FAILURE: Proton-M launch with three Glonass-M - December 5, 2010

[Stan Black]

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3676&start=47

DM-SLB and DM-03 feature a single tank SOZ

[Nickolai]

Agreed. Another show of robustness would be loading the correct mass of propellant required, not percentage!

most propellant systems on upperstages measure percentage

Is that because most designers figure the additional weight of a mass measurement device isn't necessary when you can just measure percentage? Or is there some other reason?

[McDew]

Conclusion: The three reported constraints (A) 8 degree pitch, (B) 100 m/s underburn, (C) NW of Hawaii impact,
can't all be right - pick at most two. The exact meaning of (A) is open to possible other interpretations
so I choose to discount it. This leads us to perigees in the -150 km (+/- 50 km) range and apogees
in the 165 km (+/-20 km) range.

You got very close!
Perigee = -154 km
Apogee = 189 km
Inclination = 64.8 deg.

[jcm]

Conclusion: The three reported constraints (A) 8 degree pitch, (B) 100 m/s underburn, (C) NW of Hawaii impact,
can't all be right - pick at most two. The exact meaning of (A) is open to possible other interpretations
so I choose to discount it. This leads us to perigees in the -150 km (+/- 50 km) range and apogees
in the 165 km (+/-20 km) range.

You got very close!
Perigee = -154 km
Apogee = 189 km
Inclination = 64.8 deg.

Very interesting - care to give a hint as to the source of those numbers?
(Russian data? US tracking? News report I missed?)
 Thanks, Jonathan

[McDew]

Conclusion: The three reported constraints (A) 8 degree pitch, (B) 100 m/s underburn, (C) NW of Hawaii impact,
can't all be right - pick at most two. The exact meaning of (A) is open to possible other interpretations
so I choose to discount it. This leads us to perigees in the -150 km (+/- 50 km) range and apogees
in the 165 km (+/-20 km) range.

You got very close!
Perigee = -154 km
Apogee = 189 km
Inclination = 64.8 deg.

Very interesting - care to give a hint as to the source of those numbers?
(Russian data? US tracking? News report I missed?)
 Thanks, Jonathan

Russian data

[Jim]

Agreed. Another show of robustness would be loading the correct mass of propellant required, not percentage!

most propellant systems on upperstages measure percentage

Is that because most designers figure the additional weight of a mass measurement device isn't necessary when you can just measure percentage? Or is there some other reason?

No such thing as mass measurement device  for launch vehicles or propellants.  Especially for a propellant that boils off (it does no good in totaling the propellant being loaded).  Launch vehicles use liquid level devices to measure propellant load.

[anik]

(B) 100 m/s underburn

107 m/s.

[edkyle99]

I can't figure out the 8 degree thing.
 - Jonathan

Perhaps this is the deviation (I suppose in pitch) only at the very end of the third stage burn?  When rockets fall off program, their guidance systems sometimes do goofy looking things to try to compensate, especially right toward the end of a burn.  (I think I remember reading that the Apollo 6 S-IVB stage ended up pointing nearly backward, or flying sideways, or some-such, near the end of its first burn.)

 - Ed Kyle

[jcm]

(B) 100 m/s underburn

107 m/s.

Thanks! And can you confirm the orbital params quoted above?

So with Stan's corrections my updated mass breakdown is

- `perekhodnik'
         jettisonable upper adapter    840 kg?
- lower adapter                        250 kg?
- DM3 stage, dry                      2350 kg
- Payload adapter                      100 kg?
- DM3 nominal mission propellant     15000 kg
- Three Glonass-M                     4350 kg
This gives a total OB mass of        22890 kg.   
The dry mass of stage 3 is around     3700 kg
so post burn mass is                 26590 kg
with 1600 kg extra prop              28190 kg
(sorry for the formatting, cut and paste does funny things here)

[Danderman]

The only caveat being that Stage 3 probably had some residual propellants, since AFAIK, Stage 3 does not burn to depletion. If Stage 3 HAD burned to depletion, the payload would probably had been injected into orbit.

