Chinese Earth observation satellites launched into lower-than-planned orbit

Two commercial Earth-imaging satellites launched by a Chinese Long March 2D booster Wednesday are flying in lower-than-planned orbits after an apparent rocket mishap, according to tracking data published by the U.S. military.

The two SuperView 1, or Gaojing 1, satellites are flying in egg-shaped orbits ranging from 133 miles (214 kilometers) to 325 miles (524 kilometers) in altitude at an inclination of 97.6 degrees.

The satellites would likely re-enter Earth’s atmosphere within months in such a low orbit, and it was unclear late Wednesday whether the craft had enough propellant to raise their altitudes.

The high-resolution Earth-observing platforms were supposed to go into a near-circular orbit around 300 miles (500 kilometers) above the planet to begin their eight-year missions collecting imagery for Siwei Star Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., a government-owned entity.

The 1,234-pound-pound (560-kilogram) satellites lifted off at 0323 GMT Wednesday (10:23 p.m. EST Tuesday) from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province on top of a 13-story Long March 2D rocket, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The launch occurred at 11:23 a.m. Beijing time, marking China’s 22nd attempted space launch of the year, and the 21st rocket mission to reach orbit.

But the two-stage launcher did not put the SuperView 1 satellites into the expected orbit, raising concerns among outside observers that the Long March 2D ran into problems.

The mission also carried a small amateur radio satellites made by Beijing high school students.

The SuperView 1 satellites are designed to collect optical black-and-white imagery with a resolution of less than 20 inches (about 50 centimeters), making them the highest-resolution civilian Earth-observing satellites launched by China.

The satellites can capture imagery in nearly 7.5-mile-wide (12-kilometer) swaths, turning to observe multiple locations on a single pass, or record images of the same point from multiple angles, allowing processors on the ground to generate stereo three-dimensional images

.Artist’s concept of Beijing Space View’s planned constellation of optical and radar imaging satellites. The spacecraft illustrated at upper left is one of the SuperView 1 satellites launched Wednesday. Credit: Beijing Space View

Color images from the SuperView 1 satellites will have a resolution of around 6 feet, or 2 meters, according to information released by Beijing Space View Technology Ltd., which holds exclusive rights to distribute and sell SuperView 1 imagery globally for mapping, land use, urban planning, agricultural, oil and gas exploration, maritime, security, defense and intelligence applications, the company said.

Beijing Space View’s sister-company Siwei WorldView is a joint venture between Siwei Surveying and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd., Navinfo and DigitalGlobe, the Colorado-based owner of the WorldView and GeoEye commercial Earth observation satellites.

The two distributors sell high-resolution imagery commercially in the Chinese market from China’s own civilian-operated remote sensing observatories and international satellites like the WorldView and GeoEye series, South Korea’s Kompsat family of spacecraft, Japan’s ALOS satellite, the Spanish-owned Deimos missions, and Kazakhstan’s KazEOSat 1 Earth observation platform.

The SuperView 1 satellites — if they can be salvaged and commissioned — would have given China its own commercial imaging spacecraft.

Two more SuperView satellites are scheduled to launch in mid-2017, and Siwei Star aims to have a fleet of more than two dozen Earth observation craft in orbit by 2022, including 16 SuperView-type optical satellites, four platforms with even better optical imaging capabilities, four X-band synthetic aperture radar satellites to observe through clouds and darkness, and multiple video and hyperspectral imaging spacecraft.

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Ariane 5 launch of two U.S.-built satellites delayed to Saturday

18:18 Launch rescheduled for Saturday

The Ariane 5 launch has been rescheduled for Saturday at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT), the opening of a 70-minute launch window, according to Stephane Israel, Arianespace's CEO.

Unfavorable upper level winds this evening kept the Ariane 5 grounded at the Guiana Space Center.

"The altitude winds are not compatible with a launch tonight, and it's perfectly normal that the first priority is to take care of the safety here in Guyane," Israel said in remarks a few minutes ago.

All systems with the EchoStar 18 and BRIsat satellites, and the Ariane 5 launcher, were go for liftoff Friday, Israel said.

"The weather is maybe the only thing we do not master, but we have to live with it," Israel said.

18:09 SCRUB

Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel says launch will not happen today.

18:04

The liftoff is tentatively set for 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT; 6:30 p.m. French Guiana time), pending confirmation of favorable upper level winds.

17:30

Minus-7 minutes and holding. The Ariane 5 countdown is in a hold to wait out the unfavorable upper level winds over Kourou, French Guiana.

