Kosmos-1220: Russian satellite burns up in Earth atmosphere

The Kosmos-1220 was launched into by Russia in 1980 and classified as defunct the same year. 

Russian officials warned it will re-enter the earth's atmosphere on Sunday February 16, however officials say they don't know exactly where it will land.

Fragments of the defunct Russian Kosmos-1220 reconnaissance satellite have reportedly burned up in the atmosphere.

Kosmos-1220, a defunct Russian satellite was expected to crash back down to Earth today and was said to poses a "very real danger" if it fell on land.

Officials said parts of the Kosmos-1220 satellite fell out of orbit and re-entered the planet's atmosphere at high speeds.

Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said the satellite fragments would most likely scatter into the Pacific Ocean.

But he accepted that the location of the spread of debris could be anywhere with officials having no control over the satellite.

"As of February 7, 2014 the fragments are expected to fall on February 16," Colonel Zolotukhin told Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

"The exact impact time and location of the fragments from the Kosmos-1220 satellite may change due to external factors."

Kosmos-1220 was launched in 1980 and briefly used by Soviet ships to monitor enemy naval forces before being taken out of service the same year.

Similar uncontrolled descents – such as the November 2013 re-entry of the European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite – have crashed harmlessly into the ocean.

But in 1978, a different decommissioned Kosmos 954 satellite crashed into an unoccupied part of Canada, spreading radioactive debris and leading to a lengthy clean-up.

And in 2009, a third Kosmos 2251 satellite crashed at over 26,000 miles per hour with a U.S. Iridium telecommunications satellite, sending thousands of bits of space junk into orbit.

Zond-PP: Russian Satellite Has Communication Problem

Zond-PP is a microsatellite designed to study the Earth's surface with a panoramic radiometer, including characteristics such as soil moisture and water salinity.

A Russian microsatellite is having a communication problem but it is too soon to suggest it has been lost, a federal space agency representative said on Thursday.

The Roscosmos press service representative said attempts to reestablish contact with the Zond-PP (MKA-PN1) satellite will continue.

The Zond-PP has been in orbit for a year and has fulfilled all the missions assigned to it, he added.

A space industry source earlier told reporters the satellite may have stopped functioning.

Zond-PP is a microsatellite designed to study the Earth's surface with a panoramic radiometer, including characteristics such as soil moisture and water salinity.

This data should help meteorologists build ocean circulation and climate dynamics models with a focus on energy exchange between land, the oceans and the atmosphere.

The Zond-PP was launched in July 2012 and was expected to operate for three years in an 820-km Sun-synchronous orbit.

Russian Satellite Hit by Debris from Chinese Anti-Satellite Test

On Jan. 22, 2013, debris from a Chinese anti-satellite program test hit a Russian satellite. CREDIT: Courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc.

A small Russian spacecraft in orbit appears to have been struck by Chinese space junk from a 2007 anti-satellite test, likely damaging the Russian craft, possibly severely.

The space collision appears to have occurred on Jan. 22, when a chunk of China's Fengyun 1C satellite, which was intentionally destroyed by that country in a 2007 anti-satellite demonstration, struck the Russian spacecraft, according to an analysis by the Center for Space Standards & Innovation (CSSI) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

CSSI technical program manager T.S. Kelso reported that the collision involved the Chinese space junk and Russia's small Ball Lens In The Space (BLITS) retroreflector satellite, a 17-pound (7.5 kilograms).

The Fengyun 1C satellite debris was created during China's anti-satellite test on Jan. 11, 2007, and has posed a threat to satellites and crewed spacecraft ever since.

Infographics version

Evidence of the space junk collision was first reported on Feb. 4 by Russian scientists Vasiliy Yurasov and Andrey Nazarenko, both with the Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering (IPIE) in Moscow.

They reported a "significant change" in the orbit of the BLITS satellite to the CSSI.

It is not immediately clear whether the satellite is merely wounded or completely incapacitated.

The space collision is the second substantial in-space accident between an active spacecraft and a defunct satellite or piece of space debris.

In February 2009, a U.S. communications satellite was destroyed when it was hit by a defunct Russian military satellite, creating a vast debris cloud in orbit.
The BLITS satellite is a nanosatellite consisting of two outer hemispheres made of a low-refraction-index glass, and an inner ball lens made of a high-refraction-index glass. It was launched in 2009 as a secondary payload on a Russian rocket and tracked by the International Laser Ranging Service for precision satellite laser-ranging experiments.

In addition to noticing the satellite's change in orbit, Yurasov and Nazarenko also detected changes in the spacecraft's spin velocity and attitude.

Satellite laser ranging use short-pulse lasers and state-of-the-art optical receivers and timing electronics to measure the two-way time of flight (and hence distance) from ground stations to retroreflector arrays on Earth orbiting satellites.

