Author Topic: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites  (Read 21738 times)

Offline B. Hendrickx

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NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« on: 02/25/2018 04:12 pm »
NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOMash) (the former Chelomei design bureau) appears to be working on a military satellite called "Neitron" ("Neutron"), also known by the military designator 14F01. This can be deduced from a handful of procurement and court documents  as well as company annual reports openly available on the Internet.

Two of these tell us that the contract between the Ministry of Defense and NPOMash (nr. 6597) for the development of the satellites was signed on 27 December 2011.
http://solutions.fas.gov.ru/attachment/121120/download?1493364329
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=2102278


Subcontractors known to be involved are :

- NPO Lavochkin for "adaptation of the launch vehicle" (contract nr. 102/19-13 signed on 4 March 2013)
http://solutions.fas.gov.ru/attachment/121120/download?1493364329

- Russian Institute for Radio Navigation and Time (RIRV) for the APSN satellite navigation equipment (contract nr. 79/19-13 signed on 18 February 2013)
http://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/6dBmHU5Cflmw/
http://www.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc&base=RAPS013&n=207816#09490685923127848
http://base.garant.ru/41237015/

- NIIEM for multiplex channel information relay equipment for the satellite's control system  (contract nr. 629/19-12 signed on 31 August 2012) (this was also the subject of a separate contract between NIIEM and ZAO Elkus in 2015)
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=2102278

- NIIEM for a "computer system for automatic electrical tests of the satellite" (contract nr. 189/19-13 signed on 3 April 2013)
http://solutions.fas.gov.ru/attachment/61777/download?1455100706

- AO AVEKS for power supply control equipment (mentioned on the company's website and in of its quarterly reports for 2015)
http://avecs.ru/o-kompanii/istoriya/

- NPP Geofizika for earth and sun sensors (mentioned in the company's annual report for 2015)
http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/godovoj-otchet-2015-utv.pdf

- NPP Kvant for solar arrays (according to a procurement document published in September 2015)
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?noticeId=2833626

- OAO TsKB TM for transportation containers (mentioned in the company's 2013 annual report)
www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=886858

Neitron is also mentioned in VNIIEM's annual report for  2016, but seems to be the name of an internal project to develop flywheel motors.

One source links 14F01 to 14K171, which may be a system designator for the combination of the satellite, the launch vehicle and ground support equipment.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=4943956

Another source (in March 2014) describes 14K171 as one of several "space systems and complexes" to be operated from the Plesetsk cosmodrome (along with Obzor-R, 14K038 and 14K167)
http://www.mirniy.ru/info/ads/5273-obschestvennye-slushaniya.html

Indications are that the project was still alive at least a year ago. One of the court documents mentions deadlines for the project that were to be met by 25 October 2016 and 31 January 2017.

What can be inferred from all this is that 14F01 is an NPOMash satellite to be launched from Plesetsk. NPO Lavochkin's involvement in the "adaptation of the launch vehicle" suggests the rocket will be a Soyuz-2 with a Fregat upper stage.

The only NPOMash satellites launched in recent years have been the Kondor (14F133) radar satellites (one launched for the Ministry of Defense in June 2013 and an export version (Kondor-E) launched for South Africa in December 2014). Both were launched by NPOMash's own Strela rocket from an underground silo at the Baikonur cosmodrome. In December 2014 NPOMash got a contract from Roskosmos to build two follow-on Kondor-FKA satellites, currently scheduled for launch in 2019-2020. A modified version of the satellite (Kondor-FKA-M) was recently announced for launch in 2025.

In September 2016 Roskosmos announced that the Kondor-FKA satellites would be orbited by the Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat booster from Vostochny (according to Anatoly Zak's website the original plan had been to launch them with the Rokot booster from Plesetsk). The Kondor-FKA satellites will operate in the S-band and will be complemented by the Progress Rocket Center's Obzor-R satellites operating in the X-band. Kondor-FKA and Obzor-R are civilian projects funded under the Federal Space Program 2016-2025, with no indications of any involvement from the Ministry of Defense.

The subsystems mentioned above reveal next to nothing about the nature of 14F01/Neitron. The APSN satellite navigation equipment (used to accurately determine the orbit) was also flown on Kondor, although it was built by another subcontractor (AO RKS).
http://www.mivlgu.ru/conf/armand2016/rmdzs-2016/pdf/S5_4.pdf

NPOMash has proposed optical imaging satellites using the Kondor bus, but there are no indications that these have ever moved beyond the drawing board and one wonders if there is a need for yet another type of military optical imaging satellite besides the ones that are already flying or are under development   (the Progress Rocket Center's Persona, Razdan and Bars-M, VNIIEM's EMKA and possibly NPO Lavochkin's Kosmos-2519).   

My best guess right now is that Neitron/14F01 is a military radar reconnaissance satellite that would somehow complement the Araks-R military radar reconnaissance satellites under development at NPO Lavochkin (just like Obzor-R and Kondor-FKA fulfil complementary roles). One possibility is that it has the same kind of modifications that are being incorporated into Kondor-FKA and the latter is just a civilian spin-off of Neitron. However, one problem with that is that a Kondor type satellite launched from Plesetsk would be more likely to use the Rokot or Soyuz-2-1v (boosters not available at Vostochny) rather than the Soyuz-2/Fregat.   

