Proton-M with Luxembourg satellite launched from Baikonur: for the first time after the July accident
From the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) launched in 1: 38 MSK Proton-M launch vehicle with a Briz-M upper stage and Astra-2E spacecraft.The orbital unit with the Briz-M upper stage and the Astra-2E spacecraft has already separated from the third stage of the Proton-M launch vehicle. “The rocket has completed its flight phase without comment,” the representative of the Space Center named after him. Khrunicheva, as reported by Interfax. According to him, further removal of the Astra-2E spacecraft into the target orbit is carried out with the help of five inclusions of the Briza-M marching system.
The first launch is performed 94 seconds after the separation of the orbital block from the rocket, as a result of which the reference orbit is formed. The second inclusion forms an intermediate orbit. As a result of the third and fourth inclusions, a transition orbit is formed. The fifth launch brings the satellite to the target orbit.
The total duration of the launch, from the launch of the launch vehicle to the separation of the spacecraft, will be 9 hours 12 minutes.
The contract for launching the device using the Proton-M launch vehicle was concluded by the satellite operator SES (Luxembourg) and International Launch Services Inc. (ILS). The owner of the controlling stake in ILS is the FSUE "Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center", which is also the developer and manufacturer of the Proton rocket and the Briz-M upper stage.
The launch of the Astra-2E spacecraft was the sixth launch of the Proton rocket in 2013 and the 389 launch in its flight stories. For ILS, the launch was the fifth launch of the Proton rocket in 2013 and the 82 of the launch of its commercial operation in April, 1996.
The Proton rocket was used 23 for removing the payload of the SES group of companies. In addition, it is the 16-th launch of the Proton with a spacecraft made on the basis of the Eurostar platform. This is also the 22-th launch in the 2013 year from Russian space centers.
Astra-2E is a telecommunications spacecraft created by the leading European developer of space technology - Astrium - for the satellite communications operator SES. The new satellite will provide new generation of broadcast, VSAT and broadband services in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Astra-2E will be installed in geostationary orbit at 28,2 degrees east longitude in order to restore and increase power fleet SES, including over 50 geostationary devices. The device, based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, is equipped with 60 Ku-band transponders and three Ka-band broadband transponders.
A satellite weighing about six tons is designed for an 15-year orbital life. The span of the deployed solar panels of the device is 40 meters.
The launch and launching of the spacecraft in orbit will be under the control of the Astrium control center in Toulouse, France. The Astra-2E satellite will be the seventh Eurostar apparatus in the SES constellation.
Recall, on July 2, the Proton-M rocket with three Glonass-M vehicles launched from the 81 site of the Baikonur cosmodrome. Almost immediately after separation from the launch pad, it sharply deviated from the flight path, began to disintegrate in the air, fell near the launch site and exploded.
On board the launch vehicle was about 600 tons of heptyl, amyl and kerosene.
The emergency commission came to the conclusion that the cause of the incident was the incorrect installation of the angular velocity sensors.
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