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Previous year: 2007 The Cold War returns… in a multifaceted way If worsening US-Russian relations, and Chinese anti-satellite tests in 2007 were not enough to reignite a global arms race, events of the following year went a long way to correct that. But unlike the 20th century Cold War fought by only two superpowers, this time, the world stage seemed crowded with egomaniacs vying for global or regional domination. Iranian rocket launch On Feb. 4, 2008, Iran launched what it said to be a research rocket dubbed Kavoshgar (Explorer) on a ballistic trajectory as high as 200 or 250 kilometers. The broadcast of the event on the Iranian TV was accompanied by apocalyptic shouts “Allah Akbar,” as the “launch vehicle” blasted into the sky. This “space shot” was condemned not only by the West, but even by Russia, Iran’s traditional ally. Russian diplomats found themselves in the awkward position of expressing concern about Iranian intentions, while at the same time arguing that the planned US missile defense shield had no justification, aside from undermining Russian security. Iran promised to follow this ballistic flight with an orbital launch in the summer of 2008, although some careless Western media (especially when it comes to interpreting any language but English), credited Iran with reaching orbit far ahead of time. On Feb. 17, wire reports, quoting Mohsen Mir Shams, the deputy head of Iran's space organization, said that the Iranian rocket launched on Feb. 4 “was transmitting” data from space. US satellite intercept Not to be outdone (or not to appear having too much political wisdom), the US government announced on Feb. 14, it would destroy a failed military satellite. Unlike the cagey Chinese generals who ordered the clandestine anti-satellite shot of 2007, the PR-savvy Bush administration had no intention of keeping its test secret. Instead, it managed to sell to the public America’s first use of weapons in space since the 1980’s as a measure to protect the world from dangerous space junk containing frozen hydrazine fuel. Repeating its unscrupulous reporting on "weapons of mass destruction" in the run-up to the Iraq War, the New York Times once again led the American media in disseminating official myths without much scrutiny. The New York Times also believed a truly ludicrous government claim that a fuel tank with toxic propellant (onboard doomed satellite) "was sturdy enough to survive reentry, based on studies of the fuel tank that fell to earth after the Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003." It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that fuel tanks from Columbia made it to the ground only because they were inside a 100-ton vehicle protected by a massive layer of thermal tiles designed to withstand multiple reentries. Despite a fatal breach in its wing, Columbia’s heat shield still preserved the vehicle during the initial phase of reentry, preventing its massive debris from completely burning up before reaching the ground. This situation can not be possibly compared to the reentry of a 2.5-ton satellite, which would simply evaporate in the searing heat of plazma, high in the stratopshere, if it was left to decay from its orbit naturally. Most observers inside and outside the United States described the anti-satellite test as a thinly veiled demonstration of force (and cowboy mentality) to China and Russia. In the process, this decision also revealed the unexpected capabilities of the Standard Missile-3, used in the intercept. It was officially developed specifically for an anti-missile role and observers did not realize it could fly high enough to destroy an orbiting satellite. Amazingly, the US government, which just a year ago denounced China for littering space with dangerous debris, claimed that the American satellite intercept would not produce space junk endangering functional satellites. Yet, at the same time, a Navy destroyer assigned to conduct the intercept had to hold fire, until the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the International Space Station, returned home on February 20. Just a few hours after Atlantis’ landing, the Navy vessel fired a Standard Missile-3 and apparently scored a hit, "successfully" completing the mission and sending an untold number of debris in every direction, possibly into higher long-lasting orbits. Despite being an impressive engineering achievement, a satellite kill is less difficult than the intercept of an incoming ballistic missile. Unlike the enemy missile, the satellite’s orbit can be predicted long in advance of the actual intercept. Thus, it is possible to speculate that the US intercept has served as an additional incentive for the Russian government to accelerate its already ongoing efforts to perfect its ballistic missiles. ORBITAL LAUNCH ATTEMPTS IN 2008:
The 2008 space launch score card:
*Not including Sea Launch PLANNED RUSSIAN SPACE MISSIONS IN 2008: May 13: Zenit-3SL with a DM-SL upper stage to launch Galaxy 18 comsat for the Intelsat consortium from the Sea Launch platform. May 15: Soyuz-U to launch Progress M-64 (No. 364) cargo ship toward the ISS from Baikonur. May: A Rockot to launch a trio of Gonets-M (No. 2-4) navigation satellites and the Yubeleiny experimental spacecraft from Plesetsk. (Delayed from the end of 2007 and Feb. 28, 2008) May: Soyuz-2-1B to launch a military payload (possibly a Persona imaging satellite) from Plesetsk. (Delayed from August-September 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.) May 30-June: The Cosmos-3M rocket to launch six Orbcomm satellites from Kapustin Yar. (Delayed from fourth quarter of 2007, the first quarter of 2008 and May 22, 2008) End of June: Dnepr to launch the EADS-built THEOS remote-sensing satellite into a 820-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit for the Thai Ministry of Science and Technology's Space Agency from Dombarovsky. As reported in the Kommersant newspaper, lack of production capacity at KB Khimmash, which builds engines for the Fregat and Breeze upper stages, forced Khrunichev enterprise to withdraw its bid to launch the satellite on the Rockot booster with Breeze KM stage, instead giving priority to a Russian government mission. (Originally scheduled for launch as early as June 2007; delayed from October, December 2007 and Jan. 30, 2008, 09:33:59 Moscow Decree Time. Delayed again from Feb. 27, 2008. An agreement with Kazakhstan on the new drop zone for the first stage of the launch vehicle was announced on April 30, 2008. July 30: The Cosmos-3M rocket to launch the SAR-Lupe-5 satellite into polar orbit from Plesetsk. July: A Proton K/Block DM-2 to launch a trio of Uragan GLONASS satellites from Baikonur. July: A Proton K/Block DM-2 to launch a military payload from Baikonur. July/August: Rockot/Breeze-KM to launch GOCE spacecraft for ESA from Plesetsk. (Delayed from May 15, 2008) August: A Proton/Breeze M to launch Express-AM44 and Express-MD1 comsats from Baikonur for Russia's Satellite Communications Organization. (Delayed from December 2007 and June 2008) August: A Zenit-3M/Fregat-SLB to launch the Measat-3A (formerly MeaSat-1R) from Baikonur. Sept. 10: Soyuz-U to launch Progress M-65 cargo ship toward the ISS from Baikonur. (Rescheduled from July) Third quarter: Zenit-3SL with a DM-SL upper stage to launch Galaxy 19 comsat for the Intelsat consortium from the Sea Launch platform. September: The Tsyklon-3 rocket to launch the Koronas-Foton science satellite from Plesetsk. (Delayed from fourth quarter of 2007 and June 2008) Oct. 12: The Soyuz FG rocket to launch Soyuz TMA-13 (No. 223) to ISS from Baikonur. (Rescheduled from September 2008) October: A Proton K/Block DM-2 to launch a trio of Uragan GLONASS satellites from Baikonur. October: Rockot to launch SMOS and PROBA from Plesetsk. (Delayed from September and October 2007, the first quarter and May 2008) Nov. 26: Soyuz-U to launch Progress M-01M (No. 401) cargo ship toward the ISS from Baikonur. Replaced in schedule Progress M-66 (No. 366). (Delayed from Aug. 12, Sept. 10-13, October 2008) November: A Zenit-3SLBF/Fregat-SB to launch the Electro-L No. 1 weather forecasting satellite into geostationary orbit from Baikonur. (Delayed from 2006, June 2007 and fourth quarter of 2007) Third quarter: Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat to launch Meteor-M No. 1 for Roskosmos the Sterkh No. 2 for the COSPAS network and Universitetsky-Tatyana-2 for Moscow State Univeristy. (Delayed from fourth quarter of 2007 and July 2008) Fourth quarter: A Proton/Breeze M to launch Express-AM4 and Express-MD2 comsats from Baikonur for Russia's Satellite Communications Organization. Fourth quarter: A Proton/Breeze M to launch Astra 1M communications satellite from Baikonur. Fourth quarter: A Zenit-3SLB to launch Telstar 11N satellite from Baikonur. End of the year: A Proton M/Breeze M to launch the first Ciel-2 satellite for the Ciel Satellite Group, Canada's newest satellite operator from Baikonur. SES AMERICOM