With so little information to go on, the jury is still out on this one...

Offline Stan Black

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« Last Edit: 02/25/2018 09:03 pm by Stan Black »

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #2 on: 02/25/2018 09:39 pm »
Earlier documents suggested Soyuz-2-1V launch vehicle.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?noticeId=4943956

Now looks like Soyuz-2-1A launch vehicle.
https://www.samspace.ru/upload/iblock/990/План%20закупки%20для%20ГПБ,.xlsx

Thanks, Stan. The first document does not necessarily suggest a link between 14F01 and the Soyuz-2-1V. It deals with water supply to various buildings at Plesetsk, namely a building to prepare the 14F01 satellites, a building to prepare 14A15 (Soyuz-2-1V) rockets and store 14A14 (Soyuz-2-1A/B) rockets and a building to prepare the Volga upper stage. One of the documents I mentioned in my earlier posts says NPO Lavochkin was awarded the contract to "adapt the launch vehicle" in March 2013, so it would seem the Soyuz-2/Fregat has been the launch vehicle from the outset.

The second document is the Progress Rocket Center's procurement plan for 2017 and this provides irrefutable evidence that 14F01 will use the Soyuz-2-1A variant. It literally says "Refinement and output of parameters for the guidance & control system of the Soyuz-2-1A carrying the upper composite with product 14F01-1 and [refinement and output of] a database for the 1st stage stabilization system in order to calculate loads". This work was to be finished by 20 March 2017.




Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #3 on: 03/27/2018 10:33 pm »
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26990.1140

As reported by Nicolas Pillet in the "Plan of Russian space launches" thread, the 2/2018 issue of NPO Lavochkin's in-house magazine "Novator" says the launch of Neitron on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Plesetsk is planned for the fourth quarter of this year.  Here's a link to the 2/2018 issue:

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/novator/№2_18.pdf

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #4 on: 03/28/2018 09:19 pm »
Some Russian media clearly keep a close eye on NSF and/or the NK forum to keep their readers abreast of Russian military space plans.  Just hours after Nicolas Pillet posted the Neitron launch date on this forum and this was reposted on the NK forum, the RIA Novosti news agency published this report:

https://ria.ru/science/20180328/1517429348.html

Shoddy translation here:

https://chelorg.com/2018/03/28/satellite-neutron-launch-from-the-plesetsk-cosmodrome-in-the-end-of-this-year/

Quote
Satellite «Neutron» launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the end of this year

Russian satellite of unknown purpose «Neutron» run from the military cosmodrome Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region at the end of this year, according to the corporate newspaper of NPO Lavochkin.

The article states that in the fourth quarter of 2018 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome scheduled for launch spacecraft «Neutron».

The Plesetsk cosmodrome is used to perform launches of spacecraft in the interests of the defense Ministry.

Previously, the name of such satellites was not included anywhere.

Note that this issue of Lavochkin's "Novator" newsletter has been online for several weeks without anyone having paid attention to this, so the source of information for this report is obvious.


Offline Phillip Clark

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #5 on: 10/29/2018 03:57 pm »
Above the launch vehicle is said to be the Soyuz-2-1A but the launch schedule listing shows it as being the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M.
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Online Alter Sachse

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #6 on: 10/29/2018 04:43 pm »
Above the launch vehicle is said to be the Soyuz-2-1A but the launch schedule listing shows it as being the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M.
NK:
ноябрь-декабрь – Нейтрон – Союз-2-1А/Фрегат – Плесецк 43/4 (или 1-й квартал 2019)

Soyuz 2.1A/Fregat
http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum14/topic16307/message1810511/#message1810511
« Last Edit: 07/23/2019 03:50 am by Alter Sachse »
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Offline Phillip Clark

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #7 on: 10/29/2018 04:51 pm »
Thank you!   So both reports are partially correct. ;)
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline russianhalo117

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #8 on: 07/22/2019 10:03 pm »
Bump for supposed upcoming launch.

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #9 on: 06/12/2020 02:11 pm »
[zubenelgenubi: I split/merged this post from the launch thread to the program thread!]

In the (closed) Neitron program thread I summed up what was known about the Neitron project in early 2018.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45081.0

Since then some more information has emerged, but the objectives of the project remain a mystery.   

As noted before, a handful of procurement and court documents show that the project got underway on 27 December 2011 with the signing of a government contract between the Ministry of Defense and NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOMash for short) (the former Chelomei design bureau), the prime contractor for the project. The satellite’s military index is 14F01 and the system designator is 14K171. The launch vehicle is the Soyuz-2-1a with a Fregat upper stage.

