Proton Serial Number: 6304837972
From the Facebook of Pavel Vinogradov, who is in Baykonur for the launch of Soyuz TMA-19M :
Сегодня, 13 декабря 2015 года, в 03.19 МСК ( 06.19 Байконур) ракета-носитель Протон красиво ушла в полёт. Величественное зрелище!!
В 07.00 корабль Союз ТМА-19М с РН Союз ФГ двинулся на старт. Работаем не покладая рук... То ли ещё будет!
First object cataloged by USSTRATCOM: Briz-M tank
2015-075A/41121 in 402 x 35657 km x 48.59°
ILS pass on a presser (not by them, but because it's the rocket they use):
Khrunichev Press Release
KHRUNICHEV SPACE CENTER: PROTON SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES A RUSSIAN MILITARY SATELLITE
The Proton launch vehicle that lifted off from Pad 81 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday, 13 December, 03:17 Moscow time (GMT+3) successfully placed a Russian military spacecraft into orbit. This marks the seventh Proton launch of the year.
The lift-off and flight of the Proton M launch vehicle were nominal. The Orbital Unit (the spacecraft and the Breeze M upper stage) separated from the third stage of the rocket at its expected time and continued its autonomous flight. Further injection of the spacecraft into the target orbit was performed using ignitions of the upper stage main engine.
The spacecraft separated from the Breeze M upper stage at the expected time and was taken under control by the Titov Main Test Space Center of the Russian Air and Space Forces.
The heavy-lift Proton launch vehicle and the Breeze M upper stage are developed and serially manufactured by the Khrunichev Space Production and Research Center. The heavy-lift Proton launch vehicle is used to launch payloads into Earth orbits and escape trajectories as part of Federal and commercial missions. It is notable for its high performance and operational characteristics. An enhanced Proton M equipped with the Breeze M upper stage is capable of lifting payloads of >6MT to GTO.
Satellite now found and cataloged as Object A:
2015-075A/41121 in 35513 x 35667 km x 0.05°
epoch: Dec 20 at 16:18 UTC
Or #2 goes to 80 deg E and then #1 relocated to 346.5 deg E. (I never think in terms of deg W!) This is what happened on some of the earlier missions: 80 deg E seems to be the "prime location".
Seems to be the case: #2 is at 80°E
JSpOC believes the Briz broke up in orbit last week.
From Twitter:
@SpaceTrackOrg JSpOC has ID'd possible breakup of BREEZE-M R/B (#41122) at 1900UTC, 20 Jan. Currently 10 associated pieces. #41122Breakup
Further analysis shows time of BREEZE-M R/B breakup: 16 Jan
2016, 3:50z +/- 4 mins #41122breakup
Space News item:
http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-russian-rocket-body-may-have-broken-up-in-orbit/
I'd like to get more input into this?
Briz-M Breakup or Explode?
Is the Briz-M grounded now for the investigation?
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/garpun.html#briz"Briz-M explodes in orbit[/font]
According to NORAD, the Briz-M upper stage, which delivered Kosmos-2513, exploded on January 16, 2016, around 03:50 GMT, while circling the Earth in the 33,301 by 35,909-kilometer orbit."[/font]
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