GLONASS descended from orbit
The three Glonass-M satellites launched on Sunday did not last for several hours. According to preliminary data, an error occurred during the withdrawal of the apparatus into orbit. As a result, all the satellites, with the launch of which the commissioning of the Russian global navigation system was to be completed, crashed into the ocean.
The launch of the global Russian navigation system is postponed indefinitely. Three sent to space satellite "Glonass-M" on Sunday because of an error descended from orbit and fell into the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands.
"This led to the fact that the rocket entered the so-called unlocked orbit"
The launch of satellites, carried out by the Proton-M carrier rocket at 13.25 Moscow time, was to complete the formation of the system. As expected, the satellites should have earned in about a month and a half. "The combat crews of the Space Forces ensured control over the launch of the ground-based automated control system. The launch vehicle launch proceeded normally," said the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman for the Space Forces, Alexey Zolotukhin, after launch.
Yury Urlichich, director general of the Russian Space Systems company and general designer of the GLONASS system, also claimed that the launch was successful.
The successful launch of the Proton-M rocket with three spacecraft is extremely important for the Russian global navigation system. After the satellites launched today are put into operation, the domestic GLONASS system becomes truly global, the navigation signal of Russian spacecraft will be available to consumers in a continuous mode anywhere in the world
- he told reporters at the Baikonur cosmodrome.
However, after about two hours, it became clear that right after launch, the booster deviated from the course by 8 degrees.
This, claimed source RIA "News", who participated in the operation to launch satellites, led to the fact that the spacecraft were launched into a higher than necessary orbit.
According to the most preliminary calculations, the booster block DM-3, which put satellites into near-Earth orbit, after separation from the Proton launch vehicle, when its own engines were turned on, worked out an impulse greater than the calculated one. As a result, the satellites in its composition were launched into a higher off-design orbit. So far, it is not clear to experts what to do in such a situation. The reasons for the failure are not clear.
- Said the source agency.
Within a few minutes, it became known that all three satellites had collapsed into the ocean - in a non-navigable area approximately 1 thousand. 500 kilometers north-west of the city of Honolulu, the administrative center of the state of Hawaii.
According to preliminary information, the problem is not related to the operation of the upper stage DM-3, as experts initially believed. According to the latest information, "Proton-M" changed the given flight trajectory and even before the separation of the upper stage, it went in pitch by 8 degrees. This led to the fact that the rocket entered the so-called open orbit.
- said the representative of the industry.
According to the source, although the DM-3 booster unit with satellites was regularly separated from the launch vehicle at the estimated time, it was already on an abnormal flight trajectory, and then completely left the radio visibility range of Russian tracking devices. Experts have not received telemetry from the upper stage after its separation from the Proton.
The Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, claims that the loss of three satellites will not affect the project as a whole.
Today, there are 26 satellites in the GLONASS orbital constellation, including even two reserve ones. This grouping allows you to completely cover the territory of the Russian Federation with navigation signals.
- a source in the department told Interfax.
Add that all in orbit should operate on eight spacecraft in three planes.
Recall, the Russian global navigation satellite system GLONASS, which is an analogue of the American GPS, was commissioned in the 1993 year.
The system is intended for determining, using portable wearable or built-in satellite navigation devices, the location and speed of the sea, air and land objects, including people, with an accuracy of one meter. For navigation, digital maps are used, the data of which are entered into the navigators.
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