17:14 Launch slips to 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT)

Liftoff of the Ariane 5 has been delayed until 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT) due to unfavorable upper level winds, according to Stephane Israel, Arianespace's CEO.

The launch window today extends for 70 minutes until 2140 GMT (5:40 p.m. EDT). The rocket and the satellites are reported in good condition during this hold in the countdown.

17:03 Minus-27 minutes

Minus-27 minutes. Today's launch will deliver the EchoStar 18 and BRIsat communications satellites to an orbit targeting a planned high point of 22,224 miles, a targeted low point of 155 miles and an inclination of 6 degrees.

Both built in Palo Alto, California, by Space Systems/Loral, the satellites will use their on-board engines to raise their orbits and position themselves over the equator.

The EchoStar 18 telecom satellite occupies the upper position in the rocket’s dual-payload berth. Owned by EchoStar and DISH Network, the satellite is beginning a 15-year service life broadcasting direct television services to millions ot homes and businesses across the United States. The 13,889-pound EchoStar 18 satellite will deploy first from the Ariane 5’s payload stack at T+plus 29 minutes, 20 seconds.

A Sylda 5 adapter will be discarded a few minutes later, revealing the 7,804-pound BRIsat spacecraft, the mission’s other satellite passenger.

BRIsat is the first communications satellite dedicated for a financial institution. Separation of the BRIsat spacecraft from the Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled at T+plus 42 minutes, 5 seconds.

The payloads have a combined mass of approximately 23,657 pounds, or 10,731 kilograms, including the barrel-shaped Sylda dual-payload adapter. That is a world record for an unclassified payload going to geostationary transfer orbit.

16:50 Launch statistics

Minus-40 minutes. All parameters continue to look good for launch in 45 minutes. A communications check between ground stations and the rocket should have concluded by now.

Some statistics on today's flight:

230th launch of an Ariane rocket since 1979

86th launch of an Ariane 5 rocket since 1996

56th launch of an Ariane 5 ECA rocket since 2002

61st flight of a Vulcan 2 engine

188th flight of an HM7B engine

74th Ariane 5 launch targeting GTO

5th EchoStar satellite launched by Arianespace

1st BRI satellite launched by Arianespace

54th and 55th Space Systems/Loral satellites launched by Arianespace

5th launch from the Guiana Space Center in 2016

3rd Ariane 5 launch in 2016

16:41 Mission poster

16:29 Minus-60 minutes

Minus-60 minutes. The Ariane 5's first and second stages are now loaded with cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

The 17.7-foot-diameter first stage's Vulcain 2 engine burns 149.5 metric tons, or about 329,000 pounds, of liquid oxygen and 25 metric tons, or about 55,000 pounds, of liquid hydrogen. The cryogenic upper stage's HM7B engine consumes about 14.7 metric tons, or more than 32,000 pounds, of oxygen and hydrogen.

The fluids are stored at super-cold temperatures and naturally boil off in the warm tropical atmosphere in French Guiana. More propellant is slowly pumped into the rocket for most of the countdown to replenish the cryogenic fuel.

The topping sequence ends in the final few minutes of the countdown as the fuel tanks are pressurized and the fueling system is secured.

Built by a consortium of European contractors led by Airbus Safran Launchers in Vernon, France, the Vulcain 2 engine generates up to 300,000 pounds of thrust during its 9-minute firing. It burns about 320 kilograms, or 705 pounds, of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant per second.

The engine's nozzle has an exit diameter of 2.1 meters, or about 6.9 feet. It weighs more than 4,600 pounds and its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen turbopumps spin at 12,300 rpm and 35,800 rpm, respectively.

The Vulcain 2 replaced the Vulcain engine used on the initial version of the Ariane 5. The newer engine produces 20 percent more thrust.

The Ariane 5's upper stage is powered by an HM7B engine, a modified version of the HM7 engine used on the upper stage of the Ariane 4 rocket. The 364-pound HM7B engine is manufactured by Airbus Safran Launchers in Ottobrunn, Germany.

The HM7B engine produces more than 14,500 pounds of thrust in vacuum.

The Ariane 5 configuration with a Vulcain 2 engine and HM7B-powered cryogenic upper stage is known as the Ariane 5 ECA.

The Ariane 5's twin solid rocket boosters are packed with propellant near the launch site in French Guiana before they are assembled and positioned on each side of the cryogenic core stage.

With the rocket now fully fueled for launch, the vehicle weighs 1.7 million pounds. At liftoff, the rocket produces 2.9 million pounds of thrust.

