Tag: Soyuz rocket

[/caption]

The first launch of a Russian resupply ship since the August failure and crash of the Progress/SoyuzU is scheduled for Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 6:11 a.m. EDT (10:11 GMT). The importance of a successful launch looms large for the future of the International Space Station.

“Because the previous Progress didn’t get to orbit, it is important this launch go as planned,” NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told Universe Today. “The booster we use to launch the crews, while not identical, is very similar to the one used for Progress — in particular the third stage where the failure was identified, so we do look forward to our Russian partners having a successful launch on Sunday.”

If not, the space station faces the prospect of being de-crewed.

This first post-shuttle era launch of a Progress cargo ship abruptly ended at about six minutes into the flight on August 24, 2011 when an engine anomaly prompted a computer to shutdown an engine, just before the third stage of the Soyuz rocket ignited. The rocket and ship crashed to Earth in eastern Russia.

Progress 45 is now set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday and hopefully deliver 2.8 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the space station crew members.

If that launch goes as planned, that would allow the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft carrying three new station crew members to launch in mid-November. Flight Engineers Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are scheduled to join the current on-orbit crew of Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov on Nov. 16.

Fossum and his crew are due to end their stay at the station on Nov. 21, so if the Soyuz TMA-22 can’t launch before then, the ISS will be left crewless.

While the Soyuz rockets and Progress cargo ships have had a long history of successes, this one failure – coming just after the space shuttles were retired – has left the ability to get new crews to the space station in limbo. The Progress cargo ships launch on a Soyuz-U rocket, while the Soyuz crew capsules, — the Soyuz TMA — launches on a Soyuz-FG. The third stages of the two rockets are virtually identical.

A Russian commission investigating the Progress failure said the crash was caused by a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage engine gas generator. The commission the malfunction was the result of an accidental manufacturing flaw. The third stages of all Soyuz-type rockets have been changed out, and a Soyuz rocket did launch successfully on October 21 from the ESA’s new launch facility in French Guiana, carrying new GPS satellites.

The Soyuz-U rocket has had 745 successful launches and just 21 failures over nearly four decades. The Soyuz-FG has had 25 launches, all successful.

“Because of the failure and similarity of the launch vehicles, we have been performing a lot of preliminary planning and work to make sure that in the unlikely event the Progress were to have another problem,” Humphries said, “that we would be able to get the existing crew home safely and be able to operate the International Space Station and conduct research there without the crew on board.”

Humphries said the ISS team has identified many issues so that they would be capable of operating the space station almost indefinitely without a crew.

“Of course that is not the preference because it would have some impacts on our research,” he said. “But we are very confident that our Russian partners have done their due diligence and identified the root cause and taken the right steps to correct this and we are looking forward to having a good launch.”

Humphries said despite the challenges of working with potentially having to de-crew the ISS, the space station program and partnerships are still strong.

“The international partnerships we’ve developed with our colleagues in Russia, Canada, Japan and Euorpe are probably one the greatest achievements of the ISS program,” Humphries said. “We back each other up on a variety of operational and other fronts on a daily basis. For example, our Russian colleagues were instrumental in keeping the space station operational following the Columbia accident in 2003.”

The launch and also the Progress docking to the ISS will be carried live on NASA TV.

[/caption]

The Russian space agency has provided an update on the investigation into the August 24 failure of a Soyuz rocket engine carrying a Progress resupply ship to the International Space Station. On August 30 — less than a week after the mishap – investigators for Roscosmos said the crash was caused by a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage engine gas generator. They now say the malfunction was the result of a manufacturing flaw, which was “accidental.”

This update is encouraging news, and means a decreased likelihood of having to leave the ISS unmanned.

From the commission’s report (translated):

On the basis of analyzing the behavior of the parameters characterizing the operation of the propulsion system the third stage, and results telemetry data it is concluded that reducing consumption of fuel in the gas generator due to contamination tract of its submission. This led to a breach of working conditions and reduce the engine parameters, it shut down on command “Emergency engine shutdown.”

Commission members concluded that this new manufacturing defect is random. However, the decision on his skills as a unit, should be taken only after cross-checking and follow-up of a special program just grazed manufactured propulsion.

