Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
7 vastly different and interesting satellites lead by Russia's next polar orbit weather satellite (was to be 8; more on that later) are waiting for their ride to space today 4 hours before the FIFA World Cup Brazil vs Germany semi-final! Delayed for many months due to various problems with payloads and rocket parts, they are going to be launched on 1 of 2 similar Soyuz rockets awaiting flight right now, this one from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, into 2 different polar orbits.
By far the leading actor of today is Meteor-M No. 2, the newest polar orbit weather satellite of Russia and a member of the long running Meteor weather satellites series dating back to 1964 (just a little bit shorter than its American counterpart, TIROS). Ordered to replace Meteor-M No. 1 launched in September 2009, it carries new infrared scanners, radiometers, spectrometers and radar instruments to carry out detailed observations of the Earth's weather systems on behalf of Roscosmos and RosHydroMet (the Russian weather forecasting organization), much like its foreign counterparts NOAA-N/NPP/MetOp do.
Since the satellite is only 2.8 tonnes in weight, Roscosmos decided to hoist additional commercial payloads on this flight to be deployed into another orbit by the Fregat upper stage. One of them is Relek (MKA-FKI (PN2)), the second in a (now discontinued) line of small science spacecraft for Roscosmos. It will study the emission of high-velocity electrons from the Earth's radiation belt and their effects on the atmosphere and ionosphere, something that still contains many surprises after decades of research.
Another Russian passenger is DX-1, from a private company that proclaims as "Russia's first completely commercial start-up spaceflight company", Dauria Aerospace. The 27 kilogram satellite will test in-house developed parts and software, as well as tracking ships from orbit (a prospering area that is done by more and more satellites lately).
Speaking of start-up spaceflight companies, another payload is SkySat 2 from Skybox Imaging, which has rose to fame last month when Google acquired them for US$500 million. Already breaking grounds with their first satellite after filming the world’s first high definition video of Earth from space a few months ago, the company is offering imagery and HD video recording services on the cheap with the use of 100 kg satellites. The company plans to eventually have 24 satellites in their fleet.
Another 2 satellites on board that are also breaking grounds are from Britain. Leading satellite developer Surrey Satellite's TechDemoSat-1 is developed with the new UK Space Agency to validate several new instruments and parts from various British institutes, including several space weather and radiation monitoring instruments, a de-orbiting sail and a GPS signal receiver that will monitor ocean roughness by monitoring the scattering of signals.
The other one is UKube-1, a cubesat built by Clyde Space of Glasgow for UKSA that has a camera and one device that uses space radiation to improve secure satellite communication technology (apparently by letting the cosmic radiation to generate random numbers!), among several tasks that will be "the 1st Scottish satellite".
Rounding off the list is AISSat-2 from Norway that continues the mission of AISSat-1 in testing various cubesat technologies, using a Canadian built cubesat bus that has been featured in many recent launches (including at least 4 launched last month!).
Well, there was to be another one passenger. M3MSat is a small satellite for the Canadian government that will track ships around the Atlantic and Pacific shores. However the Canadians asked to withdrew from the flight in April as part of the sanctions against the Russians as part of the "Crimean Affair", and it is now looking for another launch to ride on, with a mass simulator now in its place. Ah politics.....
Launch location:
Baikonur Launch pad no. 31/6 45°59'46.16"N, 63°33'51.29"E
{colsp=6}Launch times
Time Zone | Australia - Sydney/AEST | Baikonur (UTC+6) | Moscow / MSKS (UTC+4)/ | Universal / UTC | Washington / EDT Launch time: |01:58:28|21:58:28|19:58:28|15:58:28|11:58:28
on: | Jul. 9, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014
{colsp=6}
Live Coverage Of The Launch:
TSENKI video streams (Russian + English)
http://www.tsenki.com/broadcast/broadcast/
MAIN PAYLOAD
Meteor-M No. 2 spacecraft
Spacecraft Overview
The 2,778-kilogram Meteor-M No. 2-1 satellite (a.k.a. Meteor-M2) was designed to watch global weather, the ozone layer, the ocean surface temperature and ice conditions to facilitate shipping in polar regions and to monitor radiation environment in the near-Earth space. The payload package onboard Meteor-M No. 2 includes:
Multi-channel imaging scanner, MSU-MR
Multi-channel imaging complex, KMSS
Ultra-high frequency temperature and humidity radiometer, MTVZA-GYa
Infrared Fourier spectrometer, IKFS-2
Radar complex, BRLK Severyanin
Heliophysics instrument complex, GGAK-M
Radio relay complex, BRK SSPD
The satellite was designed to operate in orbit for five years. It will become the second spacecraft in the Meteor-3M network, complementing the Meteor-M No. 1 satellite, which was launched on Sept. 17, 2009. In addition, the Russian space program funds the development of the two similar Meteor-M No. 2-1 and 2-2 satellites, as well as the Meteor-M No. 3 satellite, which is custom-designed to carry a phased-array radar for high resolution observations of the ocean surface. All spacecraft in the series were developed by the Moscow-based VNIIEM corporation based on its Resurs-UKP platform. As of beginning of 2014, the launch of the follow-on Meteor-M No. 2-1 satellite was scheduled for 2015.