14:49 Fueling underway

Minus-2 hours, 41 minutes. The Ariane 5 rocket's first and second stages, known by the French acronyms EPC and ESC-A, are being filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The first stage Vulcain 2 engine and the upper stage HM7B engine both consume the super-cold propellants.

The cryogenic propellant will be gradually pumped inside the rocket to maintain proper levels as the fuel evaporates over the rest of the countdown.

The weather is predicted to favorable for launch at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT).

05:59

Countdown operations will begin early Friday for launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with two U.S.-built communications satellites for DISH Network and BRI, a major Indonesian bank.

Packaged inside the Ariane 5's nose cone are the EchoStar 18 and BRIsat communications satellites, both manufactured by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California.

EchoStar 18 will broadcast hundreds of channels of television programming to millions of DISH Network subscribers across the United States over the next 15 years. With a fueled mass of approximately 13,889 pounds, or 6.3 metric tons, EchoStar 18 will operate from geostationary orbit at 110 degrees west longitude, eventually replacing the EchoStar 10 or EchoStar 11 satellites at that location.

EchoStar 18's co-passenger is BRIsat, a 7,804-pound (3,540-kilogram) satellite owned by Bank Rakyat Indonesia. BRIsat is the first satellite dedicated to a financial institution, and from its position at 150.5 degrees east longitude, the craft will help BRI provide enhanced secure banking communications for more than 10,600 operational branches, 236,939 electronic channel outlets, and almost 53 million customers across the Indonesian archipelago.

The countdown will begin at 0900 GMT (5 a.m. EDT), with clocks programmed for liftoff of the Ariane 5 ECA rocket at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT), or 5:30 p.m. local time at the launch site in French Guiana. The launch window extends for 70 minutes.

A check of electrical systems is scheduled to occur around 1300 GMT (9 a.m. EDT).

Workers will also put finishing touches on the launch pad, including the closure of doors, removal of safety barriers and configuring fluid lines for fueling. The flight program for today's launch will be loaded into the rocket's computer.

The launch team will begin the process to fuel the rocket with super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants around 1530 GMT (11:30 a.m. EDT). First, ground reservoirs will be pressurized, then the fuel lines will be chilled down to condition the plumbing for the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which are stored at approximately minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.

It will take approximately two hours to fill the Ariane 5 core stage tanks.

A similar procedure for the Ariane 5's cryogenic upper stage will commence at 1630 GMT (12:30 p.m. EDT).

Chilldown conditioning of the Vulcain 2 first stage engine will occur at 1730 GMT (1:30 p.m. EDT), and a communications check between the rocket and ground telemetry, tracking and command systems is scheduled for 1920 GMT (3:20 p.m. EDT).

The computer-controlled synchronized countdown sequence will begin seven minutes before launch to pressurize propellant tanks, switch to on-board power and take the rocket's guidance system to flight mode.

The Vulcain 2 engine will ignite as the countdown clock reaches zero, followed by a health check and ignition of the Ariane 5's solid rocket boosters seven seconds later to send the 1.7 million-pound launcher skyward.

Five seconds after blastoff, the rocket will begin pitching east from the ELA-3 launch pad, surpassing the speed of sound less than a minute into the mission. The Ariane 5's twin solid rocket boosters will jettison 2 minutes, 21 seconds after liftoff.

Once above the dense atmosphere, the launcher's payload fairing will fall away at an altitude of more than 70 miles -- about 112 kilometers. The Ariane 5's first stage will shut down 8 minutes, 54 seconds after liftoff, followed moments later by stage separation and ignition of the hydrogen-fueled cryogenic HM7B upper stage engine.

The rocket's upper stage will fire for more than 16 minutes, accelerating to a velocity of 21,000 mph, or more than 9.3 kilometers per second, to reach an orbit with a planned high point of 35,766 kilometers (22,224 miles), a targeted low point of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and an inclination of 6 degrees.

The release of EchoStar 18 is scheduled for 29 minutes, 20 seconds, after liftoff. The rocket's barrel-shaped Sylda 5 dual-payload adapter will be jettisoned a few minutes later.

BRIsat will separate from the lower portion of the payload stack at 42 minutes, 5 seconds.

05:40 Launch timeline

A European Ariane 5 rocket will propel two communications satellites from a standstill to a speed of nearly 21,000 mph (9,365 meters per second) in 25 minutes during a launch Friday from French Guiana.

04:14

The third Ariane 5 flight of the year is on track for a late afternoon liftoff Friday from French Guiana with two U.S.-built communications satellites to broadcast television channels to millions of DISH Network subscribers and improve banking services across the islands of Indonesia.

