[FPSPACE] Did Meridian-2 fall short of target orbit?

[Anatoly Zak]

ISS Reshetnev posted a press-release claiming the launch a success, however
the sentence about the orbital insertion  says something like “satellite
entered orbit close to calculated.”

http://www.iss-reshetnev.ru/?cid=news&nid=726

This probably means that it is indeed in the lower than planned orbit, but
there is a hope it could be maneuvered into right one and used
operationally. 

Anatoly Zak
http://www.russianspaceweb.com


On 5/24/09 4:46 PM, "James Oberg" <jameseoberg at comcast.net> wrote:

>  
> Jonathan's Space Report (http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/latest.html)
> Meridian 2 -- Russia's second Meridian military communications satellite was
> launched by Soyuz-Fregat from Plesetsk on May 21 into a 290 x 36460 km x 62.8
> deg
> orbit. This is lower than the expected 1000 x 39800 km orbit. and suggests
> that the second Fregat burn was cut short and the third one did not occur.
> According to a report on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum, the third stage cut
> off 5s early; the Fregat tried to make up the difference but ran dry during
> the second burn.
>    TASS indicates that this launch will be given a Kosmos cover name, - it
> would be Kosmos-2451 - but Vesti and Interfaks give the Meridian name
> explicitly.
>  
>  
> From 'seesat'....
>  
> Looks like there was a problem with Meridian 2 launch
> From: Kevin Fetter (kfetter at yahoo.com
> <mailto:kfetter at yahoo.com?Subject=Re:%20Looks%20like%20there%20was%20a%20probl
> em%20with%20Meridian%202%20launch&amp;In-Reply-To=%3c321076.81270.qm at web56807.
> mail.re3.yahoo.com%3e>
> <mailto:kfetter at yahoo.com?Subject=Re:%20Looks%20like%20there%20was%20a%20probl
> em%20with%20Meridian%202%20launch&amp;amp;In-Reply-To=%3c321076.81270.qm at web56
> 807.mail.re3.yahoo.com%3e>  )   Date: Sat May 23 2009 - 05:25:38 UTC
>    It says [see below].    I thought the perigee was too low, when I looked at
> the orbital data.
>    
> Launch of the second Meridian [Меридиан] communication satellite
> <http://russianforces.org/blog/2009/05/launch_of_the_second_meridian.shtml>
> http://russianforces.org/blog/2009/05/launch_of_the_second_meridian.shtml
> <http://russianforces.org/blog/2009/05/launch_of_the_second_meridian.shtml>
>     [May 22, 2009] On 22 May 2009 the Space Forces conducted
> <http://www.infox.ru/authority/defence/2009/05/21/souz_2_start.phtml>  a
> launch of a Soyuz-2.1a space launcher equipped with a Fregat post-boost stage,
> which delivered into orbit a Meridian military communication satellite. The
> launch took place at 01:53 MSK (21:53 21 May 2009 UTC) from the launch pad No.
> 4 of the launch complex No. 43 of the Plesetsk space launch site.
>    The spacecraft received international designation 2009-029A and NORAD
> catalog number 35008. According to NORAD data, it was deployed in an orbit
> with inclination of 62.8 degrees, orbital period of about 645 minutes, apogee
> of about 36500 km, and perigee of 320 km. This is a highly-elliptical orbit,
> similar to those traditionally used by Molniya-type comm satellites.
>    Although the Space Forces reported today's launch a success, the initial
> orbit of the satellite is lower than the one of the Meridian-1 satellite,
> which has the apogee of about 39000 km and perigee of about 1270 km.
> Accordingly, the orbital period is less that it is required to maintain a
> stable semisynchronous orbit. This appears to be a result of a malfunction of
> the 3rd stage, which was cut off prematurely. At this point it is not clear
> how this will affect operations of the satellite.
>    Meridian-2 is a second satellite of this kind. The first, Meridian-1, was
> launched in December 2006
> <http://russianforces.org/blog/2006/12/launch_of_meridian_communicati.shtml> .
> UPDATE: The satellite reportedly received a designation Cosmos-2451. It should
> be noted that Meridian-1 did not receive a Cosmos designation.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FPSPACE mailing list
> FPSPACE at friends-partners.org
> http://www.friends-partners.org/mailman/listinfo/fpspace

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/fpspace/attachments/20090525/5c3c9e5f/attachment.html