Swarm mission set for delay following Rockot upper stage anomaly

by | Jan 25, 2013 | commercial launch services, ESA, Russia, Science, Seradata News | 0 comments

After Flightglobal’s Hyperbola revelation that the Breeze M (Briz M) upper stage had not peformed a planned post-satellite delivery final orbit-lowering/propellant depletion manoeuvre during the latest Rockot launch, Eurorockot, the firm that markets Russian-built Rockot launch vehicles, has confirmed that an investigation is underway and that subsequent Rockot launches including the planned early year launch of the European Space Agency’s Swarm mission will now be delayed.

The situation on Swarm is such that we are presently awaiting the outcome of the Russian failure commission`s findings on what occrred on January 15, 2013.” Said Peter Freeborn, Director of Marketing and Sales at Eurockot before adding: “Recent planning for Swarm entailed a launch in May or June  2013, so we do hope this may eventually be maintained.” 

The launch of the three spacecraft Swarm mission could however actually be delayed until the late summer, partly because of the failure investigation,and partly because two Russian goverment launches have priority in the Rockot launch schedule. At least one of these Russian government/military launches is expected to take place before the Swarm mission can take place. 

The European Space Agency’s Swarm mission is designed to study the Earth’s magnetic field ideally as solar activity peaks during the so-called Solar Maximum this year.  The launch of the Swarm mission had previously already been delayed from its planned 2012 launch by an investigation Breeze-KM (Briz-KM) upper stage malfunction after a Rockot launch lost a Russian science satellite in February 2011.  

Concern over this apparently minor Breeze KM malfunction has been heightened over the fact that still partly-fuelled upper stage might one day explode adding to the space debris in oribt. There are also concerns that this event is yet another example of a Breeze upper stage going wrong.  Apart from the Rockot’s Breeze KM problems, the Proton M launch vehicle has been beset by recent failures involving the Breeze M version of this upper stage.

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochinaFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticULAfalcon 9RoscosmosevaDGAspacewalkaviation weekaressoyuzIGTInternational Space StationRocket LabBeidouawardsBlue OriginStarlinkspaceSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonboeingAirbus DSISROCargo Return VehicleresearchOneWebmarsblogspaceshiptwojaxaorionmarsimpactdelayhyperbolaEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegabarack obamaconstellationSEStourismnorthfiguresthales alenia spacespaceflightnode 2fundedIntelsatRaymond Lygo2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiomissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbittestinternetLong March 2D/2sts-122Ariane 5Northrop GrummanSLSChina Manned Space EngineeringElectronflightspace tourism2010cotsnewspapermissile defensegalileospaceportExpress AMU 1Long March 4Cbuildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1aProton Minternational astronautical congressshuttlespace shuttleEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmosIntelsat 23scaled compositesnew yorkrulesAriane 6hanleybudgetatvVietnamshenzhoucongressMojaveboldenLong March 2COrbital ATKInmarsatcnesnew shepardiaclunar landerGuiana Space CenterkscApollolawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AILSprotonUS Air ForceTalulah RileydarpaElectron KSFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Vega CeuAstriumSkylonpicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatNorth KoreaSSLAprilSNC50thinterviewLong MarchSea LaunchfalconWednesdaycustomerlinkatlantissuccessor