A thorough check of all similar rocket engines will begin. The emergency commission to investigate the issue, led by Anatoly Koroteev, head of the Russian Keldysh science research institute on rockets, also recommended tightening quality controls at the rocket-manufacturing plant, and recommended adding surveillance cameras in the plant.

The space agency said future Soyuz launches will occur depending on the engines’ condition, but didn’t offer a specific schedule.

At Kennedy Space Center for the launch f the GRAIL mission, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said he is confident the fixes and checks will be done in time so that the ISS will not have to go unmanned. “We’re getting to the point where we’re going to satisfy ourselves that we can launch an unmanned vehicle to demonstrate that Soyuz is still okay, and then we’ll fly the crew up on a normal Soyuz mission later this fall,” Bolden, a former shuttle pilot and mission commander, said in an article in Florida Today.

“So the possibility of de-manning station is always something you think about, but it’s not something that is high on my list of concerns right now, because we don’t feel that is something that we’re going to have to do.”

At a press briefing last week, NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said that two Soyuz-family unmanned rockets are scheduled to launch soon, which may provide a chance to test any fixes on unmanned launches before attempting a manned launch. A commercial Soyuz to launch a mobile communications satellites is scheduled on Oct. 8, and the Russians may launch the Progress resupply ship that is currently scheduled for October 26 a few weeks earlier in order to have another unmanned launch to study the problem.

The Progress cargo ships launch on a Soyuz-U rocket, while the Soyuz crew capsules, the Soyuz TMA launches on a Soyuz-FG. The third stages of the two rockets are virtually identical. The Soyuz-U rocket has had 745 successful launches and just 21 failures over nearly four decades. The Soyuz-FG has had 25 launches, all successful.
With NASA’s space shuttles retired as of July, Soyuz is the only means of getting astronauts to and from the space station.

Cargo can be brought by European and Japanese spacecraft, and SpaceX is scheduled for a demonstration cargo run late this year. Both NASA and Roscosmos confirmed that the astronauts are well-stocked with supplies on the space station, but the lifetime of the Soyuz currently at the ISS as return vehicles are limited to 200 days of on-orbit time. Of the six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station, the first set of crew of three will return to Earth next week via Soyuz, but it’s not known yet when their replacements will be able to fly. They original schedule has them launching on Sept 21, but that is unlikely. The second set of three ISS crewmembers will stay on board until mid-November.

Sources: Roscocmos, Florida Today

[/caption]

The Russian news agency Itar-Tass is reporting that the cause of the August 24 failure and crash of the Progress re-supply ship that was supposed to bring supplies to the International Space Station may have already been determined. “Members of the emergency commission have determined the cause of the failure of the Soyuz carrier rocket’s third stage engine,” Roscosmos spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov was quoted. “It is a malfunction in the engine’s gas generator.”

If the cause has indeed been found and if the anomaly can be resolved to the satisfaction of both Roscosmos and NASA, it might prevent a worst-case scenario of having to de-crew the International Space Station by mid-November, which NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said was a potential outcome.

The emergency commission to study the problem was only formed on August 26, and that a cause has already been found comes as a bit of a surprise. The commission is lead by Anatoly Koroteev, head of the Russian Keldysh science research institute on rockets.

“He is a man with quite a bit of experience in this field for our Russian colleagues, and indeed the world,” Suffredini said during a press briefing on Monday morning. But Suffredini also said that it would likely take the commission awhile to sort out the cause and its implications to future flights.

“The team is just getting going,” Suffredini commented. “They are trying to work quickly to resolve the anomaly but they don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

What actions will be taken to resolve the problem now that a cause may be established are not yet known. Suffredini said that two Soyuz-family unmanned rockets are scheduled to launch soon, which may provide a chance to test any fixes on unmanned launches before attempting a manned launch. A commercial Soyuz to launch a mobile communications satellites is scheduled on Oct. 8, and the Russians may launch the Progress resupply ship that is currently scheduled for October 26 a few weeks earlier in order to have another unmanned launch to study the problem.

The Progress cargo ships launch on a Soyuz-U rocket, while the Soyuz crew capsules, the Soyuz TMA launches on a Soyuz-FG. The third stages of the two rockets are virtually identical. The Soyuz-U rocket has had 745 successful launches and just 21 failures over nearly four decades. The Soyuz-FG has had 25 launches, all successful.