The final launch of the satellites of the Russian navigation system ended in failure
The three Glonass-M satellites launched on Sunday did not hold out for several hours. According to preliminary data, an error occurred during the launch of the vehicles 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, collapsed into the ocean.
The launch of the global Russian navigation system has been postponed indefinitely. Three "Glonass-M" satellites sent into space on Sunday, due to an error, left orbit and fell into the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands.
"This led to the rocket entering the so-called open orbit."
The launch of the satellites, carried out by the Proton-M launch vehicle at 13.25 Moscow time, was supposed to complete the formation of the system. As expected, the satellites were supposed to work in about a month and a half. "The combat crews of the Space Forces provided control over the launch by means of a ground-based automated control complex. The launch of the carrier rocket took place in the normal mode," said after the launch, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense for the Space Forces, Alexei Zolotukhin.
Yuri Urlichich, the general director of the Russian Space Systems company and the 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 commissioning of the satellites launched today, the domestic GLONASS system becomes truly global, the navigation signal of Russian spacecraft will be available to consumers in a continuous mode at any point the globe, "he told reporters at the Baikonur cosmodrome.
However, after about two hours, it became clear that immediately after launch, the launch vehicle was off course by 8 degrees.
This, the source of RIA Novosti, who participated in the satellite launching operation, asserted, led to the fact that the spacecraft were launched into a higher than necessary orbit. "According to the most preliminary calculations, the upper stage DM-3, which launched satellites into low-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, the specialists do not understand how to act in such a situation. The reasons for the failure are also not clear, "the agency's interlocutor said.
Within a few minutes it became known that all three satellites had crashed into the ocean - in a non-navigable area about 1,500 kilometers northwest of Honolulu, the administrative center of Hawaii.
"According to preliminary information, the problem is not related to the operation of the DM-3 upper stage, as the experts initially believed. According to the latest information, Proton-M changed the given flight trajectory and, even before the upper stage separated, went 8 degrees in pitch. the fact that the rocket entered the so-called open orbit, "- said an industry representative.
According to the source, although the DM-3 upper stage with satellites at the estimated time regularly separated from the launch vehicle, it was already on an abnormal flight trajectory, and then completely left the range of radio visibility of Russian tracking equipment. The specialists did not receive telemetry from the upper stage after its separation from the "Proton".
In the meantime, the Ministry of Defense claims that the loss of three satellites will not affect the project as a whole. "Today, the GLONASS orbital constellation includes 26 satellites, including two backup satellites. This constellation makes it possible to completely cover the territory of the Russian Federation with navigation signals," a source in the department told Interfax.
Let us add that in total eight spacecraft in three planes must operate in orbit.
Recall that the Russian global navigation satellite system GLONASS, which is an analogue of the American GPS, was put into operation in 1993.
The system is designed to determine, using portable wearable or built-in satellite navigation devices, the location and speed of movement of sea, air and land objects, including people, with an accuracy of one meter. For navigation, digital maps are used, the data of which is entered into navigators.
