Author Topic: LIVE: Proton-M launch with Yamal-402 satellite - December 8, 2012 (1313UTC) (Read 65535 times)

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #140 on:** 12/25/2012 03:12 pm »

Apparently the Russians now blame the failure on a turbopump bearing destruction during the final burn.

http://en.rian.ru/science/20121225/178385673.html

How frequent does that happen before in rocket engine flights?

akula2 · « **Reply #141 on:** 12/26/2012 07:16 am »

a) Any update on Yamal-402 satellite? I mean, reduction from 15 to 11 years due to use of its fuel. Is this confirmed? Or drastically down to even more (say 8 or 9 years).

b) Anyone know how to compute RoI on Satellites? At least rough estimate will do.

smoliarm · « **Reply #142 on:** 12/26/2012 10:06 am »

Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 12/25/2012 03:12 pm

Apparently the Russians now blame the failure on a turbopump bearing destruction during the final burn.

http://en.rian.ru/science/20121225/178385673.html

How frequent does that happen before in rocket engine flights?

Yes, "Kommersant" newspaper confirmed this yesterday (in Russian)

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc-y/2097660

and gave more details:
= The Kommersant's source in the investigation board confirmed the engine (C5.98) failure;
= the board believes that turbopump bearing destruction was the most probable cause;
= Turbopump developer and manufacturer ("КБ Химмаш") will conduct testing of all its turbopumps (that's how the put it in article - ALL);
= two coming launches with Briz-M - Satmex-8 and Anik G1 - are currently postponed till the end of testings;

Also, Kommersant's analyst, Ivan Sofronov noted, that this is not the first case of turbopump bearing destruction. In Feb 2006, Briz-M failed to deploy Arabsat-4A, later the failure was attributed to the bearing destruction, and "КБ Химмаш" concurred with this conclusion.

Prober · « **Reply #143 on:** 12/26/2012 12:59 pm »

any change in bearing suppliers?

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #144 on:** 12/27/2012 05:13 pm »

ILS presser:

INVESTIGATION INTO PROTON LAUNCH ANOMALY CONTINUES AS ROOT CAUSE IS BEING EVALUATED

December 27, 2012- The Russian Commission, convened by Khrunichev, continues its investigation and is preparing a report concerning the root cause of the December 8th ILS Proton launch anomaly with the Yamal 402 satellite. Various root cause scenarios are being evaluated prior to the issuance of a final conclusive report.

The anomaly occurred during the 4th and final burn of the Breeze M engine during a planned 9 hour and 15 minute mission. The 4th burn ended about four minutes early and the spacecraft was subsequently separated. The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space for Russian satellite operator, Gazprom Space Systems, was successfully maneuvered to its orbital position and has started in-orbit tests.

ILS has formed a Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) in serial process at the conclusion of the Russian Commission. The FROB will review the Commission’s final report and corrective action plan, in accordance with U.S. and Russian government export control regulations. The FROB will begin in Moscow after the report is issued and consists of ILS customers, industry subject experts, and insurance industry representatives. The FROB will provide an independent review of the investigation, root cause and corrective actions of the Russian Commission required prior to return to commercial flight. After the conclusion of the FROB, the FROB report will be briefed to ILS customers and the launch insurance industry.

Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

About ILS and Khrunichev

ILS is a leading launch services provider for global satellite operators and offers a complete array of services and support, from contract signing through mission management and on-orbit delivery. ILS has exclusive rights to market the Proton vehicle to commercial satellite operators worldwide and is a U.S. company headquartered in Reston, VA., near Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.ilslaunch.com.

Khrunichev, which holds the majority interest in ILS, is one of the cornerstones of the Russian space industry. Khrunichev manufactures the Proton system and is developing the Angara launch system. The Proton launches from facilities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and has a heritage of more than 380 missions since 1965. Khrunichev includes, among its branches, a number of key manufacturers of launch vehicle and spacecraft components in Moscow and in other cities of the Russian Federation. For more information, visit www.khrunichev.com.

akula2 · « **Reply #145 on:** 12/28/2012 04:42 am »

Quote from: smoliarm on 12/26/2012 10:06 am

Also, Kommersant's analyst, Ivan Sofronov noted, that this is not the first case of turbopump bearing destruction. In Feb 2006, Briz-M failed to deploy Arabsat-4A, later the failure was attributed to the bearing destruction, and "КБ Химмаш" concurred with this conclusion.

