Russian scientists develop system for monitoring space junk

Scientists from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a monitor system to follow space junk.

The system is a set of monitoring meters intended for a spaceship to ensure its safety if established on board, Rector of the St. Petersburg university Andrei Rudskoi told TASS on Thursday.

The space litter monitoring project aroused interest at the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). Chief of the Roscosmos agency Oleg Ostapenko has promised support to St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to enable it to test the litter monitoring meters on the orbit.

Space litter poses a threat to the population of the Earth, manned orbital stations, spaceships and orbital satellites. Meters on board the spaceship might warn a space crew about space litter on the spaceship's trajectory, and a space crew might either change route or destroy the space litter before encounter.
http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/752499
2/10/14
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Russia Successfully Places Satellite into Orbit

Russia's rocket Proton has managed to bring its telecommunications satellite called Beam into orbit, Russian space agency Roskosmos has announced.

Beam is expected to help GLONASS, the Russian satellite navigation system of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, to improve its precision.

The upgrade will make GLONASS virtually identical to the American GPS, the Russian Times wrote Sunday.


It will also improve communications with the Russian part of the International Space Station and also with launchers of other space devices.

The result of the operation was widely expected after an attempt with a similar rocket failed. - See more at: http://www.novinite.com/articles/163664
28/9/14
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• The carrier rocket Proton-M has burnt up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. - Where did fragments of Proton-M fall

• Proton Rocket Carrying Turkish Satellite Readies for Launch (video Launch of Sirius FM-6)

• Russia’s Proton-M Rocket Puts US Satellite,Sirius FM-6, into Orbit.(video)

• Unsuccessful launch rocket "Proton-M". Explosion of rocket Proton-M. Baikonur (VIDEO online)

The carrier rocket Proton-M has burnt up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. - Where did fragments of Proton-M fall

The carrier rocket Proton-M, which was launched from Baikonur together with the communications satellite Express-AM4R, has burnt up in the dense layers of the atmosphere, an official of Russia's Federal Space Agency has told Itar-Tass.
"Some small fragments of the rocket could fall onto Earth. An impact area is being ascertained," the space official said. According to the data given by him, the engine of the third stage of the carrier rocket failed at an altitude of 161 km because of deviation of the Proton-M from the flight path. "There was an angle-and-bank error," he said.

According to the source, the toxic components of the rocket fuel remaining in the third stage of the Proton and the booster unit Briz-M most likely burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. Satellites of the Exress series have been insured for 2.5 billion roubles.

Contact was lost in the 540th second

An emergency cutout of the propulsion unit of the Proton-M carrier rocket occurred between the separation of the second and third stages, an official at Roscosmos (Russia's Federal Space Agency) has told Itar-Tass.

"Contact with the carrier rocket was lost in the 540th second after liftoff," the official specified, adding, "It is known that the nose cone did not separate from the rocket". Third-stage engines for Proton space rockets are manufactured at the Voronezh-based OAO "Khimavtomatika Design Bureau" (KBKhA) space-rocket industry enterprise.
The carrier rocket Proton-M was to deploy into orbit the highest-powered and technologically effective commsat which was intended to become a third spacecraft of the Express series launched in 2014.

Non-deployment of the satellite

The non-deployment of the communications satellite Express-AM4R into orbit was caused by an abnormal situation, Irina Zubareva, press secretary of the Roscosmos director, told Itar-Tass on Friday.
"An abnormal situation developed during the insertion in the operation of the third stage of the carrier rocket, and the spacecraft Express-AM4R was not deployed into orbit. State commission members are now busy analyzing telemetric data, seeking to find out the causes of the abnormal situation," she said.

Where did fragments of Proton-M fall 

Fragments of the carrier rocket could fall in unforeseen debris impact areas, a space industry source has told Itar-Tass. "In any case, Proton-M rocket fragments did not fall in the grounds of Baikonur, or in general in the territory of Kazakhstan. Most probably, this happened (when the rocket was) already far away, in an off-normal impact area," the source said.

"All the causes and a possible impact area are being ascertained. No information has been received from Baikonur so far, since people monitoring the Proton-M liftoff are in a bunker at the moment of liftoff proper," the source specified. He added, "The breakdown occurred during the operation of the third stage of the carrier rocket, prior to the acceleration unit's separation".
"The Proton-M carrier rocket at this moment is most likely in a non-intended orbit. The propulsion unit emergency cutout, which happened in the 540th second (of the flight) during the operation of the third stage, was not necessarily to result in its fall," a source at Russia's Federal Space Agency has told Itar-Tass.
[itar-tass.com]
16/5/14
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• Proton Rocket Carrying Turkish Satellite Readies for Launch (video Launch of Sirius FM-6)

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Proton Rocket Carrying Turkish Satellite Readies for Launch (video Launch of Sirius FM-6)

MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) – A Proton rocket carrying a Turkish satellite is scheduled to lift off early Saturday in the first launch of Russia’s largest rocket this year, the Russian space agency told RIA Novosti.
The launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan will be the sixth since a three-month suspension after one of the rockets exploded shortly after liftoff in July. The accident sent 600 tons of highly-toxic flaming propellants raining down on the surrounding Kazakh countryside.