Neitron and Tekhnolog

The most important new finding is that the project seems to envisage the launch of at least two satellites, one called Neitron and the other Tekhnolog (“Technologist”). A satellite by the name Tekhnolog had already been seen in some documentation, but was not linked there to a specific manufacturer. It first appeared in documentation of solar cell manufacturer NPP Kvant. In 2014 the company signed an agreement with a transportation company for cargo handling of “the last batch of photovoltaic cells for the production of solar panels for the satellite(s) Tekhnolog” (because of the use of the abbreviation “KA” for “satellite” it is not clear if this is singular or plural).  The solar cells are described as triple-junction cells.
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31401091265
 
The company’s 2015 and 2016 annual reports mention acceptance testing of two sets of flightworthy solar panels for Tekhnolog with a total area of 13 m2. This can be interpreted in two ways: two solar panels for a single satellite or four solar panels for two satellites.
https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/files.aspx?id=25658&type=2

The names Neitron and Tekhnolog appeared alongside in the 2016 annual report of VNIIEM:
http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/god_otchet_2016.pdf
(p. 6)
This also said that VNIIEM had delivered twelve DM5-50 reaction wheels for Neitron to NIIEM (to be used in the attitude control system). (p. 9)

The fact that Neitron and Tekhnolog are part of one and the same project has now become clear from several court documents:

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/63214fe4-adb4-45fb-a7ee-f1a676bbd6b7

A court case (2018) between NPOMash and AO AVEKS. This refers to a contract signed between the two companies on 1 July 2012 for the development of control equipment for a satellite power supply system intended for Tekhnolog. This same contract is linked to the 27 December 2011 government contract between the Ministry of Defense and NPOMash in a follow-up contract signed in 2013 (which mentions no project name): 
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31300519995
This is for the delivery of power supply control equipment called ARK-21. This in turn is linked to 14F01 in a number of documents published by AO AVEKS.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/8f334054-ff57-43a9-83af-fb0e637fa52e

A court case (2019) between NPOMash and NPTs SOTIS. The two companies signed a contract on 22 June 2017 to “determine the magnetic residuals of article 14F01”, which is linked to Tekhnolog.

So Tekhnolog is clearly part of the same project as Neitron. Both Neitron and Tekhnolog are referred to as 14F01, which is somewhat strange. Different versions of satellites belonging to one and the same project usually get different 14F designators, examples being 14F138/14F145 (Lotos-S and Lotos-S1), 14F151/14F152 (Sfera-V/Sfera-S) and 14F158/14F159 (Repei-V/Repei-S).  It is not impossible that Neitron and Tekhnolog are actually different names for one and the same satellite, but there are at least two reasons to believe that is not the case:
- the two names appear alongside in VNIIEM’s 2016 annual report
- at least two documents contain the designator “14F01-1”, which implies there must also be a 14F01-2.

There are also indications that the two satellites will be launched on separate rockets. One document of RKTs Progress talked about the launch of 14F01-1 on a Soyuz-2-1a rocket, not mentioning another payload (see Reply 2 in the program thread). Furthermore, a recent document (see later in this post) mentions launches (in the plural) of 14F01 satellites under the 14K171 project. In short, indications are that Neitron and Tekhnolog are two very similar, but not identical satellites (why else the different names?) and that they will be launched separately.

 
 Newly identified subcontractors

In the program thread I summed up several subcontractors that could be identified from procurement and court documentation (NIIEM, VNIIEM, AO AVEKS, NPP Kvant, NPP Geofizika, TsKB TM). Three others can now be added to the list:

- NPK SPP (Scientific and Industrial Corporation “Precision Instrument Systems”) in St.-Petersburg.
https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/2c37fedd-542f-45e5-9a62-253ac0f38bb1
This court documentation refers to a contract signed for 14F01 between NPOMash and NPK SPP on 19 May 2014. This was for what is called “the development of a navigation and ballistic support (NBO) complex for article 14Ts169-11” (14Ц169-11).

The designator 14Ts169-11 is not seen elsewhere. Similar designators, namely 14Ts161 and 14Ts166, are used for Glonass monitoring and measuring stations  (NPK SPP is closely involved in Glonass).

A follow-up contract to this was concluded only several weeks ago between NPK SPP and the Institute of Engineering Physics (IIF) in Serpukhov.
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/contract/public/contract/view/general-information.html?id=8987523

This was for testing of software for what is literally called “an automated complex of programs for the navigational-ballistic support of flight control of article 14F01”. It can be determined from the documentation that the work is done by a branch of NPK SPP called PNBO (“Precision Navigation and Ballistic Support”) based in Korolyov outside Moscow.


- MOKB Mars in Moscow.
This company’s director said in a 2018 interview (no longer online) that it built (apparently identical) electronic units for Neitron and Kondor-FKA. The electronic units act as interfaces between the on-board computer and on-board systems.

- AO Kontsern Avtomatika in Moscow:
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/contract/public/contract/view/general-information.html?id=8823859&viewMode=PARTIAL
A recent contract, the purpose of which is hard to determine. Based on other work that the company has done in the space program, it probably has something to do with encrypting information that is sent from ground stations to the satellites.   

