unprecedented environmental data to European governments, institutions and and general public finally kicks start tomorrow. Jointly operated by the European Space Agency and the European Commission, the Copernicus Program aims to map the Earth's land, ocean and atmosphere with a fleet of new satellites, known as the Sentinel series, to replace the old ERS and Envisat satellites providing optical and radar images of the Earth, as well as ocean height, temperature, and also atmosphere composition information.

Tomorrow's launch is carrying the first satellite of the program into space - Sentinel 1A. It is a C-band radar satellite that will not only map all the land features day and night, but also looks for polar ice, chemical changes in the ocean and even finding ships. The radar system will provide more flexible/wider imaging strips at higher resolution than the radar on the late Envisat.

Launch location:

Kourou ELS 5°18'18"N 52°50'02"W

Launch dates and times:

[table="head"]{colsp=7}Launch times

Time Zone|Australia - Sydney/AEDT|Moscow / MSK/ UTC+4|CEDT UTC+2|Universal / UTC|Washington / EDT|French Guiana / UTC-3​

Launch time:|08:02:26|01:02:26|23:02:26|21:02:26|17:02:26|18:02:26

on:|Apr. 4, 2014|Apr. 4, 2014|Apr. 3, 2014|Apr. 3, 2014|Apr. 3, 2014|Apr. 3, 2014​

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[eventTimer]2014-04-03 21:02:26?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Sentinel 1A Launch[/highlight]​

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Live Coverage

• http://www.arianespace.tv/ - begins 20 minutes before the launch

PAYLOAD

Sentinel 1A C-band radar Earth observation satellite

The Sentinel-1 satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in 2014, is part of the GMES program - Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - a set of Earth observation missions co-funded by ESA and the European Commission. GMES represents the European answer to the ever-increasing requirements of environmental control, and thus provides an important contribution to environmental policies at a global level.

As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space Italy is responsible for the design, development and integration of the satellite that will carry a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The radar will be based on Thales Alenia Space's key technologies such as the Transmit-Receive modules inside the active antenna.

Based on a Prima platform, developed by Thales Alenia Space for the Italian Space Agency, Sentinel-1 will weigh 2,280 kilograms at launch and will look at the Earth in swaths up to 700 kilometers with a ground resolution of between 5 and 25 meters according to the selected operative mode.

The ESA Sentinel suite is composed of five satellites series. Sentinel-1 will ensure the continuity with ERS and Envisat C-band SAR data. Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites are scheduled for launch in 2012 and will support land and ocean monitoring. Sentinel-4 and 5 will be dedicated to meteorology and climatology through atmospheric chemistry study.

In December 2009 ESA signed a contract for a duplicate second spacecraft called Sentinel-1B.

[table="head"]{colsp=2}Characteristics

|[table="head"]{colsp=2}

Sentinel 1A​

Prime contractor:​

|Thales Alenia Space

Mass at Separation:​

|

• 2157 kg

Stabilization:​

|

• 3 axis stabilized

Dimensions:​

|

• 3.8 m diameter, 4.4 m height

Power:​

|

• 6.14 kW at beginning of life

Life time:​

|

• 7.25 years

Instruments:​

|

• C-band synthetic aperture radar

Orbit:​

|

• 693 km circular SSO, inclination 98.18°

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Launch Vehicle:

[table="head"]{colsp=2}Characteristics

|[table="head"]{colsp=2}

Soyuz-2.1a​

Prime contractor:​

|

• Samara Space Sentre (Energia Holding enterprise)
  

GRAU Index:​

|

• 14A14

Height:​

| 51.1 m

Diameter:​

| max 10.3 m

Liftoff mass:​

| 313 metric tonnes

Payload mass:​

| up to 6830 kg (a launch to LEO from Plesetsk)

1st stage (boosters B, V, G, D):​

|

• 4 X RD-107 engines
• Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
• Thrust/ISP in vacuum - / 320.2 s
• Thrust/ISP at sea level 85.6 tonnes / 263.3 s

2nd stage (core A):​

|

• 1 X RD-108 engine
• Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
• Thrust/ISP in vacuum 94 tonnes / 320.6 s
• Thrust/ISP at sea level 80.8 tonnes / 257.7 s

3rd stage (block I):​

|

• 1 X RD-0110 engine
• Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
• Thrust/ISP in vacuum 30.38 tonnes / 326 s

