Doesn't this uncontrolled drift in the Clarke belt make Angosat a potential hazard to the other geosynchronous satellites? (For that matter, isn't the same true for this launch's Fregat upper stage?)
How do the Angolans, or at least the Angolan authorities, feel about paying for a failed satellite?
So they will try to revive the spacecraft after ~90 days with no telemetry and no command capability? No one in their right mind would voluntarily do that. It is just too embarrassing for Energia to admit that a spacecraft designed to work for 15 years only lasted 15 minutes. By April they hope everyone will have forgotten about it.
Why would another comsat operator or builder help a cut-rate competitor recover from an embarrassing fiasco??
In mid-April the satellite will be back in the coverage zone of Korolev control center and the eclipse season will be over, which will help for testing the power supply subsystem
Quote from: Arch Admiral on 01/16/2018 04:50 amWhy would another comsat operator or builder help a cut-rate competitor recover from an embarrassing fiasco?? Three possible reasons:OneAirbus Defence and Space provided the payload on the Energia s/c bus, yes? Airbus has an interest in ensuring their payload operates, even if they've already been paid.Two$$$--fees for use of facilities, etc.ThreeA favor as an antifreeze in increasingly frosty relations?
Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 01/16/2018 03:43 pmQuote from: Arch Admiral on 01/16/2018 04:50 amWhy would another comsat operator or builder help a cut-rate competitor recover from an embarrassing fiasco?? Three possible reasons:OneAirbus Defence and Space provided the payload on the Energia s/c bus, yes? Airbus has an interest in ensuring their payload operates, even if they've already been paid.Two$$$--fees for use of facilities, etc.ThreeA favor as an antifreeze in increasingly frosty relations?to clarify Airbus DS is responsible in full only for the broadcast payload. Command and Control hardware is a hybrid solution involving both Russian and European hardware and software.
Quote from: russianhalo117 on 01/16/2018 05:34 pmQuote from: zubenelgenubi on 01/16/2018 03:43 pmQuote from: Arch Admiral on 01/16/2018 04:50 amWhy would another comsat operator or builder help a cut-rate competitor recover from an embarrassing fiasco?? Three possible reasons:OneAirbus Defence and Space provided the payload on the Energia s/c bus, yes? Airbus has an interest in ensuring their payload operates, even if they've already been paid.Two$$$--fees for use of facilities, etc.ThreeA favor as an antifreeze in increasingly frosty relations?to clarify Airbus DS is responsible in full only for the broadcast payload. Command and Control hardware is a hybrid solution involving both Russian and European hardware and software.Aha!And that interface, by inference from the news quoted up-thread, would be where the hardware or software incompatibilities would lie?
I suppose RSC Energia paying for the use of a Western Hemisphere tracking station to continue attempting communication with the satellite is out of the question?
(1/2) Video footage of what almost certainly was the re-entry of a Russian FREGAT upper stage from the launch of ANGOSAT. It reentered around 23:32 GMT on 27 January on the Peru-Brasil border. (with HT to @Cosmic_Penguin for alerting me to this post).https://twitter.com/GABRlELPlNHElRO/status/957707032278261761
(2/2) map of the re-entry position:
(3/3) forgot to include the Object ID, it is SSC #43087, COSPAR 2017-086A. This is a Fregat upper stage from a Russian Zenit rocket that launched Angosat a month ago, on 26 December, from Baikonur.
The January 27 reentered object is probably the Zenit second stage (ID 43090). The second stage boosted the vehicle to a parking orbit on this mission. The Fregat drop tank and other launch vehicle "debris" parts may soon reenter, but the Fregat stage itself ended up in near-geosynchronous orbit. - Ed Kyle
Russian top diplomat Serguey Lavrov Monday in Luanda said the Angolan Angosat satellite, produced and launched into space by a company from his country, remains in orbit and is scheduled to start operating next April.
He stressed that the satellite will start operating in April.
"The spacecraft" Angosat-1 "entered the radiovisibility zone from the Moscow region near Korolev, but specialists can not be connected with it,"
Roskosmos claims that it is premature to give an assessment of the working capacity of the spacecraft.
The algorithms for ground-based equipment will be finalized and the program will start working on the device within the next few days .These operations require time until May 2018,
After repeated attempts to establish a full-fledged communication and take over the Angolan satellite for management, which were resumed in April, experts came to the conclusion that the apparatus is inoperative