Neitron’s bus

Neitron (and presumably Tekhnolog as well) are likely to use the same bus as NPOMash’s Kondor radar imaging satellites (14F133) (see attachment 1 for an exploded view of the bus). Conceived back in the 1990s, this is the only satellite platform that NPO Mashinostroyeniya has developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union (not taking into account the Baumanets microsatellites built in co-operation with Bauman University).  Two of these were launched, one for the Ministry of Defense in June 2013 (Kosmos-2487) and an export version (Kondor-E) for South Africa in December 2014. The roughly 1000 kg satellites (see attachment 2) were launched by NPOMash's own Strela rocket (a modified UR-100-N ICBM)  from an underground silo at the Baikonur cosmodrome and injected into 500 km circular orbits with an inclination of 74°.

In December 2014 NPOMash got a contract from Roscosmos to build two modernized Kondor-FKA radar imaging satellites, currently scheduled for launch in 2021-2022. In August 2018 the company was awarded a contract for a further modification of this (Kondor-FKA-M), expected to be launched later in the 2020s. The new Kondor satellites will be launched by Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat boosters from the Vostochnyy cosmodrome.

The idea that Neitron uses the Kondor bus is supported by the fact that most of the subcontractors known to be involved in Neitron delivered similar components for Kondor: NIIEM/VNIIEM (attitude control systems), NPP Kvant (solar arrays), MOKB Mars (electronic boxes) and AO AVEKS (power supply control equipment).

There are also indications that Neitron uses the same type of thrusters as Kondor. These are thrusters burning UDMH/N2O4 built by NIIMash in Nizhnyaya Salda. Kondor carried a single orbit correction thruster with a thrust of 13.3 N (which can be identified as the 17D58E) and six stabilization thrusters with a thrust of 2.94 N each (no name given).
http://russianforces.org/KondorEIAr.pdf
(p. 21)

During a paper presented in January 2014, a NIIMash official said his company was taking part in the development of “a space system based on the Kondor-E platform” that would use a modified version of the 17D58E engine.
http://old.ihst.ru/~akm/38t22.pdf
(see p. 666)

He does not seem to have been referring to Kondor-FKA, which was not approved until December 2014. Moreover, one other source says that Kondor-FKA has a “completely new propulsion system”.
https://reutov.bezformata.com/listnews/zondirovaniya-zemli-kondor-fka/45634193/

Some NIIMash publications mention an engine called 17D58EM that may well be the one installed aboard Neitron. See, for instance, this article on co-operation between NPOMash and NIIMash:
https://dropdoc.ru/doc/371702/sotrudnichestvo-predpriyatij-vpk-npomash

Another indication that Neitron has the same type of engine unit as Kondor came in documentation that appeared on zakupki.gov.ru just last month. This described work ordered by NPOMash called “neutralization, destruction and disposal of a mock-up of the engine unit of article 14F01-1”:
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=32009162462

Apparently, the mock-up became contaminated with toxic rocket propellants and therefore needs to be scrapped (and this also includes propellant tanks, according to the documentation). The work is to be conducted at the Plesetsk cosmodrome and needs to be finished by late August this year. Despite the use of the word “mock-up” (“maket” in Russian), this is more likely some sort of test model of the engine.  The documentation refers to the engine as 14Ts71000. Presumably, this is a thruster that is identical or similar to one referred to in NIIMash publications as 14Ts71001. This has a thrust of 3N, very similar to that of the small thrusters carried by Kondor.

Neitron’s mission

None of the documentation currently available reveals anything about the payload(s) of 14F01, making it very difficult to determine what the objectives of this project are. Neitron is unlikely to be another radar imaging satellite. Russia is working on a number of military and civilian radar satellites (Araks-R, Pion-NKS, Obzor-R, Kondor-FKA(M)) that probably will satisfy the needs for this particular type of imaging for several years to come.

Kondor’s bus was conceived as a “universal satellite platform” that can be used to house a variety of payloads. The only Kondor-based satellite that NPOMash has widely advertised is one with an optical remote sensing payload (see attachment 3). However, one wonders if there is a need for another optical reconnaissance satellite besides the ones already in orbit or under development (RKTs Progress’ Persona, Razdan, Bars-M satellites and VNIIEM’s EMKA and Razbeg satellites). Moreover, the use of the Fregat upper stage suggests that Neitron will not be placed into the kind of orbit that is typically used by optical reconnaissance satellites.

NPOMash has also hinted at other possible payloads for the Kondor platform besides radars and cameras. In a 2013 interview for NPOMash’s in-house magazine Tribuna VPK, NPOMash's (then) general director Gerbert Yefremov said that in addition to those payloads it can also carry scientific and “special” equipment (an adjective often used for military payloads). 
http://www.npomash.ru/press/ru/tribuna160813.htm?l=0

The following article also notes the possibility to install “radiotechnical” and communications payloads. The word “radiotechnical” is open to interpretation, but is often used in the context of electronic intelligence (“radiotechnical reconnaissance” is the Russian term for ELINT).
https://museum-cosmos.ru/2017/06/11/otkrytie-novogo-vystavochnogo-zala-muzeja-kosmonavtiki/

One possibility is that 14F01’s mission is related to space situational awareness. NPOMash’s annual reports for 2009 and 2010 said one of the company’s efforts was “to work out possible configurations for space surveillance systems and to forward proposals for their development”. See for instance the 2009 report:

https://docplayer.ru/75654365-Godovoy-otchet-oao-vpk-npo-mashinostroeniya.html
(see p. 27)

There are no indications that NPOMash has had anything to do with ground-based space surveillance systems, so most likely this was a reference to space-based space surveillance systems. These studies may have resulted in NPOMash getting the contract for 14F01 in late 2011. 