The heavy-duty rocket, comprised of a hydrogen-fueled core engine, twin powerful solid rocket boosters and a dual-satellite payload, rolled out to its launch pad Thursday morning in Kourou, French Guiana.

Towering nearly 180 feet (55 meters) tall, the Ariane 5 is scheduled to blast off at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT; 5:30 p.m. French Guiana time) Friday at the opening of a 70-minute launch window.

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Next pair of Galileo navigation satellites encapsulated for launch

The next two Galileo satellites were encapsulated for next week’s launch Wednesday. Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Europe’s nearly $8 billion Galileo navigation system, an analog to the U.S. GPS satellite network, is hitting a stride in production and launches, with another two spacecraft encapsulated Wednesday inside the fairing of a Soyuz rocket for liftoff next week.

The two navigation satellites will become the 13th and 14th operational Galileo craft launched since 2011. With a successful launch May 24, the Galileo system will have received six new satellites since September 2015.

Technicians at the European-run space center in French Guiana enclosed the Galileo satellites and their Russian-built Fregat space tug inside their aerodynamic shield Wednesday, a day after the satellites were mounted side-by-side atop the Fregat.

Workers then adorned the fairing with traditional decals.

A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket is scheduled to roll out of its MIK integration building at the Guiana Space Center on Friday for a nearly 700-meter (2,300-foot) trip to the launch pad.

Ground crews will move a mobile service structure around the Soyuz rocket later Friday to add the launcher’s upper composite, comprising the Galileo satellites, Fregat stage and payload fairing.

Each Galileo spacecraft weighs about 715 kilograms, or 1,576 pounds, with a full tank of propellant.

Liftoff is scheduled for Tuesday at 0848:43 GMT (4:48:43 a.m. EDT; 5:48:43 a.m. French Guiana time) at an instantaneous launch opportunity.

Built by OHB of Germany with navigation instrumentation from Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., the Galileo spacecraft will be deployed nearly four hours after launch by the Fregat upper stage in an orbit 23,522 kilometers (14,615 miles) above Earth at an inclination of 57.4 degrees.

Nicknamed Danielè and Alizée after children who won a painting competition organized by the European Commission in 2011, the satellites will use their own power to descend a few hundred kilometers to enter the operational Galileo fleet.

The Galileo network is funded by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, and supported by the European Space Agency.

When complete in 2020, signals from the Galileo system and the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation GPS satellites will be fully compatible, giving users better positioning and timing accuracy and an independent backup navigation service.

Next week’s launch will be managed by Arianespace, and it comes less than a month after the last Soyuz flight from French Guiana. The launch will mark the 15th Soyuz mission from the jungle spaceport in South America since 2011.

The mission will be the fourth of 12 launches planned by Arianespace this year across its fleet of Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega boosters.

More photos of the Galileo satellites’ encapsulation are posted below.

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

http://www.esa.int

Five European satellites ready for Soyuz flight to custom orbits

Five European satellites ready for Soyuz flight to custom orbits

Artist’s concept of the Sentinel 1B satellite aboard its Soyuz booster moments after fairing separation. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The term “direct flight” will go to new heights Friday with a four-hour flight by a Soyuz rocket and its Fregat upper stage to deliver five satellites to three distinct orbital destinations hundreds of miles above Earth.

The Russian Soyuz booster — crowned by a Fregat upper stage — is set for liftoff at 2102:13 GMT (5:02:13 p.m. EDT) Friday from the Guiana Space Center, a European-run spaceport on the northern shore of South America.

The rocket will take three laps around the planet before its job is complete to place in orbit Europe’s Sentinel 1B environmental monitoring spacecraft, France’s Microscope physics experiment and three student-built CubeSats from universities in Belgium, Italy and Denmark.

The delicate maneuvering required to put Sentinel 1B, Microscope and the CubeSats into different orbits will last four hours, with the Fregat upper stage tweaking its trajectory around Earth multiple times to put each payload in the correct position.

Powered by a core stage and four first stage boosters generating 930,000 pounds of thrust, the kerosene-fueled Soyuz rocket will turn north from its purpose-built launch pad in French Guiana and drop its RD-107A strap-on engines in the Atlantic Ocean two minutes after liftoff.

The rocket’s clamshell-like nose cone will split open and jettison at T+plus 3 minutes, 29 seconds, followed by separation of the Soyuz core stage and its RD-108A main engine at T+plus 4 minutes, 48 seconds.

Four minutes later — at T+plus 8 minutes, 49 seconds — the third stage’s RD-0110 engine will finish its burn and fall away from the Soyuz rocket’s Fregat upper stage, which will ignite its hydrazine-burning main engine for the first time at T+plus 9 minutes, 49 seconds.