The Turksat-4A, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric of Japan, arrived at Baikonur by plane last month and was rolled out atop a Proton-M earlier this week.
The five-metric-ton telecommunications satellite will be stationed in a geosynchronous orbit through successive burns of the Russian Briz-M upper stage.
It will provide television broadcast and data services for customers in Turkey as well as in Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East, according to Turksat.

• Moscow and Astana quarreled over the nearly $90 million cleanup bill following the July accident. Kazakhstan has repeatedly called for a reduction in launches of the rocket over concerns about the environmental impact of its highly-toxic fuel.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos said last year that the Proton is slated for retirement after 2020, following the introduction later this decade of the new Angara rocket to be launched from Russia’s Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Kazakh media reported earlier this week that a bilateral working group in Moscow would finalize recommendations on the frequency of launches of the Proton. A Kazakh space official said last week that there would be 10 launches of the Proton this year, down from a planned manifest of 14, without explaining the decrease.
Moscow currently leases Baikonur – the launch site of Sputnik and Yury Gagarin and the only facility capable of launching the Proton – from Kazakhstan for $115 million annually.
 http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140214/187533128/Proton-Rocket-Carrying-Turkish-Satellite-Readies-for-Launch.html
14/2/14 
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• Russia’s Proton-M Rocket Puts US Satellite,Sirius FM-6, into Orbit.(video)

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  • Unsuccessful launch rocket "Proton-M". Explosion of rocket Proton-M. Baikonur (VIDEO online) 

• In the most recent failure on August 7 Russia’s Proton carrier rocket launched from the Baikonu

 

Russia’s Proton-M Rocket Puts US Satellite,Sirius FM-6, into Orbit.(video)

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MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - A US telecoms satellite, Sirius FM-6, was put into orbit on Saturday by Russia’s Proton-M rocket, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
“Satellite Sirius FM-6 separated from the Briz-M upper stage at the designated time,” the spokesman said.
The launch of the US satellite, which took place on October 25, was originally scheduled for October 20, but was twice delayed on the request of the US space agency NASA because a US communications station in South Africa was not working properly.


Sirius FM-6 is a high-power geostationary satellite built by Space Systems/Loral for SiriusXM, America’s largest radio broadcaster by revenue and one of the world’s largest pure-play audio entertainment companies.

The six-ton satellite, which has a service life of 15 years, “will help with the delivery of commercial-free music and premier sports, news, talk, entertainment and Latin programming, traffic and weather to more than 25 million subscribers,” according to International Launch Services (ILS), the operator of Proton launches.
ria.ru
26/10/13
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Related:

• Unsuccessful launch rocket "Proton-M". Explosion of rocket Proton-M. Baikonur (VIDEO online) 

• In the most recent failure on August 7 Russia’s Proton carrier rocket launched from the Baikonur

 

Unsuccessful launch rocket "Proton-M". Explosion of rocket Proton-M. Baikonur (VIDEO online)

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A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying three GLONASS navigation satellites crashed soon after takeoff from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome.
Immediately after takeoff, the rocket swerved to one side, tried to correct itself, but instead veered in the opposite direction. It then flew horizontally and started to come apart with its engines in full thrust.

Making a huge arch in the air, the rocket plummeted back to earth and exploded on impact close to another launch pad used for Proton commercial launches....


The crash was broadcast live across the country and fears of a possible toxic fuel leak immediately surfaced following the incident. While no such leak has been confirmed, the rocket was initially carrying over 600 tons of toxic propellants.
There have reportedly been no casualties to surroundings structures and the town of Baikonur was not affected.  

An accident board headed by Aleksandr Lopatin, deputy head of Russia’s space agency Roskosmos, has been created to investigate the crash.
 http://rt.com
2/7/13
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****Se estrella el cohete ruso Proton-M segundos después de su lanzamiento
El cohete portador ruso de clase pesada Proton, que llevaba tres satélites del sistema de navegación GLONASS, se estrelló menos de un minuto después de su lanzamiento desde el Cosmódromo de Baikonur (VIDEO YouTube)
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