Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
Arianespace, who had a more than 11 years of continuous string of launch successes, got a black mark on the last time a Soyuz rocket flew out of French Guiana, thanks to (ahem) Russians routing hydrazine lines too close to cold helium lines on the Fregat upper stage and dumped the first two operational Galileo navigation satellites into the wrong orbit - luckily they are now somewhat still usable. This adds to the delays already accumulated in the program and forced the program to re-shuffle its launch schedule in order to figure out what to do next (including a study of putting more satellites on Ariane 5 than originally planned). Thus Galileo pulled out of the Soyuz launch slot we are now talking about.
Luckily other customers are quick to grab the slot even after the problems last time. Relatively new satellite communication operator O3b Networks was more than happy to get an earlier launch slot for their 9th to 12th medium Earth orbit communication satellites, which was originally forced out into 2015. Already getting huge number of subscribers across the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and even remote islands of the Pacific, as well as from cruise lines and even the US military, it looks like the company's business plan of focusing on equatorial regions with satellites orbiting 8000 km above the equator is working very well. The 4 satellites ready for launch today will complete the initial phase of deploying its constellation, joining four others launched in June 2013 and another four launched last July.
Launch location:
Kourou ELS 5°18'18"N 52°50'02"W
Launch dates and times:
Time Zone|Australia - Sydney/AEDT|Moscow / MSK/ UTC+3|CEST UTC+1|Universal / UTC|Washington / EST|French Guiana / UTC-3
Launch time:|05:37:00|21:37:00|19:37:00|18:37:00|13:37:00|15:37:00
on:|Dec. 19, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014
on:|Dec. 19, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014|Dec. 18, 2014
{colsp=7}[highlight]
[eventTimer]2014-12-18 18:37:00?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] 4 x O3b Launch[/highlight]
Live Coverage
- http://www.arianespace.tv/ - begins 20 minutes before the launch
PAYLOAD
Four O3b medium Earth orbit communication satellites
The O3b satellites of Jersey, Channel Islands based O3b Networks Limited will offer low latency Internet backhaul to emerging markets and developing countries worldwide at speeds up to 10 Gbps with a combined total capacity in excess of 160 Gbps. Thales Alenia Space started design activities under contract in 2007 and has received Authorization To Proceed (ATP) with the construction phase of the project. The delivery of the initial satellites and service activation are scheduled for late 2010.
O3b Networks recently announced the new satellite network with support and funding from Google, Inc, Liberty Global, Inc., and HSBC Principal Investments. Bridging the gap between current satellites and fiber optic cables, O3b Networks will provide fiber-like trunking capacity to telecom operators and backhaul directly to 3G Cellular and WiMAX towers.
The space vehicle is designed, integrated and tested, by Thales Alenia Space. Leveraging the heritage redundant service module design and manufactured utilizing an innovative island production approach. The unique payload system design enables flexibility of antenna usage and graceful degradation. The first eight space vehicles were planned be in orbit by 4th quarter, 2010, but were delayed to 2013.
The Ka-Band payload is designed to enable the high speed flow of data between locations on the ground. Twelve fully steerable antennas ensure an optimized connection to the area where data is needed. The payload portion uses existing Ka-Band repeater technology to allow for straightforward allocation of the bandwidth anywhere within the 500 km diameter area on the ground which is illuminated.
The flexible configuration of the satellite allows for inter-antenna data transfer in a variety of ways. Thus, trunking between two points is simple, or trunking between many points is also possible. The steerable antennas can be moved onto a location in minutes and each provide up to 1.25 Gbps of throughput.
The service module provides platform three axis pointing stabilization. The 3-axis control is provided by a combination reaction wheels, torque rods and reaction engine assemblies. Attitude determination is provided by earth and fine sun sensors in conjunction with an inertial measurement unit. A GPS Navigation Unit provides orbit position. Power is supplied by two gallium arsenide solar arrays and a Li-Ion battery.
Thales Alenia Space announced in September 2008 it has started construction of 16 of its Low Earth Orbit communications satellites with options for additional spacecraft. In November 2011, four more satellites were ordered to be launched in 2014.
|
O3b
Prime contractor:
|Thales Alenia Space
Mass at Separation:
|- 700 kg
Stabilization:
|- 3 axis stabilized
Dimensions:
|- ?
Batteries:
|- 1.575 kW at the end of service
Life time:
|- 10 years
Transponders:
|- 12
Bands:
|- Ka-
Body:
|- Aluminium frame, honeycomb panels
Propulsion:
|- Single propellant engine (Hydrazine, 154 kg), with variable thrust (4:1), 4 RCS engines 1 N thrust each, Magnetic momentum engines.
Power supply:
|- Triple Junction Solar Cells
- 100 A-h Lithium Ion Battery
MEO Navigation:
|- Using GPS
Orbit:
|- 8063 km circular MEO, inclination 0°
|
|
Launch Vehicle:
Soyuz-2.1b
Prime contractor:
|- Samara Space Sentre (Energia Holding enterprise)
GRAU Index:
|- 14A14
Height:
| 51.1 mDiameter:
| max 10.3 mLiftoff mass:
| 313 metric tonnesPayload mass:
| up to 7835 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-0124 engine
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum 30.00 tonnes / 359 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
The launch vehicle's reliability standings (according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2014.html#rate):
Code:
================================================================
Vehicle Successes/Tries Realzd Pred Consc. Last Dates
Rate Rate* Succes Fail
================================================================
Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat 15 17 .88 .84 1 08/22/14 2006-Ascent profile
Weather Forecast for Sinnamary, French Guiana on December 18, 2014 (4 p.m.)
Becoming partly cloudy after some morning light rain. High 29C. Winds NE at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 70%.
4 PM|28°C|23°C|72%|2%|0%|45%|1009 hPa|14 km/h NE|
References
http://www.arianespace.com
http://www.o3bnetworks.com/
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/o3b.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/q/zmw:00000.3.81403
