Deadly degrees or versions of the crash of the “Frigate” upper stage
In less than a week, it became clear what had happened in the accident when the Meteor-M No. 2-1 satellite was launched with 18 fellow travelers, but versions of why this happened generate heated discussions. Were the satellites really lost due to the fact that the Vostochny and Baikonur cosmodromes mixed up during the flight mission programming?
Photo by Yury Smithyuk / TASS
The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome at 08:41 Moscow time. Ten minutes later, the Fregat upper stage was successfully separated from the third stage. After another minute, he produced the first start of the main engine. The engine had to work for 77 seconds and turn the suborbital trajectory into an orbit with the highest altitude (apocenter) in the region of 800 km. Successful switching on (and, possibly, switching off) of the engine was recorded by telemetry, after which the accelerating unit went beyond the radio horizon (where are you, the flat Earth, when are you so needed?). Obviously, at this moment the flight seemed normal, because news of success, congratulations , statements about the elimination of mistakes and sparkling plans for the future were sent. Alas, hurried - the satellite "Meteor-M No. 2-1" was supposed to separate first of 19, at 09:42, however, no signals were received from it, and the upper stage disappeared - it could not be found in orbit, let alone already about how to get telemetry. Meanwhile, the passengers of the plane flying from Montreal to London, filmed the destruction in the dense layers of the atmosphere of something very similar to a man-made space object.
')
Initially, there was still hope that the accelerating unit would be found in a different, abnormal orbit, but searches for space control means showed that the accelerating unit with Meteor and other satellites did not go into orbit and burned down in the atmosphere.
By December 1, the emergency commission was able to establish that the ground infrastructure and the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle had been working properly, and there were no complaints about them. However, something went wrong on the upper stage, and he entered the atmosphere at about 42 ° north latitude and 38 ° west longitude.
Comparison of the third-stage drop area, which at the moment of separation had the same speed and direction of movement, and the place where the accelerating unit had fallen with the payload, clearly indicates that the Frigate accelerated in the wrong direction — back and / or down and entered into the atmosphere before. The estimated coordinates of the fall say that the passengers of the aircraft actually saw the destruction of the Frigate with the Meteor. But why did this happen?
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to get telemetry from the upper stage. Despite the fact that for several years now, Luch satellites-repeaters have been operating in the geostationary orbit, there was no real-time telemetry equipment on the Frigate, and it didn’t reach the field of view of the next ground measuring station. But the nature of the accident, nevertheless, allows us to determine the most likely causes: either the problem was in the “hardware” of the control system, or the serviceable equipment performed the wrong flight program.
GLONASS
In a few days, a version appeared that the cause of the accident was the incorrect operation of the GLONASS / GPS satellite navigation system. According to rumors coming from various anonymous "sources", in preparation for the launch, some problems were found with the satellite navigation system, which is routinely used to improve the accuracy of launch. As a result, again according to rumors, this system was turned off on the Frigate. Be that as it may, this system is auxiliary, and inadequate data from it would be ignored by the control system. They also say that satellite navigation has worked successfully.
Wrong spaceport
In recent days, the hypothesis has brightly flashed that the developers of the flight task allegedly did not take into account that the Frigate is starting from Vostochny, and they laid a program for Baikonur in it. This also includes a possible accident scenario described by Anatoly Zak. In his opinion, because of the “azimuth” of the cosmodrome, the initial roll angle of the gyro-stabilized Fregat platform was 184 °, 10 ° more than that of the launch vehicle control system. Because of this, the Soyuz and Frigate platforms turned in different directions, and on the Frigate, allegedly, the control system zeroed the heel angle on the other side, and because of this, it began to turn 360 °.
Unfortunately, from the description it is not clear why the two gyro-stabilized platforms are deployed in different directions. Also, in the official directory for the Kourou cosmodrome, the axes of the Soyuz and Frigate are shown, and there is no trace of a difference of 10 °.
At the same time, Zack drew attention to one interesting detail. The fact is that the "East" maximum azimuth axis of the start. At Baikonur, the Frigate was launched only from site 31, which looks to the north-west.
At the Plesetsk and Kuru cosmodromes, the gas outlets are directed to the north.