Express AM4 Destroyed as Effort To Save Russian Satellite Shunned

Express AM-4 satellite. Credit: EADS Astrium photo

The Russian Express AM4 communications satellite, placed into a bad orbit after a rocket failure during its August launch, was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean March 25 despite an attempt to save the craft to serve Antarctic scientists, Spaceflight Now reports.

Polar Broadband Systems Ltd. wanted to purchase the satellite and raise its orbit so that it could provide broadband coverage to researchers in the South Pole region, said company co-founder Bill Readdy, a former space shuttle commander and NASA manager. But the company’s phone calls to the Russian space agency and Express AM4’s insurance underwriter in recent days were not answered, Readdy said.

Moving the satellite into an orbit high over Antarctic research sites would have provided broadband coverage of the South Pole region for more than 14 hours per day, Readdy said.

Russian Phobos Grunt Probe: Latest In-Orbit Images

Latest Phobos-Grunt true colour images with good colour rendition between solar panels and the body.

Successful Russian Soyuz Launch: Six Communication Satellites in Payload

After suffering a setback when a rocket crashed early last week, Russia recovered with the successful launching of a Soyuz rocket with six communications satellites into orbit on Wednesday.

The Soyuz 2 rocket launched six satellites for Louisiana-based communications provider Globalstar at 12:09 p.m. EST (1709 GMT) from the snow-covered central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the same site used by another Soyuz 2 booster that earlier met with disaster when it crashed in Siberia, destroying a Russian military communications satellite.

Wednesday's launch used a Soyuz 2-1a version of Russia's usually dependable Soyuz workhorse rocket. The booster design uses an older third stage rocket engine than the one used in the Soyuz 2-1b booster that crashed on Dec. 23.

ussia's ITAR-Tass news service reported that the country's space agency, Roscosmos, is investigating the recent rocket failure and is expected to present an initial report to the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin soon.

Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovin said earlier that an engine failure was the most likely cause of the Dec. 23 rocket crash, though more investigation was needed to be sure.

The Soyuz 2 rocket launch, which was overseen by the European launch provider Arianespace via its Russian affiliate Starsem, carried six second-generation Globalstar satellites, each weighing 1,543 pounds (700 kilograms), into an initial 572-mile (920-km) orbit.

The mission is the third in a series of Globalstar satellite launches, with twelve satellites launched on two earlier missions. Another six satellites will be launched for Globalstar in 2012, Arianespace officials said.

Soyuz Rocket Debris Fireball

Astrophotographer Roman Breisch snapped this photo of a fireball created by a re-entering Russian rocket stage over Germany on Dec. 24, 2011. 

The rocket debris was part of a Soyuz rocket that successfully launched a new crew to the International Space Station on Dec. 21.

CREDIT: Roman Breisch

A dazzling fireball that lit up the night sky above Europe in a bright Christmas Eve display was no meteor or comet.

A falling piece of a Russian rocket created the light show to cap the end of its successful mission, scientists say.

The fireball was spotted over several European countries on the evening of Dec. 24. By Christmas Day, astronomers at the Belgium Royal Observatory pinned down the source of the night-sky fireworks.

"The fireball observed above Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany on December 24 around 17h30, was the re-entry of the third stage of the Soyuz rocket that transported the Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers to the International Space Station," observatory officials said in a written update.

The rocket's spent upper stage then fell back to Earth in a fiery re-entry through the atmosphere. But despite the man-made nature of the fireball, it still amazed skywatchers who happened to look up as the rocket debris fell to Earth

Soyuz Launch of Proton-M carrier rocket postponed

The launch of a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with a Dutch telecommunications satellite SES-4 (NSS-14) onboard was called off on Monday due to "technical problems", a spokesman for the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said.

He said the new date for launch was being discussed. He did not elaborate on the cause of the delay.

The launch would have been the 70th commercial launch of a Proton carrier rocket since 1995 and the 10th launch of this type of carrier rocket this year.

The SES-4 satellite, built by U.S. company Space Systems/Loral for the Dutch operator Ses World Skies, is designed to provide various satellite services to customers in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Russia has experienced a number of launch mishaps in the past 13 months, including the crash of a Meridian dual purpose satellite shortly after take-off last week.

That incident led the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency to say the industry was "in crisis."

The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades.

It became stuck in Earth orbit after its launch in November and is expected to fall back to Earth in mid-January.

A Siberian resident miraculously escaped serious injury or even death when a fragment of a Russian communication satellite crashed through the roof of his house.

A Meridian satellite that was launched on Friday from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia on board a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket crashed near the Siberian city of Tobolsk minutes after liftoff.

Eight satellite fragments were found in an area some 100 kilometers from the city of Novosibirsk.

One, a titanium ball of about five kilograms, fell on to the roof of a village house in the Ordyn district.