Possible objectives for a Russian space-based space surveillance system were outlined in this 2013 article by Vyacheslav Fateyev, who from 2005 until 2011 headed MAK Vympel, which plays a coordinating role in Russia’s space surveillance effort.
http://www.franshiza-pi.vko.ru/oruzhie/kak-povysit-effektivnost-pvo-skkp-sprn-i-pro

According to Fateyev, the system could comprise optical imaging satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits, nanosat-class inspector satellites in geostationary orbit and electronic intelligence satellites in low Earth orbit that would eavesdrop on other satellites. Optical space surveillance and inspection seem to be performed by satellites built by NPO Lavochkin (14F150) and CNIIHM, which would leave ELINT of other satellites as a possible task for 14F01. According to Fateyev, two such ELINT satellites would need only one day to “scan the entire strategic space zone all the way to the geostationary belt”, which would “significantly exceed the capabilities of ground-based ELINT systems”.  This could be a mission for 14F01, but one potential problem with that idea is that Russia is now building a network of three ground-based sites (called Sledopyt) for ELINT of foreign satellites that should be far superior to an earlier system called Moment. Also, ISS Reshetnev’s Olimp-K satellite (launched in 2014) may already be performing ELINT of satellites in the geostationary belt.

Assuming that two satellites are involved in the project (Neitron and Tekhnolog), it is reasonable to speculate that there will be some sort of interaction between the two, either by phasing their orbits or by having them perform rendezvous and proximity operations. This would also be supported by the fact that the mission seems to be very reliant on satellite navigation technology (judging from the work done by NPK SPP).

NPOMash has been doing research since early last decade on satellite formation flying, as is evidenced by a number of patents and articles published since 2011. One author involved in all of these is Maksim Palkin, described by several sources as “an advisor to NPOMash’s general director”. The first of the patents (published in 2011) is here:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2592121C2/ru
English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2592121C2/en

The authors refer to the Tango and Mango satellites, which were launched together in 2010 as part of the Swedish “Prisma” project to demonstrate autonomous satellite formation flying in preparation for future inspection and repair missions in orbit. Among the applications of the research are groups of satellites used for “inspection of non-cooperative objects” and calibration of optical systems and radars of the ground-based space surveillance system.

NPOMash has also received patents related to space debris removal and the in-orbit repair and servicing of satellites, which, of course, also require rendezvous and proximity operations. However, in one interview Gerbert Yefremov said that for the time being these are no more than paper studies.
https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=2&nid=433728&lang=RU


In short, while there is fairly strong evidence that 14F01 uses the Kondor platform, there is nothing that can be said with certainty about its payload(s) and mission objectives. It could have something to do with space surveillance or proximity and rendezvous operations, but the evidence for that is far from conclusive. Unless the Ministry of Defense reveals something about the purpose of the project after the launch(es), the orbital parameters and behavior of the satellite(s) may be the only clue to their mission objectives.
 
Current status

It is quite clear that the project, started in 2011, has suffered significant delays. A newsletter published by NPO Lavochkin (responsible for the Fregat upper stage) in early 2018 said the launch of Neitron was expected in the fourth quarter of that year, but it still hasn’t happened (despite some rumors last summer that the launch was imminent). 

There could be several reasons for the delays. First of all, like many other Russian space projects, Neitron may have been affected by Western-imposed sanctions that complicated the delivery of electronic components for the Russian space industry.  In addition to that, problems experienced by the two Kondor satellites launched in 2013 and 2014  (both fell far short of their expected operational lifetimes) may have made it necessary to make significant changes to the platform. Neitron may carry some of the modernized systems that were also incorporated into Kondor-FKA.  Finally, delays may have been caused by the complexity of the new payload(s) used by the project (whatever it/they may be) and by the need to somehow co-ordinate the launches of two separate satellites, Neitron and Tekhnolog.

Last March information appeared on recent environmental impact assessments for the 14K171 project which are discussed in public hearings at the Plesetsk cosmodrome (this seems to be routinely done for new types of satellites launched from Plesetsk and is not indicative of the use of any specific hazardous materials by the mission).
http://www.plesadm.ru/documents/2167.html
http://o-v-o-s.ru/29/6684

The documents mention launches (note the plural) of “article 14F01” and one of them says “tests” (presumably flight tests) are scheduled for 2020-2021, so it looks like after many years of delays the project may finally be moving close to realization.
   