I don't discount this at all. We have loads of bad-quality spares experience as well as huge project delays...

Quote from: smoliarm on 12/26/2012 10:06 am

= the board believes that turbopump bearing destruction was the most probable cause;
= Turbopump developer and manufacturer ("КБ Химмаш") will conduct testing of all its turbopumps (that's how the put it in article - ALL);

If that's true then Medvedev should have penalized them by now. I don't get why the delay. Perhaps it's time for the Russian President to set the ball rolling...

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #146 on:** 01/11/2013 02:03 pm »

ILS:

ROSCOSMOS MANAGEMENT RELEASES INVESTIGATIVE COMMISSION’S REPORT
ON PROTON LAUNCH ANOMALY
TO KHRUNICHEV STATE RESEARCH AND SPACE PRODUCTION CENTER

January 11, 2012- Roscosmos management has reviewed and approved the report provided by the Russian working group investigating the Proton launch anomaly during the Yamal 402 mission and have provided the report to Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center (Khrunichev).The findings on the identified most probable root cause of the anomaly and the required corrective actions will be released to ILS after the report clears Russian security during the week of January 21st.

The Russian working group, convened by Roscosmos, included independent experts from TsNIIMash (Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building), the leading institution of Roscosmos to support design, development and research into rocket and space articles, and M.V. Keldysh Research Center, the leading Russian entity for rocket engines.

International Launch Services (ILS) has formed a Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) which will review the Commission’s final report and corrective action plan, in accordance with U.S. and Russian government export control regulations. The FROB will begin in Moscow on January 30thand consists of ILS customers, industry subject experts, and insurance industry representatives. The FROB will provide an independent review of the investigation, root cause and corrective actions required prior to return to commercial flight. After the conclusion of the FROB, the FROB report will be briefed to ILS customers and the launch insurance industry.

The anomaly occurred during the 4th and final burn of the Breeze M engine during a planned 9 hour and 15 minute mission. The 4th burn ended about four minutes early and the spacecraft was subsequently separated. The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space for Russian satellite operator, Gazprom Space Systems, was successfully maneuvered to its orbital position and was declared fully operational on January 8th 2013 after completing its on orbit tests.

Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #147 on:** 01/16/2013 07:43 am »

Hmmm....... again the long periods of operation by the Breeze-M seems to do no good to its reliability (or at least decreasing its margins) - someone put forward the hypothesis that the long 4+ hours coast between the third and fourth burns was almost entirely on the sunlit side of the Earth, which means that the fuel was not cooled down before the last burn, affecting their viscosity. Then when the burn took place, there was cavitation in the fuel lines, resulting in bearing destruction and fuel line leak. Does that make sense at all?

anik · « **Reply #148 on:** 01/16/2013 07:50 am »

Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 01/16/2013 07:43 am

someone put forward the hypothesis

It is not the hypothesis, it is an actual conclusion of commission.

Stan Black · « **Reply #149 on:** 01/16/2013 03:35 pm »

While it was in flight I captured some additional events from
http://www.space-center.ru/LiveGroundTrack.aspx