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Launch Vehicle:
{colsp=2}Characteristics
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The launch vehicle's reliability standings (according to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2014.html#rate):
Ascent Profile
Ascent Timeline
Event|Time rel lift-off|Time UTC|Comment
Liftoff|00:00:00|15:58:28|
1st/2nd Stage Separation|00:01:56|16:00:24|
2nd/3rd Stage Separation|00:04:47|16:03:15|
Payload Fairing Separation|00:04:49|16:03:17|
3rd Stage/Fregat Separation|00:09:18|16:07:46|
1st Burn Ignition|00:10:17|16:08:45|
1st Burn Shutdown|00:11:08|16:09:36|1st Burn's Duration 00:00:51
2nd Burn Ignition|00:57:43|16:56:11|
2nd Burn Shutdown|00:58:33|16:57:01|2nd Burn's Duration 00:00:50
Meteor-M No.2 Separation|00:59:03|16:57:31|
3rd Burn Ignition|01:38:25|17:36:53|
3rd Burn Shutdown|01:38:37|17:37:05|3rd Burn's Duration 00:00:12
MKA-FKI-PN2 Separation|01:40:47|17:39:15|
4th Burn Ignition|02:26:55|18:25:23|
4th Burn Shutdown|02:27:03|18:25:31|4th Burn's Duration 00:00:08
TechDemoSat-1 & SkySat-2 Separation|02:29:33|18:28:01|
M3MSat simulator Separation|02:31:33|18:30:01|
DX-1 Separation|02:33:13|18:31:41|
AISsat-2 & UKube-1 Separation|02:34:13|18:32:41|
Fregat De-orbit Burn Ignition|03:27:40|19:26:08|
Fregat De-orbit Burn Shutdown|03:28:03|19:26:31|5th Burn's Duration 00:00:23
Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan for July 8, 2014 (10 p.m.)
A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 25C. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 kph.
Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Clouds|Pressure|Wind|Weather
10 PM|34°C|3°C|15%|0%|19%|1006 hPa|E 11 km/h|
Clear
Source References
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/resurs_p.html
http://www.mcc.rsa.ru/resurs_p.htm
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.tsenki.com
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=44.84999847,65.50000000
Information about the secondary payloads, picture and videos coming soon.... :tiphat:
By far the leading actor of today is Meteor-M No. 2, the newest polar orbit weather satellite of Russia and a member of the long running Meteor weather satellites series dating back to 1964 (just a little bit shorter than its American counterpart, TIROS). Ordered to replace Meteor-M No. 1 launched in September 2009, it carries new infrared scanners, radiometers, spectrometers and radar instruments to carry out detailed observations of the Earth's weather systems on behalf of Roscosmos and RosHydroMet (the Russian weather forecasting organization), much like its foreign counterparts NOAA-N/NPP/MetOp do.
Since the satellite is only 2.8 tonnes in weight, Roscosmos decided to hoist additional commercial payloads on this flight to be deployed into another orbit by the Fregat upper stage. One of them is Relek (MKA-FKI (PN2)), the second in a (now discontinued) line of small science spacecraft for Roscosmos. It will study the emission of high-velocity electrons from the Earth's radiation belt and their effects on the atmosphere and ionosphere, something that still contains many surprises after decades of research.
Another Russian passenger is DX-1, from a private company that proclaims as "Russia's first completely commercial start-up spaceflight company", Dauria Aerospace. The 27 kilogram satellite will test in-house developed parts and software, as well as tracking ships from orbit (a prospering area that is done by more and more satellites lately).
Speaking of start-up spaceflight companies, another payload is SkySat 2 from Skybox Imaging, which has rose to fame last month when Google acquired them for US$500 million. Already breaking grounds with their first satellite after filming the world’s first high definition video of Earth from space a few months ago, the company is offering imagery and HD video recording services on the cheap with the use of 100 kg satellites. The company plans to eventually have 24 satellites in their fleet.
Another 2 satellites on board that are also breaking grounds are from Britain. Leading satellite developer Surrey Satellite's TechDemoSat-1 is developed with the new UK Space Agency to validate several new instruments and parts from various British institutes, including several space weather and radiation monitoring instruments, a de-orbiting sail and a GPS signal receiver that will monitor ocean roughness by monitoring the scattering of signals.
The other one is UKube-1, a cubesat built by Clyde Space of Glasgow for UKSA that has a camera and one device that uses space radiation to improve secure satellite communication technology (apparently by letting the cosmic radiation to generate random numbers!), among several tasks that will be "the 1st Scottish satellite".
Rounding off the list is AISSat-2 from Norway that continues the mission of AISSat-1 in testing various cubesat technologies, using a Canadian built cubesat bus that has been featured in many recent launches (including at least 4 launched last month!).
Well, there was to be another one passenger. M3MSat is a small satellite for the Canadian government that will track ships around the Atlantic and Pacific shores. However the Canadians asked to withdrew from the flight in April as part of the sanctions against the Russians as part of the "Crimean Affair", and it is now looking for another launch to ride on, with a mass simulator now in its place. Ah politics.....
