Space exploration in 2013

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For missions in 2012 click here

PLANNED RUSSIAN SPACE MISSIONS IN 2013:

2012-2013: A Soyuz rocket to launch the 7,290-kilogram modified Progress space tug with the 4,000-kilogram Node module to the International Space Station. The spacecraft will be docked to the nadir port of the Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM. The Node module will provide additional docking ports and 14 cubic meters of pressurized volume for the Russian segment, along with one-time delivery of 1,000 kilograms of cargo. (As of June 2008.)

2013: A Proton rocket to launch the W3D satellite for Eutelsat of Paris, France. The W3D satellite was being built by Thales Alenia Space based on the company's Spacebus 4000 C3 platform. The 5,400-kilogram spacecraft was designed for a 15-year life span in orbit. W3D was to be located at 7 degrees East longitude to deliver high power Ku-band coverage of Europe and Turkey for Direct-to-Home (DTH) reception, extensive Ku-band coverage across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for video links and data networks, and Ku-band coverage of Sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean islands for telecommunications and Internet services. The contract for the launch was announced on Nov. 9, 2011.

2013: A Proton rocket to launch SES-6 communications satellite. SES-6 was the sixth mission under the SES Multi Launch Agreement (MLA) signed in June 2007 between ILS and SES Satellite Leasing Limited, SES’s satellite procurement and leasing company in the Isle of Man. Plans for the SES-6 launch were announced on March 16, 2011. SES-6, weighing about 6 metric tons at launch, was being built on Astrium’s Eurostar 3000 platform and was expected to carry 43 C-band and 43 Ku-band transponders to serve SES’s existing cable-television customers and provide capacity for growth. SES-6 would replace NSS-806 at the orbital location of 319.5 degrees East, and would provide enhanced coverage in North, Central and South America and will further support applications like HD, DTH, enterprise networks and digital inclusion projects in the Latin America region serving over 18 million households.

2013: A Proton rocket to launch first of three Inmarsat-5 satellites from Baikonur. The agreement to launch a trio of satellites on three Proton rockets in 2013-2014 was announced on Aug. 1, 2011. Based on the 702HP Ka-band satellite built by Boeing, Inmarsat-5 was conceived to form the constellation to support Inmarsat’s Global Xpress network. Global Xpress was designed to offer seamless global coverage and deliver unprecedented mobile broadband speeds of up to 50MB/s for users in the government, maritime, enterprise, energy and aeronautical sectors. Inmarsat promised to invest an estimated amount of $1.2 billion in the Global Xpress program, which includes launch costs.

2013: The Soyuz rocket to launch a first quartet of 700-kilogram 03b satellites from Kourou, French Guiana, into a 8,000-kilometer orbit for 03B Networks, a nea new global, high-speed, satellite-based Internet network for telecommunications operators and ISPs. Each satellite built by Thales Alenia Space has a design life of 10 years, and provides greater than 10 Gbps of capacity. According to plans announced on Sept. 23, 2008, Sea Launch's Zenit-3SL rocket would deliver a second batch of eight satellites for O3b Networks Limited for Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) telecommunications satellite constellation. O3b Networks Ltd., based in Jersey (Channel Islands) whose investors include SES, Google Inc., Liberty Global Inc. and HSBC, plans to deploy a new satellite infrastructure providing broadband Internet access to emerging countries. More than 3 billion people in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East will benefit from O3B’s new broadband internet infrastructure.

May: The Soyuz rocket to launch a Gaia astronomy satellite from Kourou, French Guiana, in the L2, (the second Lagrange point) 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, on a five-year mission to catalog about one billion stars (all stars down to 20th magnitude) with unprecedented accuracy. (As of May 2011. As of 2009, the launch was scheduled for 2012.)

June: A Proton rocket to launch the MLM multi-purpose module to the International Space Station, ISS.

September: An Indian GSLV Mk-II rocket to launch a Chandrayaan-2/Luna-Resurs lunar mission, including a Russian-built lander, which would carry a rover built in India. (As of beginning of 2011. (489) In 2009, the mission was promised in 2012. In 2007, the mission was expected in 2011, but by 2010 slipped to 2013.)

