International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their Proton-M rocket on Friday. Launch was on scheduled at 19:10 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the Proton\u2019s Briz-M Upper Stage successfully deploying the AsiaSat 7 telecommunications satellite on its orbit after nine hours of flight.Proton Launch: The Proton booster is 4.1 m (13.5 ft) in diameter along its second and third stages, with a first stage diameter of 7.4 m (24.3 ft). Overall height of the three stages of the Proton booster is 42.3 m (138.8 ft).![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/A3171.jpg\" "\\"A3171\\"")
The first stage consists of a central tank containing the oxidizer surrounded by six outboard fuel tanks. Each fuel tank also carries one of the six RD-276 engines that provide first stage power. Total first stage vacuum-rated level thrust is 11.0 MN (2,500,000 lbf).Of conventional cylindrical design, the second stage is powered by three RD-0210 engines plus one RD-0211 engine and develops a vacuum thrust of 2.4 MN (540,000 lbf).<\/p>\n
Powered by one RD-0213 engine, the third stage develops thrust of 583 kN (131,000 lbf), and a four-nozzle vernier engine that produces thrust of 31 kN (7,000 lbf). Guidance, navigation, and control of the Proton M during operation of the first three stages is carried out by a triple redundant closed-loop digital avionics system mounted in the Proton\u2019s third stage.<\/p>\n
The Breeze-M upper stage is the Phase III variant, a recent upgrade which utilizes two new high-pressure tanks (80 liters) to replace six smaller tanks, along with the relocation of command instruments towards the centre \u2013 in order to mitigate shock loads when the additional propellant tank is being jettisoned.<\/p>\n
It was a problem with that upper stage which resulted in the loss of the Ekspress-AM4 communications satellite in August \u2013 which was not an ILS mission \u2013 when the stage, otherwise known as the Briz-M, failed to insert the satellite into the correct transfer orbit due to a problem with the last of the mission profile burns.<\/p>\n
This failure led to a delay for the ViaSat-1 mission by ILS, which was initially scheduled for September. The launch was successfully conducted in October.<\/p>\n
The Proton M launch vehicle, utilizing a 4-burn Breeze M mission design, lifted off from Pad 39 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, with the AsiaSat 7 satellite on board. The first three stages of the Proton used a standard ascent profile to place the orbital unit (Breeze M upper stage and the AsiaSat 7 satellite) into a sub-orbital trajectory. <\/p>\n
From this point in the mission, the Breeze M performed planned mission maneuvers to advance the orbital unit first to a circular parking orbit, then to an intermediate orbit, followed by a transfer orbit, and finally to a geostationary orbit. <\/p>\n
Separation of the AsiaSat 7 satellite occurred approximately 9 hours, 13 minutes after liftoff, at an orbital location of 13,814 km Perigee and 35,586 km Apogee \u2013 with an inclination of zero degrees.<\/p>\n
AsiaSat 7 is designed as a replacement satellite for AsiaSat 3S at 105.5 degrees East. This new generation satellite will carry 28 C-band and 17 Ku-band transponders as well as a Ka-band payload. Its region-wide C-band beam covers over 50 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and Central Asia.<\/p>\n
AsiaSat 7 also offers 3 Ku-band beams with intra beam switching capability, serving East Asia and South Asia, and a steerable Ku beam. AsiaSat 7 will provide satellite capacity for television broadcast and VSAT Network services across the Asia-Pacific Region.<\/p>\n
The 3,813 kg (8,406 lbs) satellite was built by Space Systems\/Loral and is expected to enjoy 15 years of service in orbit. <\/p>\n
The launch is the fourth AsiaSat Satellite launched on ILS Proton, the 20th Space Systems\/Loral Satellite launched on ILS Proton, the fifth ILS Proton launch in 2011 and 8th Proton launch in 2011 \u2013 marking the 69th ILS Proton launch overall.<\/p>\n
(Images via ILS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their Proton-M rocket on Friday. Launch was on scheduled at 19:10 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the Proton\u2019s Briz-M Upper Stage successfully deploying the AsiaSat 7 telecommunications satellite on its orbit after nine hours of flight.Proton Launch: The Proton booster is 4.1 m (13.5 ft) in diameter along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8941,7899],"class_list":["post-40270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ils","tag-proton-m"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}