Launch location:
Baikonur Launch pad no. 31/6 45°59'46.16"N, 63°33'51.29"E
Time Zone | Australia - Sydney/AEST | Baikonur (UTC+6) | Moscow / MSKS (UTC+4)/ | Universal / UTC | Washington / EDT Launch time: |01:58:28|21:58:28|19:58:28|15:58:28|11:58:28
on: | Jul. 9, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014 | Jul. 8, 2014
{colsp=6}
[highlight][eventTimer]2014-07-08 15:58:28?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Meteor-M No. 2 Launch[/highlight]
Live Coverage Of The Launch:
TSENKI video streams (Russian + English)
http://www.tsenki.com/broadcast/broadcast/
MAIN PAYLOAD
Meteor-M No. 2 spacecraft
Spacecraft Overview
The 2,778-kilogram Meteor-M No. 2-1 satellite (a.k.a. Meteor-M2) was designed to watch global weather, the ozone layer, the ocean surface temperature and ice conditions to facilitate shipping in polar regions and to monitor radiation environment in the near-Earth space. The payload package onboard Meteor-M No. 2 includes:
Multi-channel imaging scanner, MSU-MR
Multi-channel imaging complex, KMSS
Ultra-high frequency temperature and humidity radiometer, MTVZA-GYa
Infrared Fourier spectrometer, IKFS-2
Radar complex, BRLK Severyanin
Heliophysics instrument complex, GGAK-M
Radio relay complex, BRK SSPD
The satellite was designed to operate in orbit for five years. It will become the second spacecraft in the Meteor-3M network, complementing the Meteor-M No. 1 satellite, which was launched on Sept. 17, 2009. In addition, the Russian space program funds the development of the two similar Meteor-M No. 2-1 and 2-2 satellites, as well as the Meteor-M No. 3 satellite, which is custom-designed to carry a phased-array radar for high resolution observations of the ocean surface. All spacecraft in the series were developed by the Moscow-based VNIIEM corporation based on its Resurs-UKP platform. As of beginning of 2014, the launch of the follow-on Meteor-M No. 2-1 satellite was scheduled for 2015.
Meteor-M No.2
Picture:
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Customer:
|- Roscosmos
Prime contractor:
|- VNIIEM
Mass at Separation:
|- 2778 kg
Stabilization:
|- 3 axis stabilized
Dimensions:
|- ?
Life time:
|- 5 years
Power:
|- Average 1.4 kW
- Peak 2 kW
Pointing accuracy:
|- <10 arc-minutes
- Movement accuracy <5 * 10^-4 deg./sec.
Instruments:
|- Multi-channel imaging scanner, MSU-MR
- Multi-channel imaging complex, KMSS
- Ultra-high frequency temperature and humidity radiometer, MTVZA-GYa
- Infrared Fourier spectrometer, IKFS-2
- Radar complex, BRLK Severyanin
- Heliophysics instrument complex, GGAK-M
- Radio relay complex, BRK SSPD
Operation orbit:
|- 832 km circular orbit, inclination 98.78 degrees
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
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 12 13 .92 .87 6 12/23/11 2006-Ascent Profile
Ascent Timeline
Liftoff|00:00:00|15:58:28|
1st/2nd Stage Separation|00:01:56|16:00:24|
2nd/3rd Stage Separation|00:04:47|16:03:15|
Payload Fairing Separation|00:04:49|16:03:17|
3rd Stage/Fregat Separation|00:09:18|16:07:46|
1st Burn Ignition|00:10:17|16:08:45|
1st Burn Shutdown|00:11:08|16:09:36|1st Burn's Duration 00:00:51
2nd Burn Ignition|00:57:43|16:56:11|
2nd Burn Shutdown|00:58:33|16:57:01|2nd Burn's Duration 00:00:50
Meteor-M No.2 Separation|00:59:03|16:57:31|
3rd Burn Ignition|01:38:25|17:36:53|
3rd Burn Shutdown|01:38:37|17:37:05|3rd Burn's Duration 00:00:12
MKA-FKI-PN2 Separation|01:40:47|17:39:15|
4th Burn Ignition|02:26:55|18:25:23|
4th Burn Shutdown|02:27:03|18:25:31|4th Burn's Duration 00:00:08
TechDemoSat-1 & SkySat-2 Separation|02:29:33|18:28:01|
M3MSat simulator Separation|02:31:33|18:30:01|
DX-1 Separation|02:33:13|18:31:41|
AISsat-2 & UKube-1 Separation|02:34:13|18:32:41|
Fregat De-orbit Burn Ignition|03:27:40|19:26:08|
Fregat De-orbit Burn Shutdown|03:28:03|19:26:31|5th Burn's Duration 00:00:23
Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan for July 8, 2014 (10 p.m.)
A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 25C. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 kph.
10 PM|34°C|3°C|15%|0%|19%|1006 hPa|E 11 km/h|
Source References
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/resurs_p.html
http://www.mcc.rsa.ru/resurs_p.htm
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.tsenki.com
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=44.84999847,65.50000000
Information about the secondary payloads, picture and videos coming soon.... :tiphat:
