A Russian Proton-M rocket has been rolled to the launch pad on Sunday in preparation for the launch of the second Garpun military communications satellite, reported SpaceFlight101 portal. Liftoff from Site 81/24 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome originally scheduled for 0:17 UTC on December 10 to mark the start of a standard ascent mission of the three-stage Proton-M rocket followed by a nine-hour flight of the Briz-M upper stage for a direct insertion into Geostationary Orbit. Later has been postponed till December 13 for extra checks of the system that separates the satellite from the delivery vehicle, a source in the space rocket industry told TASS.
"The decision in favour of a postponement was made in Moscow. There were no technical problems. The rocket had been brought to the launch pad already. The delay was ordered for more checks of the separation system following an incident with another military satellite," the source said.
A Soyuz-2.1V rocket carrying two military satellites blasted off from the Plesetsk space site, in northern Russia on Saturday, December 5. At first, the Defense Ministry said both satellites reached the designated orbits. The next day, however, some mass media said the launch ended unsuccessfully. One of the satellites (Kanopus-ST) had failed to separate from the booster block Volga. A source in the Air and Space Defense Staff confirmed that the satellite had been lost. The satellite burned down in the atmosphere on Tuesday.
According to a source in the space rocket industry one of the four locks that kept the satellite attached to the booster block failed to work properly.
Garpun (Harpoon) is a military satellite program operated by the Russian Ministry of Defence. Comprised of two or three satellites in Geostationary Orbit, Garpun is tasked with the relay of data to and from satellites in lower orbits, not dissimilar to the American Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Under military operation, the Garpun satellites are in charge of relaying data from a variety of spacecraft including optical and reconnaissance satellites in Low Earth Orbit, creating near real-time data availability for military and government users.
The Garpun satellites are the replacement for the Potok/Geizer satellites that were inaugurated in 1982 to relay data from optical reconnaissance satellites. The final Potok satellite was launched in 2000 and stopped operating in 2009, creating a gap in relay capability as the Garpun follow-on program was not ready for its originally intended launch target of 2009.
Garpun #1 was launched in September 2011, shaded by much secrecy – no information on the identity of the satellite was officially released and no details on the spacecraft were revealed at any point before and after the launch. The first Garpun satellite operates under the Kosmos-2473 designation.
The Garpun satellites are likely manufactured by ISS Reshetnev, based on the Ekspress-1000 or 2000 satellite platform – topping out at just over three metric tons. The Ekspress platform can be outfitted with various types of satellite payloads including several antenna reflectors capable of tracking low-orbiting satellites and relaying their signals to ground stations. Whether the satellites continue operating in C-Band or whether S-/Ku-Band capabilities have been added is unknown.
No details on the launch preparations flow for the second Garpun satellite were available except that the satellite had to wait for several months for a clearing in the launch schedule of Proton followed by a lengthy delay due to the failed launch of MexSat-1 in May.
Earlier this week, the 58-meter tall Proton rocket was rolled over to the fueling station where the vehicle was booked for a two-night stay, facilitating the hazardous operation of loading the low-pressure propellant tanks of the Briz-M upper stage with 19,800 Kilograms of toxic Unsymmetrical Dimethyl-hydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer.
On Sunday, at the traditional early morning hour, Proton-M made its trip to the launch pad at Site 81/24 slowly riding atop rails, supported by the Transporter Erector Device that was used as soon as the vehicle arrived at the launch pad to place Proton in its vertical launch position.
With Proton at the pad, teams secured the vehicle and rolled the Service Structure up to the launcher to provide access platforms for a detailed testing campaign that is performed before the Proton can head into countdown operations. Also, final close-outs of launch vehicle systems are performed to get ready for the launch countdown. The satellite team will be watching over the spacecraft and perform final battery charging ahead of the countdown.
Countdown Operations will get underway on Wednesday, 11 hours and 30 minutes prior to launch with the activation of the Briz-M upper stage that will undergo a detailed set of tests before receiving its flight software. Teams will be busy closing out the Proton rocket and making final preparations for propellant loading that gets underway shortly after Proton is powered up at the T-6-hour mark.