The first of the mission’s five Fregat engine firings will end at T+plus 20 minutes, 14 seconds, after reaching a target orbit 686 kilometers (426 miles) in altitude at an inclination of 98.18 degrees.

The 2,164-kilogram (4,770-pound) Sentinel 1B satellite is due to deploy from the Fregat upper stage at T+plus 23 minutes, 35 seconds. It will unfurl its power-generating solar panels and C-band radar antenna in the hours after launch

The Sentinel 1B satellite is seen mounted on top of the multi-payload stack before encapsulation inside the Soyuz rocket’s payload fairing April 15. France’s Microscope spacecraft is inside the multi-payload support structure below Sentinel 1B. The Fregat upper stage is visible at bottom covered in gold insulation. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Meanwhile, the Fregat stage will coast for more than an hour-and-a-half until restarting its main engine at T+plus 2 hours, 5 seconds (2302:18 GMT; 7:02:18 p.m. EDT) for a planned 13-second burn.

That maneuver will lower the rocket’s orbit for the release of the mission’s three CubeSat passengers

• OUFTI-1 from the University of Liege, Belgium, will test an experimental communications subsystem
• e-st@r-II from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, will demonstrate an attitude control system using measurements of Earth’s magnetic field
• AAUSAT-4 from the University of Aalborg, Denmark, will operate an automated ocean vessel identification system

Each one of the trio is about the size of the palm of a hand and weighs about a kilogram, or 2.2 pounds.

They will spring-eject from their container at T+plus 2 hours, 48 minutes, 11 seconds (2350:24 GMT (7:50:24 p.m. EDT), according to a mission timeline provided by Arianespace, the Soyuz rocket’s launch services provider.

The mission profile aims to put the CubeSats in a lower orbit than Sentinel 1B — with a high point of 665 kilometers (413 miles) and a low point of 453 kilometers (281 miles) — to make the tiny spacecraft succumb to atmospheric drag and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere faster, easing concerns that the satellites could become dangerous pieces of space debris

Technicians work on the carrier module containing three student-built CubeSats sponsored by the European Space Agency. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon

Fifty seconds after separation of the CubeSats — at T+plus 2 hours, 49 minutes, 1 second (2351:14 GMT; 7:51:14 p.m. EDT) — the Soyuz rocket’s multi-payload carrier will jettison to reveal France’s Microscope physics probe for separation.

But the Fregat upper stage must first steer into Microscope’s intended orbit, a feat that requires two more brief burns of the main engine, which produces nearly 4,500 pounds of thrust at full power.

A 12-second engine firing is due to commence at T+plus 3 hours, 32 minutes, 35 seconds (0034:48 GMT; 8:34:48 p.m. EDT). Approximately 25 minutes later — at T+plus 3 hours, 57 minutes, 46 seconds (0059:59 GMT; 8:59:59 p.m. EDT) — the Fregat’s fourth burn will begin and last for about 16 seconds.

The Fregat upper stage will set up for separation of the 303-kilogram (668-pound) Microscope spacecraft at T+plus 4 hours, 52 seconds (0103:05 GMT; 9:03:05 p.m. EDT).

Microscope will test the equivalence principle, which states that different objects fall the same way in vacuum. The principle is a tenet in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, but the concept was first proposed by Galileo.

Developed by CNES, the French space agency, Microscope contains two concentric cylindrical test masses to be suspended in an electrostatic field. The motion of the two test masses — one made of titanium and the other made of a platinum-rhodium alloy — should be the same if the equivalence principle is verified.

The Microscope mission has been in development since 1999 and aims to test the equivalence principle with 100 times greater precision than feasible on Earth

Technicians lower the Soyuz rocket’s auxiliary payload support structure over the Microscope satellite at the Guiana Space Center. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin

The Microscope satellite is destined for an orbit 711 kilometers (441 miles) above Earth at an inclination of 98.23 degrees, according to Arianespace.

A final ignition of the Fregat main engine about 15 minutes after Microscope’s separation is expected to last about 29 seconds, enough to slow down the rocket’s orbital velocity enough to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up over the South Atlantic Ocean.

The four-hour mission will require tracking and communications support from ground stations in French Guiana, Saint-Hubert and Saskatoon in Canada, Lucknow, India, and Mauritius, according to Nathalie Philippe, Arianespace’s quick look telemetry display technical authority.

Philippe said each of the ground stations will be used at least two times during Friday’s mission, supplying data on the progress of the flight to managers in French Guiana and Russian engineers at the Fregat monitoring center in Moscow.

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