Crisis
strikes
Russia’s
space
program
By Igor Rozenberg
A series of unfortunate events
happened in end of April and beginning of May that has raised a few
eyebrows about the current state of
affairs in Russia’s space exploration
program. A string of failures unfolded
in the following sequence:
• On 28th of April 2015, Soyuz-2.1a
Launch Vehicle with Progress M27M cargo vehicle experienced
an anomaly that occurred in
the end of third stage burn; that
lead to the bad separation of the
payload from upper stage and
left spacecraft spinning on nonnominal orbit and unable to be
fully controlled;
• On 16th of May, Progress M-26M
spacecraft (already docked to
module Zvezda) failed to perform
a nominal burn to boost ISS orbit;
• On 16th of May 2015, (few hours
later) Proton-M Launch Vehicle
with a commercial payload (Mexican Government MexSat-1 satellite) experienced loss of the mission
due to premature shutdown of
third stage propulsion system.
Progress cargo vehicle
Progress cargo vehicle is derivative
of manned Soyuz spacecraft and
launched atop of either Soyuz-U or
Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle.
Progress M-27M was the 123rd
Progress spacecraft mission since its
maiden flight in Feb 1978.
There were the following series of
Progress spacecraft:
66
66
Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft rollout in 2014. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
• Progress 7K-TG (11F615A15): 42
spacecrafts flown during 1978–
1990 to resupply Salyut-6, Salyut-7
and Mir Orbital stations.
• Progress-M (11F615A55): 43 spacecrafts flown during 1989-2009
to resupply Mir and ISS Orbital
stations.
• Progress-M1 (11F615A55): 11
spacecrafts with extra propellent
in payload flown during 2000-2004
to resupply Mir (4 missions), deorbit
Mir (1) mission and resupply ISS (6
missions).
• Progress-M (11F615A60): is a current series still in production since
maiden flight.
Soyuz-2.1a/Progress
M-27M launch failure
By original design Soyuz-U (rocket
that launches Progress spacecrafts),
Soyuz-FG (man-rated rocket that
launches Soyuz spacecrafts with a
crew) and Soyuz-2.1a (new generation Soyuz rocket) share that same
third stage (Block I). All of those
launch vehicles had been designed
and manufactured in Samara Rocket Space Center PROGRESS, while
propulsion system for third stage
(1 x RD-0110) designed by KBKhA
and manufactured by VMZ (both in
Voronezh).
In a typical mission Progress
would supply ISS with dry and liquid
consumables, water and propellant
for the ISS Zvezda module. Progress
propulsion module used to boost the
orbit of the station, and after closure
of ESA ATV cargo vehicle program,
Progress is only remaining spacecraft
with such capability.
For the last six years there were
some anomalies with Block I stage:
Aftermath: On 18th of May Russian
mission control was able to reboost
ISS altitude by 2.8 km after firing
Progress M-26M engines for 1,922
seconds. Orbit correction burn took
twice longer than planned - mission
controllers fired only 4 thruster of 8
according to standard operation
procedures. This created optimal
conditions for Soyuz TMA-15M landing on 11th of June and rendezvous
with the next cargo vehicle in midJuly. Russian mission control plans
to use Progress M-26M again for the
next orbit reboost.
• 24 Aug 2011, Soyuz-U LV, payload
Progress M-12M, mission loss was
caused by a blocked fuel duct,
which caused the engine on Block
I to shut down prematurely .
• 21 May 2009, Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat
LV, payload Meridian 2 satellite premature shutdown of the third
stage led to loss of mission (satellite
was placed on non-usable orbit
that had not been corrected by
Fregat space tug).
In case of Progress M-27M launch,
preliminary data indicates that things
went wrong just seconds before separation, apparently depressurisation
of third stage oxygen and fuel tanks
caused collision between stage and
spacecraft, sending it uncontrolled
spin to the orbit with higher apogee.
Russian mission control was not able
www.RocketSTEM .org