« Last Edit: 06/12/2020 07:55 pm by zubenelgenubi »

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #10 on: 06/18/2020 07:56 am »
Stan Black informed me that the designator 14F01-1 appears in the following sources:

https://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/documents.html?regNumber=0995000000219000038
https://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/documents.html?regNumber=0995000000219000037
https://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ep44/view/documents.html?regNumber=0995000000219000036

(see the files called техническое задание (technical specifications)

These are detailed instructions for launch preparations of two trios of Gonets-M satellites (nrs. 27/28/29 and 30/31/32) and three Glonass-M satellites, to be launched by Soyuz-2-1b rockets from Plesetsk. These are standard documents with many sections that are nearly identical. Clearly, 14F01-1 has nothing to do with these missions, so what apparently happened was that someone copied part of the specifications for the launch of 14F01-1 to these documents but somehow forgot to replace 14F01-1 by the names of the satellites really involved in these missions. In all three documents, the error only occurs in the sections dealing with final launch preparations on the pad.

Also mistakenly copied here appears to be the designator 14K241, which is linked to Neitron in a handful of other sources. This is presumably the designator for the so-called “rocket and space complex” (RKK in Russian), that is the combination of the rocket and the cosmodrome infrastructure needed to launch the rocket. Aside from this, military projects have a “space system” designator (unknown for this project), a “space complex” designator (14K171 for this project) and a designator for the individual satellites (14F01).   

This bureaucratic slip-up does provide more evidence that 14F01-1 will be launched as a single payload and that its presumed sister satellite (what should be 14F01-2, possibly called Tekhnolog) will go up on another rocket. 

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #11 on: 03/02/2021 10:23 pm »
Several more court documents related to Neitron have appeared online in recent months, but they deal only with ground support systems for the project and reveal nothing about its objectives.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/b65fdafa-2058-4569-8a6f-4c18776ef09a

This is documentation decribing a court case involving NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOMash, Neitron’s prime contractor) and the Special Scientific Research Bureau Elbrus (SNIB Elbrus), based in the Siberian city of Perm.  The two companies signed a contract on 21 April 2015 for what is literally described as “the development of software to ensure real-time control and a set of programs for information support”.  The documents refer back to the 27 December 2011 government contract between the Ministry of Defense and NPOMash that started the project, the name of which is mistakenly spelled as “Neiron” (which actually is the Russian word for “neuron”, whereas “Neitron” means “neutron”). This is not the first time that I’ve seen such names misspelled and one wonders if this is done deliberately to try and cover up the real name. The court case revolved around financial issues stemming from the fact that SNIB Elbrus was liquidated in 2019.

The exact nature of the work done by SNIB Elbrus is not disclosed in the documents. However, several of the company’s annual reports published early last decade mention an earlier contract signed with NPOMash in 2009 to deliver database systems and information display systems for an unidentified mission control center, almost certainly the one used for NPOMash’s Kondor radar imaging satellite launched in 2013. Presumably, the contract for Neitron was for exactly the same kind of work.  SNIB Elbrus’ core business seems to have been the production of digital maps of the Perm region on the basis of satellite imagery, but there are no indications this work had anything to do with Kondor or Neitron.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/1008d2a9-3d48-4002-9991-9319057bf26d

This documentation describes a court case between NPOMash and the Central Design Bureau of Transport Machine Building (TsKB TM) in Tver, which signed a contract for Neitron on 14 November 2012 for the development of a “thermostatically controlled container and cargo grappling systems”. TsKB TM’s involvement in Neitron was already known from its 2013 annual report, where the container and the grappling system were identified as 14К241-13 and 14K241-12, which were also the subject of several contracts on zakupki.gov.ru in 2014-2015 (where Neitron is not mentioned by name):

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31401313616
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31502073328
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31502189847

14K241 would appear to be the index for Neitron’s so-called “rocket and space complex” (RKK), which is a term used for the combination of the rocket, the payload and the cosmodrome infrastructure needed to prepare them for launch. This is not to be confused with 14K171, which is the index for the “space complex”, which encompasses the rocket and space complex, the ground control infrastructure and the orbiting satellite(s). 14F01 is the designator for the individual satellite(s).

The legal dispute between the two companies centered around the ownership of a patent for the container. The patent, which was submitted in 2018, is here:

http://test2.fips.ru/ofpstorage/Doc/IZPM/RUNWU1/000/000/000/189/256/ПМ-00189256-00001/DOCUMENT.PDF

Apparently, the container was specifically designed to transport Neitron from the manufacturer to the Plesetsk launch site by rail. It can be seen in the attached drawing from the patent. The satellite is mounted inside the container in a horizontal position. The container has a fire extinguishing system and a system to detect propellant fumes, indicating it will also be used to transport the satellite from the satellite fueling facility to the assembly building. The thermal control system is installed inside the smaller section (position 3) and maintains the temperature inside the container between +5 and +25°C.

Confusingly, this court documentation refers to the project not only as Neitron, but also as Sputnik-S, which is the third name associated with the project besides Neitron and Tekhnolog. The name Sputnik had earlier already been associated with 14K171 in a 2015 document mentioning planned construction work at Plesetsk. Neitron and Tekhnolog might be the names of two separate satellites (see Reply 9) and Sputnik-S the overall name of the project, but this is far from certain.

