Russian Rocket Soyuz ST-B launches Galileo Satellites into wrong orbit

Arianspace has confirmed on Friday 22nd August, 2014 that two satellites for Europe's Galileo Navigation network were released into wrong orbit after launching aboard a Soyuz St-B rocket from french Guiana.

The Russian Rocket Soyuz ST-B has launched the Galileo satelllites from European Space port in Kourou, French Guiana on Friday 22nd August, 2014.  How ever the launch of two FOC-M1 ( FM01 and FM02) satellites which took place at 12:27 UTC did not result in a correct orbital injection.  Controllers are now looking for options to save the satellites.

There was no clarity whether the two satellites have enough fuel to make up for the orbit injection errors.  The Russian built Soyuz ST-B launch vehicle carrying the Galileo satellites blasted off from French Guiana in South America at 08:27 AM EDT ( !2:27 GMT).  The Soyuz rocket's three booster stages gave way to a Russian Fregat-MT upper stage less than 10 minutes after lift off.  The Fregat was programmed to fire two times to propel the Galileo satellites into a circular medium earth orbit tilted at an angle of 55 degrees to the equator.   

The Fregat upper stage consists of six spherical tanks arrayed in a circle ( four for propellant, two containing avionics) with trusses passing through the tanks to provide structural support.  The stage is independent from the Soyuz's lower three stages having its own guidance, navigation, control, tracking and telemetry systems.  The Fregat uses earth storable propellants ( UDMH/NTO) and can be restarted up to 20 times in flight - enabling it to carry out complex mission profiles.  It can provide 3-axis stabilization or perform a spin-up of the spacecraft payload.

US military orbital tracking data indicated that the Galileo satellites launched by Soyuz on Friday were flying in lower orbit than planned.  The officials confirmed launch anomaly on Friday.  Arianspace said that investigations into the launch anomaly are underway and more information will be provided after analysis of the flight data.

The $7.2 billion Galileo network will consist of 30 satellites when completed.  At least 24 satellites are required for independent global navigation coverage.  ESA officials said before Firday's launch that two more Galileo satellites were being prepared for lift off on another Soyuz launcher in December, 2014.  Another 8 spacecrafts were on track for launches on Soyuz or Arian 5 next year.( 2015).

Here is a video of the launch of GAlileo satellites......

SpaceX Rocket explodes during Test Flight

SpaceX is one of the private companies which is the most successful non-Government company in Space programs.  It was the first private company to launch a spacecraft to orbit and recover it and it was the first to launch a satellite into a geo synchronous orbit.  It is amazing that SpaceX has come so far without any set back.  But the failure happened on Friday, 23rd August, 2014 during an unmanned internal test and no payload was lost.

 SpaceX rocket exploded shortly after launching during a test flight in Texas, according to Bruce Gietzen of KXXV-TV.   Gietzen followed up by reporting there were no injuries. The rocket, which was unmanned, was launched from the SpaceX rocket-development facility in McGregor, Texas.  

Mr. John Taylor, a spokesman for SpaceX said that the prototype rocket automatically detonated after detection of an anamoly during a test flight on Friday 23rd August, 2014 in McGregor, Texas.   He said that the rocket was a three-engine version of the F9R ( FAlcon Rocket ) test vehicle, a prototype intended to pave way for fully reusable launch vehicles which would fly themselves back home. The rocket is similar to Falcon 9 which the SpaceX uses to launch unmanned cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.  

The Flight Termination System automatically terminated the mission during the flight when an anamoly was detected.    SpaceX will review the flight record to learn more about the rocket's performance before its next test flight.  Here is a video of the launch and the explosion....