Machine-to-machine satellite operator Orbcomm has deorbited its OG2 prototype satellite following its deployment into a lower orbit as a result of an engine failure to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying it.
Before its deorbit, Orbcomm, the…
Machine-to-machine satellite operator Orbcomm has deorbited its OG2 prototype satellite following its deployment into a lower orbit as a result of an engine failure to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying it.
Before its deorbit, Orbcomm, the satellite’s manufacturers Sierra Nevada Corporation and Boeing undertook a series of system verification and functionality tests on the satellite. This included the deployment and operation of both the solar array and communications payload, which incorporates a new highly reprogrammable software radio.
Orbcomm stated that the subsequent success of these tests validated the new technology on the next generation satellites and paved the way for the launch of the full constellation.
The first batch of eight OG2 satellites are slated to be launched on a Falcon 9 in mid-2013, with the remainder of the constellation of 18 second generation LEO satellites due to be launched by SpaceX in 2014.
Unlike the launch of the prototype satellite, the main OG2 launches will be primary payloads on the rocket. Indeed, Orbcomm said that if the prototype had been the primary payload on this latest launch, it believed it would have reached its desired orbit.
Nonetheless, the company has already filed a notice of claim for a total loss under its insurance policy. The satellite was insured for US$10m, which would largely offset the expected cost of the OG2 prototype and associated launch services and launch insurance. Satellitefinance understands that underwriter Chartis provided the entirety of the cover.
Enter the Dragon
As for the primary payload, despite the engine anomaly the Dragon capsule successfully attached to the International Space Station on 10 October.
Dragon is expected to be released from the space station on 28 October with return cargo that will include used station hardware and more than a ton of scientific samples. Splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California will follow the same day.
“I want to congratulate SpaceX and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make this happen, and salute the astronauts aboard the space station who successfully captured the Dragon capsule,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “This marks the start of a new era of exploration for the United States, one where we will reduce the cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on deep space human missions back around the moon, to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.”
The mission, the first of at least 12 to the ISS under SpaceX’s US$1.6bn cargo resupply contract with NASA, began on 7 October. Approximately one minute and 19 seconds into the launch on 7 October, one of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued.
None of Falcon 9’s other eight engines were impacted by this event and the rocket undertook an adjusted ascent profile as a result of a pre-imposed safety check required by NASA.