[McDew]

http://www.roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11066

FOR NEWS MEDIA: Failed Launch of GLONASS Satellites Blamed on RSC-Energia Designers’ Error – Interagency Commission

:: 18.12.2010

The Interagency Commission has presented its conclusion on technical causes of the failed launch of Proton-M/DM-03/three Glonass-M satellites.
It has been concluded that the Proton rocket had injected the upper stage with a cluster of Glonass spacecraft into the non-targeted (opened) orbit. The satellites had fell down into the Pacific. Objectives of the launch had not been accomplished.
Off-nominal mission of Proton-M was caused by exceeded mass of the DM-03 upper stage due to designers’ error in calculation of the liquid oxygen volume in the prop filling manual of the upper stage (the system is developed by RSC-Energia).
Launch program – 2011 is to be updated in order to achieve full scope of the GLONASS constellation of 24 satellites.

Anatoly Perminov
Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency

Dec. 18, 2010

[ugordan]

The only caveat being that Stage 3 probably had some residual propellants, since AFAIK, Stage 3 does not burn to depletion. If Stage 3 HAD burned to depletion, the payload would probably had been injected into orbit.

It wouldn't burn to depletion if the target insertion is a stable orbit and it had performance reserve to do that in the nominal case. What makes you think it didn't burn to depletion trying to insert the stack into the desired orbit this time?

[Stan Black]

The only caveat being that Stage 3 probably had some residual propellants, since AFAIK, Stage 3 does not burn to depletion. If Stage 3 HAD burned to depletion, the payload would probably had been injected into orbit.

It wouldn't burn to depletion if the target insertion is a stable orbit and it had performance reserve to do that in the nominal case. What makes you think it didn't burn to depletion trying to insert the stack into the desired orbit this time?

 Remember reading the burning to depletion is not always possible. Something to do with propellant thinning and engine spinning faster and overheating before exploding…

 Saljut-2 third stage could have contained up to 290 kg of reserve fuel at time of seperation.
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/204/49.shtml

 Molnija failure 12th September 1962
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=304&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1035

[McDew]

The only caveat being that Stage 3 probably had some residual propellants, since AFAIK, Stage 3 does not burn to depletion. If Stage 3 HAD burned to depletion, the payload would probably had been injected into orbit.

It wouldn't burn to depletion if the target insertion is a stable orbit and it had performance reserve to do that in the nominal case. What makes you think it didn't burn to depletion trying to insert the stack into the desired orbit this time?

The Stage 3 had reserves available which could have corrected for a 600 kg overload of the Block DM-03 to the target orbit, but 1600 kg was beyond its capabilities given the ascent profile. 

[anik]

http://www.kremlin.ru/news/9950

President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev has fired out the vice-president of RSC Energia Vyacheslav Filin and the deputy head of Roskosmos Victor Remishevskiy. The reprimand is declared to the head of Roskosmos Anatoliy Perminov.

[Danderman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101229/sc_afp/russiaspacepoliticstechnology

English translation of the above:

"President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday fired two top space officials and reprimanded the space agency chief after a launch failure caused Russia to delay the deployment of its own navigation system.

This month's failed launch of three Glonass-M orbiters marked a humiliating setback to the country's efforts to introduce a global rival to the US Global Positioning System (GPS).

A presidential statement said Energia Vice President Vyacheslav Filin and Roskosmos deputy head Viktor Remishevsky had been fired for "the mistakes made in the fuel calculations".

The Russian Proton-M rocket failed to reach its initial orbit during the December 5 launch, causing it to dump the three high-tech Glonass-M satellites near the Hawaii Islands.

The brief statement also said Medvedev had reprimanded Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov and order the agency to be more careful in its future work.

"On the Russian president's instructions, Roskosmos will undertake additional measures to strengthen its performance discipline," the Kremlin statement said."

[Satori]

I'm looking for technical information about the Blok DM-03. I know it has enlarged propolent tanks and that it was developed for the Proton-M. Does anyone has the dimensions and other characteristics of thus upper-stage?

Thanks!