The house owner, Andrei Krivorukov, had gone out to the yard to fetch firewood minutes before the crash.

Another Russian Soyuz-2 Rocket Fails to reach Orbit

An unmanned Soyuz-2 rocket carrying a Russian communications satellite lifted off from Russia's Plesetsk space center at 7:08 a.m. EST (1208 GMT), but failed to reach orbit after a third-stage engine failure.

The rocket and its payload crashed in Siberia, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

There was no immediate word about whether the Soyuz-2 failure will impact upcoming launches, including a Soyuz flight slated for Wednesday to put six Globalstar mobile communications satellites into orbit.

The engine on the Soyuz-2 rocket lost Friday is different than the one used on the rocket that launches space station cargo and crews, NASA said.

"This is unlikely to have any effect on operations to the International Space Station," said NASA spokesman Joshua Buck.

ESA and Soyuz launches sharp-eyed Pleiades satellite

A Russian Soyuz rocket has launched from French Guiana - only the second such vehicle to fly out of the territory's new Sinnamary spaceport.

The Soyuz put six satellites in orbit, including France's new Pleiades-1 high-resolution imaging spacecraft.

This satellite is designed to take pictures that resolve features on the ground as small as 50cm across.

The capability will put it on a par with the leading US commercial systems operated by GeoEye and DigitalGlobe.

Lift-off occurred on schedule at 23:03 local time, Friday (02:03 GMT, Saturday), with Pleiades-1 being dropped off in its 700km-high polar orbit some 55 minutes later.

The 970kg satellite is the result of a near-decade-long programme in the French space agency (Cnes) to develop one of the most powerful Earth observation systems in the world.

The spacecraft's sensor actually has a resolution of 70cm, but image processing will recover detail that is around the half-metre mark.


Pleiades-1 will be followed by Pleiades-2 in the coming year

Pleiades carries gyroscopes that allow it to swivel its telescope in quick time, enabling it to acquire a strip, or mosaic, of images around its target in a single pass overhead.

The Pleiades spacecraft has been assembled by Astrium, Europe's largest space company, with its instrument supplied by Thales Alenia Space (France).

It will have both a civilian and military role, and a number of European countries (Austria, Belgium, Spain and Sweden) have part-funded the project to get access to its pictures.

Pleiades-1 will be followed by Pleiades-2 on a separate Soyuz launch in 2012.

"The fact that we will have two, twin satellites operating in a phased orbit separated by 180 degrees will give us something very powerful - a daily re-visit capacity.

It means we will be able to gather information every day on any part of the globe," explained Charlotte Gabriel Robez, Pleiades project manager with Astrium Geo-information Services.

"This is key because it allows us to tackle applications such as rescue or crisis management, in the aftermath of an earthquake for example," she told BBC News.

The commercial market for very high resolution imagery has become dominated in recent years by the American companies GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, which benefit from multi-billion-dollar contracts with the US intelligence agencies.

Astrium Geo-information Services is hoping these agencies' voracious appetite for pictures will leave a productive hole in the market for Pleiades' products.

The Soyuz rocket flew its inaugural mission from Europe's Sinnamary spaceport in October. A dedicated new launch pad has been constructed in the Guianese jungle for the Russian vehicle.

 

A simulated image of London's 02 Arena. The picture shows the detail Pleiades should be able to retrieve

Russia's Phobos Grunt Satellite beginning to break up

MOSCOW, December 4 - RIA Novosti. Two fragments were separated from the Russian interplanetary station "Phobos-Grunt", stuck in low Earth orbit, they are now rapidly losing altitude, according to the U.S. Strategic Command.

Two fragments appeared in the catalog numbered 37 940 NORAD and 37 947 on 29 November and 1 December. The orbit of the second of them is already well below the orbit of the "Phobos-Grunt" its apogee (the "high" point of the orbit) is 167 km and perigee (closest point to Earth orbit) - 147 miles.

Sam "Phobos-Grunt", according to the U.S. military at 07.16 GMT on Monday was in an orbit with an apogee of 298.9 km and a perigee of 206.4 kilometers.

Canadian observer satellites Molchan Ted (Ted Molczan) reported on the site Seesat.org , which, according to his calculations, 37 947 fragment was separated from the "Phobos-Grunt" November 29, at about 16:00 GMT.

"I have not estimated the speed department, but it seems that it was gradual, more like the fact that this fragment has been lost, and not drop the explosion", - he writes.

He estimated that this piece can be as small as about 10 centimeters and weighing about 0.5 kilograms.

"Phobos-Grunt" - the first in 15 years, the Russian interplanetary probe - launched November 9 from Baikonur. However, her engines in time are not logged in, and she could not reach the trajectory flight to Mars and has remained in Earth orbit. Within two weeks of the probe could not be contacted until the station of ESA in Perth, Australia, and then the station at Baikonur not received a signal from the unit.