Plesetsk, site 43/4
Kuru
And only on the East start looks to the northeast.
And, if this encyclopedia statement is true,
then it turns out that Abn is composed of the azimuth of the launch complex (34 °) and the angle of rotation of block B (135 °) and is 169 °. Apz for launching from Vostochny to the polar orbit with an inclination of 98 ° is -13 °. We obtain that the azimuth guidance angle will be equal to -13 ° -169 ° = -182 °. The calculations are confirmed by the fact that in the video launches from the “Vostochny” rocket, in the first seconds it turns around at an angle close to 180 °.
The algorithms of the “Frigate” control system are closed, and, relying on open sources, one cannot say whether the control system was ready for the azimuth to be from the unusual side.
According to fresh rumors, the new results of the commission’s work will appear literally today, but even if this is not confirmed, the commission should finish its work on December 15, it remains to wait a bit. In the case, if the hypothesis about the incorrect operation of the control system due to the azimuth of the launch axis is indeed correct, then it is not correctly called “confused the cosmodromes”, but problems with integration testing. Separately, the control systems of the rocket and the upper stage work fine, but what could happen if the rocket turns the upper stage more than 180 ° could not be checked. Alas, such errors in astronautics were enough before, in the most famous case, on the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, one system measured the impulse in feet per second, and the other in newtons per second. As a result, the station burned down in the atmosphere of Mars, thinking that it performs a normal maneuver.
To correct this type of error is very simple, but it is a poor consolation. The “Meteor” accident buried the hope for the first trouble-free year in a long time, which could be a bright spot against the background of a fall in the number of launches and other problems of the domestic space industry. In cosmonautics, it is necessary to maintain everywhere a certain minimum level of quality of work, but for now the state of affairs still cannot get rid of the state of “tishkin caftan”, when corrections in one place are leveled by accident due to subsidence in another.
PS Those who wish to start "witty and fresh" to joke about the guilt of a priest, I remind you of a publication about religion, superstition and space .
Photo by Yury Smithyuk / TASS
Chronology
The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome at 08:41 Moscow time. Ten minutes later, the Fregat upper stage was successfully separated from the third stage. After another minute, he produced the first start of the main engine. The engine had to work for 77 seconds and turn the suborbital trajectory into an orbit with the highest altitude (apocenter) in the region of 800 km. Successful switching on (and, possibly, switching off) of the engine was recorded by telemetry, after which the accelerating unit went beyond the radio horizon (where are you, the flat Earth, when are you so needed?). Obviously, at this moment the flight seemed normal, because news of success, congratulations , statements about the elimination of mistakes and sparkling plans for the future were sent. Alas, hurried - the satellite "Meteor-M No. 2-1" was supposed to separate first of 19, at 09:42, however, no signals were received from it, and the upper stage disappeared - it could not be found in orbit, let alone already about how to get telemetry. Meanwhile, the passengers of the plane flying from Montreal to London, filmed the destruction in the dense layers of the atmosphere of something very similar to a man-made space object.
')
Initially, there was still hope that the accelerating unit would be found in a different, abnormal orbit, but searches for space control means showed that the accelerating unit with Meteor and other satellites did not go into orbit and burned down in the atmosphere.
What happened
By December 1, the emergency commission was able to establish that the ground infrastructure and the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle had been working properly, and there were no complaints about them. However, something went wrong on the upper stage, and he entered the atmosphere at about 42 ° north latitude and 38 ° west longitude.
Comparison of the third-stage drop area, which at the moment of separation had the same speed and direction of movement, and the place where the accelerating unit had fallen with the payload, clearly indicates that the Frigate accelerated in the wrong direction — back and / or down and entered into the atmosphere before. The estimated coordinates of the fall say that the passengers of the aircraft actually saw the destruction of the Frigate with the Meteor. But why did this happen?
Versions
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to get telemetry from the upper stage. Despite the fact that for several years now, Luch satellites-repeaters have been operating in the geostationary orbit, there was no real-time telemetry equipment on the Frigate, and it didn’t reach the field of view of the next ground measuring station. But the nature of the accident, nevertheless, allows us to determine the most likely causes: either the problem was in the “hardware” of the control system, or the serviceable equipment performed the wrong flight program.