“Sputnik-S” is also seen in recent court documentation related to the Blagovest military communications satellites of ISS Reshetnev.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/ff32946b-9020-4a24-a928-dbeb8129c2ca

All it reveals is that ground control stations for Sputnik-S with the name 14Ts136 were to be modified to support the four Blagovest satellites as well. The 14Ts136 stations, built by Russian Space Systems (RKS), were reported to be situated at OKIK-4 (in Yeniseisk, Siberia), OKIK-14 (in Shcholkovo near Moscow) and OKIK-16 (in Yevpatoriya, Crimea). The modification work ran into delays and had not yet been completed by the time the third Blagovest satellite was launched in late 2018. 

Apart from the court documents, a whole bunch of building contracts have appeared on zakupki.gov.ru in recent months for what is called “the reconstruction and construction of infrastructure for the functioning of the technical complex for product 14F01 and the storage of 14A14 and 14A15 rockets and for a separate technical complex for the Volga upper stage (14P78)”. 14A14 is a name for the Soyuz-2-1a and 1b rockets and 14A15 is the Soyuz-2-1v. The work is being done under the code name “500/Volga” as part of a contract awarded by the Ministry of Defense on 20 September 2019. One of the contracts is here:

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?purchaseId=9251106&purchaseMethodType=IS

Earlier work under the same code name (and also involving 14F01) had been done under another government contract awarded on 20 December 2016.

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31704803551
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31704864600
https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31704988849

Judging from the documents, the work is being carried out at several locations across the cosmodrome. The work related to 14F01 may have been done in Area 16, which houses support buildings as well as a launch pad for Soyuz rockets. Possibly, one or more of those buildings are used to prepare 14F01 for launch and also to store Soyuz rockets. The Area 16 launch pad was last used in May 2012 and is reportedly being modified for Soyuz-2-1v launches. Although Neitron may be undergoing processing in  Area 16, it will most likely fly from one of the two pads in Area 43 since it uses a Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat. It is not clear if any of the 500/Volga construction work currently being done still has anything to do with 14F01. One would think that almost ten years after the start of the Neitron project, the infrastructure needed to prepare the satellite(s) would be ready by now.

Finally, Neitron likely was a topic of discussion during a visit by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to NPOMash in early February. An NPOMash press release said the delegation had been updated among other things on work on the Kondor-FKA radar satellites for Roscosmos “as well as on other future satellites, including those developed in the interests of the Ministry of Defense” (note the plural).

http://www.npomash.ru/press/ru/podrobnee050221.htm?l=0

The TASS news agency reported several days later that according to one if its sources in the space industry, the military satellite under development at NPOMash is a “reconnaissance satellite”. 

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/10662067

TASS had already quoted this same industry source in June last year, when it reported on environmental control hearings for Neitron held at Plesetsk several weeks earlier. When asked by the news agency what type of satellite this was, NPOMash’s press service had only acknowledged that the company was working on a satellite for the Ministry of Defense without going into any further detail.
     
https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/8742819

Leaving aside the question of TASS’ source is accurate, the term “reconnaissance satellite” can obviously be broadly interpreted and doesn’t shed much more light on the true nature of Neitron.

Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #12 on: 03/31/2021 10:41 pm »
There are vague indications that the satellite or satellites to be flown under the 14K171 project will be operating in a challenging radiation environment. One clue comes from the brief description of a research project called Tekhnolog carried out in 2012 by the Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics (NIIYaF), which belongs to Moscow State University and specializes in radiation effects on satellites. As mentioned earlier here, Tekhnolog is one of the names that has been associated with this project along with Neitron and Sputnik-S.

https://istina.ips.ac.ru/projects/9112480/

The goal of the research was to study the effects of “ionizing space radiation” (both solar energetic particles and particles trapped in the Earth’s radiation belts) on satellites using orbits with inclinations of 65° and 90° and altitudes ranging from 600 to 10,000 km. The research team, led by Lev S. Novikov, calculated the radiation dose that the satellites would receive “behind flat and spherical protective screens with thicknesses of 0.01 to 50.0 g/cm2”. The data would be used to determine possible locations for radiation detectors to be carried by the satellites and also to determine the type and capabilities of those detectors. 

Despite the use of the name Tekhnolog, the research project cannot be linked to 14K171 with certainty since the Russians often recycle names for totally unrelated projects. However, the research project, which ran from January to July 2012, did begin right after the approval of 14K171 in December 2011.

Several years later, Novikov was involved in a joint study with researchers of NPO Mashinostroyeniya (the prime contractor for 14K171) and the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics on the effects of ionizing space radiation on an unidentified “small satellite”. More specifically, the study focused on how the satellite’s wiring would be affected by electrostatic discharges induced by electromagnetic interference. The NPOMash researchers belonged to the company’s Department 60, which specializes in studying the effects of “special factors” on the company’s products (both satellites and missiles). The results of the study were presented at the Korolyov Academic Readings in January 2016. 

 https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=26019872&pff=1
(full paper available for registered users of elibrary.ru)

This research cannot be linked to 14K171 with certainty either, but one study that did definitely pertain to 14K171 was made as part of a PhD dissertation dedicated to the effects of space radiation on silicon and silicon-germanium bipolar transistors.
https://www.hse.ru/data/2016/04/26/1130139129/kozh-theses.pdf