But subsequent conversations with "Phobos" again proved unsuccessful . On Wednesday night at Perth station tried to convey to his team on board include engine and the rise of the orbit, but to no avail - the specialists have not detected significant changes in the orbit. Were inconclusive, and other attempts to contact the unit from Perth and the other European stations at Maspalomas (Canary Islands, Spain).

Soyuz Spacecraft Loss: Russian Prosecutors Claim Management and Workers Negligent

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office blames the loss of the Express-AM4 telecommunications satellite Aug. 18 and the Progress M-12M space freighter six days later on employee negligence.

The Prosecution Office has proposed introducing criminal punishment for those found guilty of causing serious damage to the country’s space industry, the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported Oct. 18.

“Both incidents were the result of negligence by employees of state space industry enterprises subordinate to [Russian space agency] Roscosmos, [negligence] during control procedures, as well as the absence of proper control by Roscosmos of decision-making by authorised persons,” Marina Gridneva, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said.

In addition to possible criminal punishment, the Prosecutor General’s Office is demanding fines and reprimands for those responsible for the loss of the spacecraft.

Russian new Rus-M carrier rocket project on hold

The Russian aerospace industry has faced a series of misfortunes in less than a year, including the loss of three Glonass satellites and a prized Express-AM4 satellite, as well as a Progress M-12M space freighter in south Siberia's Altai Republic.

The Russian space agency has dropped plans to construct a new Rus-M carrier rocket by 2015, Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin said on Friday.

"We have come to the conclusion that we do not need a new rocket, we can continue using those we already have," Popovkin said.

The two-stage Rus-M, intended to replace Russia's ageing Soyuz carrier rockets, was being developed by the Energia space corporation, which had already received 800 million rubles (more than $24.8 million) of budget funds for the project.

The carrier rocket was intended to launch new-generation spacecraft from the Vostochny space center currently under construction in the country's Far East starting from 2018.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in April the launch vehicle, whose draft model was first presented at the MAKS 2009 air show in Moscow, was scheduled to be developed by 2015.

The carrier rocket has faced strict safety requirements so that it could guarantee a takeoff or ensure a continuous flight or an ejection with a safe landing even with one of its engines out of action.

The Russian aerospace industry has faced a series of misfortunes in less than a year, including the loss of three Glonass satellites and a prized Express-AM4 satellite, as well as a Progress M-12M space freighter in south Siberia's Altai Republic.

The loss of the space freighter, which was caused by a Soyuz rocket engine failure, raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft. After the retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet last summer, Soyuz carrier rockets became the only way for astronauts to reach the ISS until at least the middle of the decade.

Following the August 24 accident, Roscosmos moved to improve control procedures in the space industry.

Space Debris from Russian Satellite Zooms by Space Station

A tiny piece of a defunct Russian satellite zipped by the International Space Station Tuesday, but was far enough away that outpost's two-man crew did not have to strap into their lifeboat to wait out the close shave, NASA officials said.

The debris - a small piece of a Cosmos satellite less than four inches (10 cm) wide - zoomed by the station at 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT) and came less than a mile (1 km) of the outpost at its closest point.

"Updates showed that it would not come close enough to the space station to require any change in the processes onboard or require precautionary measures," said NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem.

NASA detected the object too late to move the space station clear of the incoming space trash by firing its thrusters.

Instead, NASA told the station's American commander Jeffrey Williams and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev that they might have to wake up during their sleep period and take refuge in their Soyuz spacecraft. The Russian-built Soyuz vehicles ferry crews to and from the station, and also serve as lifeboats in case astronauts must leave the orbiting laboratory in an emergency.

But additional analysis of the object's trajectory found that, despite its close pass, the satellite remnant posed no danger of hitting the space station. NASA typically moves the space station if there is a 1-in-10,000 chance of an object striking the $100 billion orbiting laboratory.

Tuesday's space debris event marked the third time in less than a week that station managers kept a watchful eye on debris near the space station. An old piece of an American rocket flew by the station Saturday and part of a defunct experiment payload buzzed the outpost on Monday. Neither of those objects posed a threat to the station - they were several kilometers away - but NASA tracked them anyway to be sure.

Mission Control receives multiple space debris alerts every month for the space station, but most times the orbital junk passes well clear of the orbiting laboratory, NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com. While there have been some recent spikes in debris events near the space station, the overall long-term outlook is stable, he said.

NASA works to maintain a clear safety perimeter that extends 15 miles (25 km) around the space station, as well as about a half-mile (0.75 km) above and below it. The orbiting laboratory flies about 220 miles (354 km) above Earth at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,163 kph).

Williams and Suraev are the only residents aboard the space station after a series of planned spacecraft departures cut the outpost's crew size by two-thirds.