582	Конец АУ РН, отделение ОБ	08.12.2012	13:23:25
662	Начало поджатия	08.12.2012	13:24:45
676	Запуск МД	08.12.2012	13:24:59
678	Конец поджатия	08.12.2012	13:25:01
955	Выключение МД	08.12.2012	13:29:38
965	Конец 1-ого маневра	08.12.2012	13:29:48
1020	Начало разворота для ориентации по вектору скорости	08.12.2012	13:30:43
1170	Выход из зоны ИП	08.12.2012	13:33:13
3410	Конец разворота для ориентации по вектору скорости	08.12.2012	14:10:33
3415	Начало разворота для выполнения маневра	08.12.2012	14:10:38
4015	Начало поджатия	08.12.2012	14:20:38
4015	Конец разворота для выполнения маневра	08.12.2012	14:20:38
4035	Запуск МД	08.12.2012	14:20:58
4037	Конец поджатия	08.12.2012	14:21:00
5129	Выключение МД	08.12.2012	14:39:12
7160	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	15:13:03
7460	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	15:18:03
10360	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	16:06:23
10660	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	16:11:23
11960	Начало разворота для выполнения маневра	08.12.2012	16:33:03
11984	Открытие ТЗК	08.12.2012	16:33:27
12560	Начало поджатия	08.12.2012	16:43:03
12584	Запуск МД	08.12.2012	16:43:27
12586	Конец поджатия	08.12.2012	16:43:29
13654	Выключение МД	08.12.2012	17:01:17
13654	Выработка топлива из ДТБ	08.12.2012	17:01:17
13729	Начало поджатия	08.12.2012	17:02:32
13735	Сброс ДТБ	08.12.2012	17:02:38
13737	Конец поджатия	08.12.2012	17:02:40
13865	Вход в зону ИП	08.12.2012	17:04:48
13900	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	17:05:23
14500	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	17:15:23
21152	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	19:06:15
21352	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	19:09:35
24578	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	20:03:21
24778	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	20:06:41
28004	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	21:00:27
28204	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	21:03:47
29717	Начало разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	21:29:00
29971	Конец разворота для ориентации на Солнце	08.12.2012	21:33:14
31430	Начало разворота для выполнения маневра	08.12.2012	21:57:33
31440	Открытие ТЗК	08.12.2012	21:57:43
32030	Конец разворота для выполнения маневра	08.12.2012	22:07:33
32030	Начало поджатия	08.12.2012	22:07:33
32040	Запуск МД	08.12.2012	22:07:43
32042	Конец поджатия	08.12.2012	22:07:45
32569	Выключение МД	08.12.2012	22:16:32
32579	Конец 4-ого маневра	08.12.2012	22:16:42
32690	Начало разворота на отделение КА	08.12.2012	22:18:33
33290	Конец разворота на отделение КА	08.12.2012	22:28:33
33290	Начало зоны отделения КА	08.12.2012	22:28:33
33300	Отделение КА	08.12.2012	22:28:43
41000	Начало увода РБ	09.12.2012	00:37:03
41015	Окончание увода РБ	09.12.2012	00:37:18
45130	Начало увода РБ	09.12.2012	01:45:53
45230	Окончание увода РБ	09.12.2012	01:47:33

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #150 on:** 02/12/2013 01:06 pm »

INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH SERVICES (ILS) FAILURE REVIEW OVERSIGHT BOARD (FROB) CONCLUDES THE YAMAL 402 PROTON LAUNCH ANOMALY INVESTIGATON

February 12, 2013- The ILS Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) concluded its review on February 7, concurring on the most probable root cause and the associated corrective action plan of the December 8, 2012 anomaly of the Yamal 402 Proton launch The FROB analyzed the findings and recommendations of the Russian working group, which included participation from experts from TsNIIMash (Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building), M.V. Keldysh Research Center and Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center (Khrunichev).

The members of the FROB agreed with the findings of the Russian investigation that the most probable root cause of the failure was due to a combination of adverse conditions which affected the operation of the Breeze M main engine during the startup of the 3rd burn causing damage to a bearing on the oxidizer side of the turbo pump. This ultimately resulted in the failure of the bearing during the 4th burn and caused the 4th burn of the Breeze M to end about four minutes early, with subsequent separation of the spacecraft. The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space for Russian satellite operator, Gazprom Space Systems, was successfully maneuvered to its orbital position and was declared fully operational on January 8th 2013 after completing its on orbit tests.

“My sincere appreciation goes out to our customers, insurance underwriters and independent subject matter experts for their thorough and diligent participation in the ILS FROB process. We thank our customers for their support as ILS Proton proceeds towards return to flight,” said ILS Vice President of Programs and Operations, John Palmé.

The ILS Proton return to flight mission will be the Satmex 8 satellite for Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V. (Satmex) next month. Scheduling of this mission and of the remainder of the ILS Proton near term manifest for 2013 is currently being determined.

####

About ILS and Khrunichev

ILS is a leading launch services provider for global satellite operators and offers a complete array of services and support, from contract signing through mission management and on-orbit delivery. ILS has exclusive rights to market the Proton vehicle to commercial satellite operators worldwide and is a U.S. company headquartered in Reston, VA., near Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.ilslaunch.com.

owais.usmani · « **Reply #151 on:** 02/14/2013 07:12 pm »

INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH SERVICES ISSUES ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON THE YAMAL 402 PROTON LAUNCH ANOMALY CAUSE AND CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

February 14, 2013 - International Launch Services (ILS) has issued additional details regarding the most probable root cause and corrective actions presented to the ILS Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) concerning the Yamal 402 Proton launch anomaly which occurred on December 8, 2012.

