Thales Alenia Space is attempting to reposition the Yamal-402 satellite after a third Proton Breeze-M rocket failure in 16 months placed it into the wrong orbit.
The French group, which built Yamal-402 for Gazprom Space Systems (GSS), the telecoms arm…
Thales Alenia Space is attempting to reposition the Yamal-402 satellite after a third Proton Breeze-M rocket failure in 16 months placed it into the wrong orbit.
The French group, which built Yamal-402 for Gazprom Space Systems (GSS), the telecoms arm of Russia’s state-controlled energy giant, said the spacecraft was functioning normally despite being placed into a lower and more inclined orbit than anticipated.
Efforts are now being made to use the satellite’s own fuel to place it into the correct 55E geostationary orbit, which will ultimately decrease the usable life of the bird.
“These manoeuvres will be carried out securely and with optimised minimum use of propellant,” said Thales in a statement issued to media today.
International Launch Services (ILS), which lofted Yamal-402 from Baikonour in Kazakhstan, has formed a Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) to investigate the incident. This will be conducted alongside a Russian government review.
According to preliminary data, Yamal-402 was separated from its rocket four minutes earlier than scheduled due to an anomaly during its fourth and final burn.
The launch was handled by the commercial side of ILS, and comes barely two months after the Proton Breeze-M returned to flight following a Federal launch failure that resulted in the loss of two birds, Express-MD2 and Telkom-3. A failure to launch a Proton Breeze-M a year earlier, another Federal mission, resulted in the loss of Express-AM4.
ILS’ previous FROB blamed the last failure on a component in the Proton’s pressurisation system that was not manufactured to specifications. This caused the Breeze M’s main engine to shut down seven seconds into a third burn that was supposed to last 18 minutes and five seconds.
The launch provider had two other Proton flights scheduled for before the end of the year, Canadian satellite operator Telesat’s Anik G1 bird, and a replacement spacecraft required by Mexican satellite operator Satmex. Mexico’s Satmex-8 telecoms satellite, which has already been delayed following an earlier Proton rocket failure, is needed to replace Satmex-5 before it runs out of fuel next year.
Reports had speculated that Satmex-5 could run out of fuel as early as next May. However following the recent Proton failure, Satmex published a study that showed, in the worst case scenario, the satellite’s operational lifetime will end on 5 October 2013.
Patricio Northland, Satmex CEO, said “while the latest Proton Breeze M anomaly is unfortunate for ILS and the satellite industry, we have the utmost respect for ILS and [Proton manufacturer] Khrunichev, and are confident that ILS will return to reliable operations in the very near future”.
