Russian rocket fails
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 26, 2006
A flock of small satellites for a diverse group of international
organizations were lost in Wednesday after a converted rocket from
Russia's strategic missile arsenal failed to deliver the cargo to Earth
orbit.
The three-stage Dnepr rocket fired out of an underground missile silo at
1943 GMT (3:43 p.m. EDT), or in the late-night hours at complex 109 at
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the arid grasslands of Kazakhstan. The Dnepr
is a decommissioned R-36M ballistic missile - also called the SS-18
Satan in Western circles.
Information suggests something went wrong early in the launch sequence.
Reports from the Russian news agency Novosti say the Dnepr's engines
shut down around 86 seconds after liftoff. Rocket debris crashed some 16
miles downrange from the launch site, according to Interfax.
The Dnepr carried 18 satellites in all, including a remote sensing
spacecraft for Belarus, a Russian student-built satellite, two Italian
university microsatellites, and 14 palm-sized CubeSat payloads housed
inside five portable deployment devices.
The destination for the launch was a Sun-synchronous orbit about 325
miles high with an inclination of 97.4 degrees.
The largest payload lost in the launch accident was BelKA - the first
orbiting satellite for Belarus. The Earth observation platform was built
by Energia in Russia to carry out a robust remote sensing campaign for
Belarus and other uses worldwide. Major objectives of the five-year
mission included mapping, climate observations, and tracking geological
processes.
BelKA's manufacturer says the satellite was designed to capture both
visible and infrared images in high resolution. These pictures were then
to have been digitally sent to communications stations scattered across
Russia. The project cost approximately 230 million rubles, which
converts to around $9 million, Novosti reports said.
A Russian microsatellite built by a group of students at the Moscow
State Technical University was also aboard the doomed rocket launch.
Called Baumanets, the small spacecraft was to have operated in space for
at least one year as an educational tool and technology pathfinder for
students.
Two Italian student payloads were also carried by the Dnepr rocket.
UniSat 4 was the fourth member of a series of microsatellites managed by
professors and students at the University of Rome. Another - called
PICPOT - was designed and developed by engineering students in Torino,
Italy.
Fourteen tiny CubeSat spacecraft mounted atop the failed launcher were
to been deployed from five carriers shortly after reaching orbit. The
four-inch wide, two-pound craft were mostly provided from student teams
at universities around the world.
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