The researcher investigated the effects of electrons (with energies of 10 to 100 Кrad) as well as protons on an electronics box (“R-15”) to be used in a solar array orientation system developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electromеchanics (VNIIEM). VNIIEM is best known as a manufacturer of meteorological and Earth remote sensing satellites (such as Meteor and Kanopus), but it also provides components for satellites of other manufacturers. A review of the PhD dissertation by VNIIEM specialists identified the satellite as Tekhnolog (p. 148). The R-15 electronics box is part of a solar array drive mechanism called R-20 that VNIIEM also developed for NPOMash's Kondor-FKA radar satellites. This is one of several signs that the 14K171 satellite(s) and Kondor share a common bus (one other being that VNIIEM supplied identical reaction wheels (called D5-50) for both 14K171 and Kondor-FKA).

The study related to Tekhnolog was performed between 2013 and 2015 and the PhD dissertation was published in 2016. The researcher, Maksim Kozhukhov, went on to work for VNIIEM and co-authored several papers on space radiation effects on satellites.

Finally, a VNIIEM paper dealing with space radiation effects on satellites was also quoted in an NPOMash patent for a dual-layer screen to protect an “on-board equipment complex” from ionizing radiation, in particular neutrons. There are some signs, however, that the patent may be related to NPOMash’s research on hypersonic vehicles (such as Avangard) rather than satellites. The patent (with an English abstract) is here:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e1/f9/1f/2741c7d385481f/RU2664715C2.pdf

In summary, only the PhD study can be unambiguously linked to 14K171, but even that in itself suggests that the satellite(s) will be exposed to relatively high radiation doses. The mentioned radiation levels of up to 100 Krad are experienced by satellites in higher orbits. For comparison, one VNIIEM paper gives an annual dose of about 1 Krad for a Kanopus-V remote sensing satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit and 130 Krad for a Glonass navigation satellite in a roughly 20,000 km orbit.

If the 2012 NIIYaF study is related to 14K171, then it would seem that at least two satellites will be launched, one into a 90° orbit and another into a 65° km orbit (these could be rough rather than accurate inclinations). The reported altitude range (between 600 and 10,000 km) roughly corresponds to that of the inner Van Allen radiation belt (which also dips to as low as 200 km over the South Atlantic Anomaly). Assuming 14K171 and Kondor share the bus, the satellite mass would be around 1 ton, which could easily be placed into these types of orbits by the Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat, the launch vehicle that will be used for the 14K171 project. All this, however, doesn’t bring us much closer to understanding the objectives of 14K171.


Offline zubenelgenubi

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #13 on: 01/28/2022 05:02 pm »
Cross-post; Neitron no.1 is now in its launch campaign, launching February 3, 2022.  Coverage in the launch thread starts here.
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Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #14 on: 01/31/2022 03:27 pm »
With the launch of Neitron now apparently only two days away, there is little new to report on this project. All that has leaked out in recent months are two court documents which appeared online late last year, but they don’t provide any insight into the project's objectives.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/8592b79d-63d3-423c-8824-75a90e4fbf2b

This is a court case between NPO Mashinostroyeniya and RFYaTs-VNIIEF. The two signed a contract on August 1, 2013 for work called Neitron-NTSZ. The court case revolved around one specific phase of this work involving certification tests of a system known as NTSZ ATS35012. RFYaTs-VNIIEF received help for this work from a Ministry of Defense research institute known as 27 TsNII. The background of RFYaTs-VNIIEF and 27 TsNII is so diverse that it is impossible to draw any sound conclusions about the exact nature of the work. There are some vague indications that it may have something to do with data protection.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/e6fe6100-dec9-4ed5-92f3-0f10e8cd2068

A court case between NPO Mashinostroyeniya and SNIB Elbrus. This is related to a contract signed between the two parties as part of Neitron on April 21, 2015 for what is literally called “the development of software to ensure real-time control and a set of programs for information support”. The document mentions software developed by SNIB Elbrus that underwent initial testing at NPO Mashinostroyeniya in June 2016 as well as database systems. The same contract was the subject of an earlier court case described here in Reply 11. As mentioned there, SNIB Elbrus probably developed database and information display systems for Neitron’s mission control center, a role it also seems to have performed for the Kondor radar imaging satellites.

Meanwhile, a Russian aviation and space website identifies Neitron in its launch calendar as a satellite for “optical reconnaissance of the Earth and accurate imaging of orbiting satellites”.
https://avianews.info/
No source of information is given, making it hard to say if this is sheer speculation or not.  It will be interesting to see if any new information emerges on this project prior to or after launch.


Offline B. Hendrickx

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Re: NPOMash's 14F01/Neitron satellites
« Reply #15 on: 09/06/2023 04:14 pm »
Analysis of the orbit of Kosmos-2553 (the first Neitron satellite) points to it being a satellite used for interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) imaging. See the Kosmos-2553 thread:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=46672.msg2521429#msg2521429
« Last Edit: 09/06/2023 08:33 pm by zubenelgenubi »

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