Inc., a minority partner in Ciel, was the contracting agent for the launch arranged by the International Launch Services. The contract for the launch was announced on Feb 15, 2007. Ciel 2 is a Spacebus 4000 C4 model satellite, the largest Spacebus class satellite built by Alcatel Alenia, with a mass of 5,575 kg. From its assigned orbital position of 129 degrees West longitude, the high-powered Ku-band spacecraft will deliver a variety of communications services throughout Canada and the larger North American market. End of the year: Dnepr to launch DubaiSat-1, Deimos-1, Nanosat-1B, UK-DMC-2 from Dombarovsky (Yasny). End of the year: Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat to launch the second Meridian military communications satellite from Plesetsk. Second half of 2008: The Strela booster to launch the Kondor remote-sensing satellite for the Russian government. (As of May 2007, the launch was promised in the beginning of 2008). Uncertain 2008: A Proton to launch Canadian Nimiq 4 comsat. The contract was announced on Feb. 7, 2006. Delayed from April/May?: An enhanced version of the Proton rocket with the Briz M upper stage to launch Inmarsat 4-F3 satellite. The F3 satellite, weighing more than 5900 kg, will be one of the heaviest commercial payloads to date for Proton. The Inmarsat 4 series of satellites are Eurostar E3000 models built by Astrium, among the most sophisticated commercial satellites ever launched and 60 times more powerful than their predecessors. The contract for the launch was announced on Aug. 7, 2007. (Delayed from March 2008.) Delayed from June?: A Proton/Breeze M to launch an Echostar 13 (CMBStar) satellite for an EchoStar Communications Corporation. The contract for the mission was announced on Feb. 21, 2007. Delayed from first or second quarter: Dnepr to launch five RapidEye satellites from Baikonur. (Delayed from Nov. 26, 2007) 2008: Russia to launch the TNS-O No. 2 nano-satellite developed by RNII KP in cooperation with the University of Bremen for testing flight control systems via Globalstar network and mobile phones. End of 2008: Russia to launch the TNS-1 nano-satellite developed by RNII KP for testing technologies for a medium-resolution remote-sensing system. Cosmos-3M to launch Parus navigation satellite and the Sterkh No. 1 satellite for the COSPAS network from Plesetsk. A Soyuz rocket to launch the first Pleiades Earth observation satellite into heliosynchronous orbit. (Date set: Jan. 4, 2005) A Soyuz-FG/Fregat to launch GIOVE-A2 navigation satellite for ESA from Baikonur (As of 2007) Dnepr to launch Ukraine's Sich-2 remote-sensing satellite. Dnepr to launch VENµS from Baikonur A Soyuz to launch Kobalt-M military satellite from Plesetsk. A Soyuz to launch Liana military satellite from Plesetsk. A Rockot/Briz-KM to launch Servis-2 from Plesetsk. Tsyklon-4 rocket to fly its first mission from Brazilian spaceport of Alcantara, carrying a satellite built by Brazil and Ukraine. (As of November 2006 Delayed from 2005: A Cosmos-3M to launch four Disaster Monitoring Constellation, DMC, satellites. Delayed from 2002: A Strela rocket launch from Svobodny. (cancelled) Canceled missions Delayed from the end of second quarter: A Zenit-3SLB to launch PAS 11 (Star-2) for PanAmSat from Baikonur. (Contract announced on July 28, 2005). Switched to the Ariane-5 rocket and successfully launched in 2007. Mid-year 2008: A Zenit-3SLB to launch AMC-21 spacecraft for SES Global from Baikonur. The launch contract was announced on June 1, 2006. Switched to the Ariane-5 rocket. Delayed from July 2007: Shtil-2.1 booster to launch Sumbandila satellite for South Africa and Compass-3 for Russian space agency, from a submarine in the Barents Sea. (Delayed from Dec. 15 and 25, 2006, April and June 20, 2007. Switched to an Indian launch provider) Next year: 2009 Compiled by Anatoly Zak and Sedat Günes; Last update: May 7, 2008 Editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: February 24, 2008 Copyright © 2008 RussianSpaceWeb.com |
The Zenit rocket with Thuraya-3 lifts off from the Sea Launch platform on Jan. 15, 2008. Credit: Sea Launch
An Iranian rocket dubbed Kavoshgar (Explorer) shortly before launch on Feb. 4, 2008. Credit: BBC
The GOCE remote-sensing satellite was scheduled for launch on May 15, 2008. Click to enlarge. Copyright © 2005 Anatoly Zak
A long-delayed Kondor remote-sensing satellite finally has a chance to fly in 2008. Click to enlarge Copyright © 2001 Anatoly Zak |
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