GLONASS
In a few days, a version appeared that the cause of the accident was the incorrect operation of the GLONASS / GPS satellite navigation system. According to rumors coming from various anonymous "sources", in preparation for the launch, some problems were found with the satellite navigation system, which is routinely used to improve the accuracy of launch. As a result, again according to rumors, this system was turned off on the Frigate. Be that as it may, this system is auxiliary, and inadequate data from it would be ignored by the control system. They also say that satellite navigation has worked successfully.
Wrong spaceport
In recent days, the hypothesis has brightly flashed that the developers of the flight task allegedly did not take into account that the Frigate is starting from Vostochny, and they laid a program for Baikonur in it. This also includes a possible accident scenario described by Anatoly Zak. In his opinion, because of the “azimuth” of the cosmodrome, the initial roll angle of the gyro-stabilized Fregat platform was 184 °, 10 ° more than that of the launch vehicle control system. Because of this, the Soyuz and Frigate platforms turned in different directions, and on the Frigate, allegedly, the control system zeroed the heel angle on the other side, and because of this, it began to turn 360 °.
Unfortunately, from the description it is not clear why the two gyro-stabilized platforms are deployed in different directions. Also, in the official directory for the Kourou cosmodrome, the axes of the Soyuz and Frigate are shown, and there is no trace of a difference of 10 °.
At the same time, Zack drew attention to one interesting detail. The fact is that the "East" maximum azimuth axis of the start. At Baikonur, the Frigate was launched only from site 31, which looks to the north-west.
At the Plesetsk and Kuru cosmodromes, the gas outlets are directed to the north.
Plesetsk, site 43/4
Kuru
And only on the East start looks to the northeast.
And, if this encyclopedia statement is true,
On the basis of the known azimuth Abn and the azimuth Apz given by the flight task in the ground-based digital computing complex, the azimuth guidance angle an = Apz-Abn is determined, to which the otorized platform is rotated from the initial position using the platform azimuth guidance system.
The misalignment of the directions of the axes associated with the rocket, and the axes of stabilization of the platform, resulting from the azimuth guidance of the platform, is eliminated by the control system of the ballistic rocket in the vertical part of the flight of the rocket.
then it turns out that Abn is composed of the azimuth of the launch complex (34 °) and the angle of rotation of block B (135 °) and is 169 °. Apz for launching from Vostochny to the polar orbit with an inclination of 98 ° is -13 °. We obtain that the azimuth guidance angle will be equal to -13 ° -169 ° = -182 °. The calculations are confirmed by the fact that in the video launches from the “Vostochny” rocket, in the first seconds it turns around at an angle close to 180 °.
The algorithms of the “Frigate” control system are closed, and, relying on open sources, one cannot say whether the control system was ready for the azimuth to be from the unusual side.
Conclusion
According to fresh rumors, the new results of the commission’s work will appear literally today, but even if this is not confirmed, the commission should finish its work on December 15, it remains to wait a bit. In the case, if the hypothesis about the incorrect operation of the control system due to the azimuth of the launch axis is indeed correct, then it is not correctly called “confused the cosmodromes”, but problems with integration testing. Separately, the control systems of the rocket and the upper stage work fine, but what could happen if the rocket turns the upper stage more than 180 ° could not be checked. Alas, such errors in astronautics were enough before, in the most famous case, on the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, one system measured the impulse in feet per second, and the other in newtons per second. As a result, the station burned down in the atmosphere of Mars, thinking that it performs a normal maneuver.
To correct this type of error is very simple, but it is a poor consolation. The “Meteor” accident buried the hope for the first trouble-free year in a long time, which could be a bright spot against the background of a fall in the number of launches and other problems of the domestic space industry. In cosmonautics, it is necessary to maintain everywhere a certain minimum level of quality of work, but for now the state of affairs still cannot get rid of the state of “tishkin caftan”, when corrections in one place are leveled by accident due to subsidence in another.
PS Those who wish to start "witty and fresh" to joke about the guilt of a priest, I remind you of a publication about religion, superstition and space .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/371065/
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