The members of the FROB agreed with the findings of the Russian investigation that the most probable cause of the Yamal 402 Proton launch anomaly was due to a combination of adverse conditions which affected the operation of the Breeze M main engine during the startup of the 3rd burn.
The combination of adverse conditions were predominantly thermal in nature and affected the conditions at the oxidizer inlet line to the Breeze M main engine prior to the 3rd burn ignition and resulted in a large volume of oxidizer gas (rather than liquid oxidizer) at the engine inlet, exceeding the Breeze M main engine specifications. The volume of gas was ingested by the Breeze M turbopump at the start of the 3rd burn, leading to over-speed of the oxidizer turbopump bearing without the cooling normally supplied by liquid oxidizer. The over-speed damaged the bearing, which eventually led to the premature shutdown of the fourth burn. The adverse thermal conditions were due to higher than previously recorded propellant temperatures at liftoff combined with higher than previously recorded thermal soak-back of engine heat to the Breeze M prior to the 3rd burn.
Several corrective actions will be implemented, and include management of both satellite and Breeze M thermal requirements to ensure adequate margin to prevent future recurrence of this anomaly. No Breeze M hardware modifications are required.
The ILS Proton return to flight mission will be the Satmex 8 satellite for Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V. (Satmex) on March 27 (March 26 EST) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The corrective actions required by the FROB to prevent future recurrence of the anomaly have been started and are currently on schedule to support the new launch date. Scheduling of the remainder of the ILS Proton near term manifest for 2013 is currently being determined.

http://www.ilslaunch.com/newsroom/news-releases/international-launch-services-issues-additional-details-yamal-402-proton-laun

edkyle99 · « **Reply #152 on:** 02/14/2013 07:51 pm »

66 times Briz M has flown on Proton, and 18 more times as Briz K(M) on Rokot. Amazing that new things keep happening.

- Ed Kyle

Stan Black · « **Reply #153 on:** 07/20/2013 01:56 pm »

Quote from: Stan Black on 11/01/2012 06:52 pm

Quote from: Artyom. on 11/01/2012 06:15 am
Quote
December 8 – Yamal-402 – Proton-M/Briz-M – Baikonur 200/39

Briz-M upper stage for this mission was today delivered to Baykonur
http://www.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=1&nid=2637 (in Russian)

According to Rui this launch was to use 99528
http://www.zenite.nu/orbita/index.php?catid=4

Briz-M 99528 was previously delivered for Sirius-FM6
http://www.khrunichev.ru/main.php?id=1&nid=2295

99528 was then to be used for Intelsat-23

This was the eighth delivery of Briz-M for 2012
http://www.aex.ru/news/2012/11/1/99554/

So were the two previously delivered Briz-M for Sirius-FM6 and Luch-5B with Yamal-300K ever returned to Moscow for refurbishment?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27791.msg952783#msg952783
Or were they repaired on site at Baikonur?

http://www.gazprom-spacesystems.ru/ru/news/publications/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=2142

Quote

«Новости космонавтики»
01.2013
А. Красильников
После этого Роскосмос принял решение детально перепроверить произведенные «Бризы-М»: №99528 и №99533, находившиеся на космодроме, а также №99534 и №99535, пребывавшие в Центре Хруничева. На это потребовалось время. В результате 14 октября на «Протоне-М» первым после аварии полетел спутник Intelsat 23. Причем для его запуска использовался «Бриз-М» №99534, доставленный на Байконур 21 сентября, а не №99528, хранившийся в МИКе площадки 92А. А вот «Луч-5Б» и «Ямал-300К», как изначально планировалось, отправились на орбиту на блоке №99533.
Как сообщил НК заместитель директора Завода по эксплуатации ракетно-космической техники Центра Хруничева по летно-испытательной базе «Байконур» Леонид Горюшкин, «Бризы-М» №99528 и №99533 были подвергнуты специальной проверке прямо в МИКе площадки 92А.