Upper Stage:​

|

• GRAU Index: -
• Common Name: Fregat (meaning Frigate)
• Designer & Manufacturer: Lavochkin Association (NPO)
• Dimensions: Length 2.4 m, Diameter (max) 3.350 m
• Empty Mass 930 kg
• Propellants 5250 kg max

• Main Engine: 1 X S5.92
• Thrust in vacuum 2.0 tonnes of force (full power)
• Thrust in vacuum 1.4 tonnes of force (small power)
• ISP 333.2 s

Payload Fairing:​

|

• Diameter 3.7 m
• Length 7.7 m

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The launch vehicle's reliability standings (according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2014.html#rate):

================================================================ 
Vehicle     Successes/Tries Realzd Pred  Consc. Last     Dates    
                             Rate  Rate* Succes Fail    
================================================================
Soyuz 2-1a/Fregat  12    13#   .92  .87     10    5/21/09  2006-

Ascent profile

Weather Forecast for Sinnamary, French Guiana on April 3, 2014 (6 p.m.)

Partly cloudy skies. High near 27C. Winds NE at 15 to 25 kmh.

Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Cloud cover|Pressure|Wind|Weather
4 PM|27°C|23°C|79%|20%|0%|46%|1010 hPa|18 km/h NE|

Partly Cloudy

References
http://www.arianespace.com
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/
http://www.copernicus.eu/
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sentinel-1.htm
http://www.csgpreparationlancement.com/
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://astronautique.actifforum.com
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
www.russianspacweb.com
http://www.samspace.ru
http://www.laspace.ru
http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=zmw:00000.1.81403

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Webcast starting.....

 

[Ripley]

Liftoff!
...And a spectacular booster sep!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

....and Sentinel 1A is in orbit!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[N_Molson]

That rocket is awesome

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

First time ever: camera on the Fregat upper stage recording the separation of Sentinel 1A!

(There were even reports that there may be cameras on the Soyuz rocket exterior, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. Hopefully.....)

Meanwhile, Sentinel 1A has deployed its solar panels and the antenna:

 

[boogabooga]

Youtube video is down

 

[IronRain]

Fixed :thumbup:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

OH MY WORD YESSSS!!

And....

 

[IronRain]

Awesome!

 

[N_Molson]

R-7 + rocketcams (Made in Germany) = great idea :thumbup:

 

[mahdavi3d]

Chile earthquake on the radar

HI-RES
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA SEOM INSARAP study PPO.labs/NORUT


On 16 September 2015, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of central Chile, triggering tsunami warnings and coastal evacuations. Lasting three minutes, this powerful earthquake occurred along the boundary of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates.

By combining Sentinel-1A radar scans from 24 August and 17 September, the rainbow-coloured patterns in the image show how the surface has shifted as a result of the quake. ‘Interferograms’ such as these allow scientists to quantify ground movement. By counting the ‘fringes’, it is estimated that the earthquake caused a displacement of 1.4 m along the viewing direction of the radar observation. In addition, a 0.5 m horizontal movement is estimated along the flight direction of the satellite.

Sentinel-1A’s all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery is particularly suited to support impact assessment for many types of geohazards. Read more about ESA’s InSARap project.

Sentinel-1A was developed and is operated by ESA. It was the first satellite launched for Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme, which is led by the European Commission.

ESA

 

[orb]

ESA: Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite hit by space particle

BEFORE​

|

AFTER​

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31 August 2016

ESA engineers have discovered that a solar panel on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite was hit by a millimetre-size particle in orbit on 23 August. Thanks to onboard cameras, ground controllers were able to identify the affected area. So far, there has been no effect on the satellite’s routine operations.

A sudden small power reduction was observed in a solar array of Sentinel-1A, orbiting at 700 km altitude, at 17:07 GMT on 23 August. Slight changes in the orientation and the orbit of the satellite were also measured at the same time.

Following a preliminary investigation, the operations team at ESA’s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany suspected a possible impact by space debris or micrometeoroid on the solar wing.

Detailed analyses of the satellite’s status were performed to understand the cause of this power loss. In addition, the engineers decided to activate the board cameras to acquire pictures of the array. These cameras were originally carried to monitor the deployment of the solar wings, which occurred just a few hours after launch in April 2014, and were not intended to be used afterwards.

Following their switch-on, one camera provided a picture that clearly shows the strike on the solar panel.

The power reduction is relatively small compared to the overall power generated by the solar wing, which remains much higher than what the satellite requires for routine operations.

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