Nov. 29: A Zenit-3SLBF/Fregat-SB rocket to launch Spektr-RG (Spektr-Rentgen-Gamma), an X-ray observatory from Baikonur in a 600-kilometer orbit. In 2004, the launch was promised in 2006, then delayed to the end of 2007 and 2008. The launch from Kourou into the equatorial orbit was originally considered. In 2008, the launch was expected on Nov. 20, 2011. As of August 2009, the earliest possible launch date was considered at the end of 2012, however by the end of 2010, the launch was likely to slip to the first quarter of 2013.

Second half of 2013: An Angara-1.2 rocket (a light "PP" version - from the Russian abbreviation of "first launch") to fly its first test mission from Plesetsk with a dummy payload. (As of October 2011.)

December 2013-2014: Proton-M rocket to launch the Luch-4 data relay satellite. The 3,000-kilogram spacecraft is based on NPO PM's Ekspress-2000 platform and designed to operate for 12 years. (Roskosmos announced the contract for the mission on March 11, 2009.)

December 2013: The Soyuz-2 rocket to launch Resurs-P2 remote-sensing satellite for the Russian government. (As of June 2008)

End of 2013: A Soyuz rocket to launch the Foton-M No. 4 spacecraft. The spacecraft is expected to be equipped with solar panels, modified service module, and the new liquid-propellant orbit correction engine. The orbital lifespan of the satellite to be launched into the 400-450-kilometer orbit was expected to increase to 60 days. (As of April 2009. Originally, the mission was expected as early as 2010, but required beginning of funding in 2008. In mid-2011, the launch was expected at the end of 2013.)

2013: An Indian cosmonaut to fly onboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The inter-government agreement for the mission was reached during the visit of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to India in December 2008.

2013: The Proton rocket to launch the Yamal-401 communications satellite for Gazprom from Baikonur into a geostationary orbit at 90 degrees East longitude over the Equator. The satellite was to be built by Thales Alenia Space with ISS Reshetnev (NPO PM) as a component supplier. The original agreement for the development of the satellite was reached in February 2009 and the launch was expected on the Ariane-5 rocket. However on January 21, 2010, a shareholders meeting of Gazprom Space Systems approved an increased involvement of the Russian industry into the project and switched the launch provider to ILS (Proton). On May 28, 2010, it was announced that the 3,150-kilogram Yamal-401 would be a smaller spacecraft in the Yamal-400 series, enabling its launch directly into the geostationary orbit. Unlike its predecessor in a series, Yamal-401 would be built by ISS Reshetnev, while Thales Alenia Space would provide a communications payload. Both Yamal-400-series satellites were to have an anticipated service life of 15 years.

2013: Russia to introduce a new version of its navigation satellite – GLONASS-K2. (As of November 2010. (438))

2013: Russia to launch the Konus-M gamma-ray mission based on the Karat platform.

Late 2013: A Proton rocket to launch Turksat 4A communications satellite from Baikonur. The agreement for the launch was announced on April 5, 2011. The 3800-kilogram satellite was to be built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, MELCO, of Tokyo, Japan, based on the company's standard DS2000 comsat platform. The design life of 15-year on orbit service of the satellites will provide telecommunication and direct TV broadcasting services throughout Turkey, as well as in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Turksat AS satellite operator will use Turksat 4A at its core 42 degrees East longitude orbital position. Turksat 4A would include Ku-band transponders for television broadcasting, and an undisclosed number of C- and Ka-band channels.

2013: A Zenit-3SLBF/Fregat-SB to launch the Elektro-L No. 2 weather forecasting satellite into geostationary orbit from Baikonur. (As of 2011. During 2010, the launch was expected in 2012. The mission was previously promised in 2010-2011. 299)

End of 2013: Launch of KazSat-3 communications satellite for the government of Kazakhstan (As of June 2011.)

For missions in 2014 click here

This page is compiled by Anatoly Zak and S. Günes

Last update: December 13, 2011

MEDIA ARCHIVE

The MYRIADE micro-satellite bus would serve as a platform for French Space Agency's Taranis magnetosphere research mission, scheduled for launch in 2012-2013, possibly on a Russian rocket. Click to enlarge. Copyright © 2009 Anatoly Zak

FGB-2

Angara family

The Spektr-RG satellite. As of 2009, the earliest possible launch date was considered at the end of 2012, however by the end of 2010, the launch was likely to slip to beginning of 2013. Copyright © 2010 Anatoly Zak

Konus

The Konus spacecraft. Credit: NPO Lavochkin