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[DrForester]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/la...delivered-galileo-satellites-to-useless-orbit

PONTE VEDRA, Florida – The Aug. 22 launch of the first two fully operational Galileo positioning, navigation and timing satellites, initially cheered as a success, will now be registered as a failure of the Europeanized Soyuz rocket’s Fregat upper stage, which left the satellites in a useless orbit, government and industry officials said Aug. 23.

As of mid-afternoon Central European Time Aug. 23 – 24 hours after launch and 20 hours after the Fregat stage inserted the satellites into orbit – launch-service provider Arianespace and the European Space Agency said they were still investigating the injection anomaly and could not conclude what, if any, effect it would have on the two satellites’ functionality.

In what must be felt as a bitter irony in Europe, it was the U.S. Defense Department’s Space Surveillance Network -- which publishes initial orbital parameters, known as two-line elements, of recently launched satellites – that first disclosed the problem Aug. 22.

Among the first to pick up the U.S. military data was Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, to announced the badly off-target injection data.

The Soyuz-Fregat was supposed to deliver the two satellites into a circular orbit 23,222 kilometers in altitude, inclined 56 degrees to the equator. As McDowell noted, the rough two-line elements produced by the U.S. surveillance network showed the satellites in an elliptical, not circular, orbit with an apogee of 25,922 kilometers and a perigee of 13,700 kilometers.

The worse news: The inclination was 47 degrees instead of 56.

Climbing into correct position from a too-low perigee requires the use of fuel that would otherwise be used over the satellite’s life for regular maneuvers, but does not by itself signal the loss of the mission.

The inclination error, however, appears too serious to allow much, if any, use of the satellites, according to officials. Correcting the error likely would require more propellant than the satellites carry and, if they did arrive in correct position, would leave them with propellant levels so low that the effort would be deemed useless.

McDowell speculated that the orbit left the two identical Galileo satellites with “not quite enough dV [delta V, or change in velocity needed to maneuver] to circularize their unplanned elliptical orbit."

The satellites launched Aug. 22 were the first of a 22-satellite order to satellite builder OHB AG of Bremen, Germany. The next two Galileo satellites are scheduled for launch, also on a Soyuz-Fregat operating from Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport, in December.

ESA and the European Commission, which owns Galileo, had counted on four more Soyuz-Fregat launches (each carrying two Galileo satellites) and three heavy-lift Ariane 5 vehicles (each with four satellites) to complete the current Galileo satellite order.

That left four more satellites to build to complete the planned constellation of 30 satellites in orbit. Now the minimum next order will be for at least six satellites, not four. The loss of the two spacecraft is unlikely to have any material effect on Galileo’s in-service schedule.

ESA and the European Commission, like most governments, have elected not to insure the Soyuz launches, preferring instead to invest in satellite hardware rather than in commercial insurance policies.

The investigation into the Aug. 22 failure will focus on the Fregat upper stage, built by NPO Lavochkin of Russia. Fregat is capable of being re-ignited in orbit some 20 times. For the Galileo launch, only two burns were used before separation. Then a third motor firing was planned to place the stage into a higher orbit, out of the medium-Earth orbit traffic lanes, to mitigate its threat to other satellites as orbital debris.

The Jupiter Control Room at Europe’s Guiana Space Center, located on the northeast coast of South America, receives much of its information from Moscow, where the Soyuz vehicle is monitored.

The question is what information, in the form of telemetry signals, did Fregat send to Russia, and then on to the European center, at the moment the stage released the satellites?

One official said initial conclusions are that Fregat acted as though it was at the correct orbital-injection location, and said as much to ground teams, leading to the applause in the Jupiter Control Room and a series of speeches by European government and industry officials celebrating a launch success.

But somewhere in that same control room was an engineer looking at a screen showing data not from Fregat, but from the down-range ground stations that were evaluating the satellites’ actual position and receiving satellite telemetry.

Enough early telemetry was received to show the satellites were healthy and sending signals. But warnings that the orbit was wrong likely would have arrived soon enough.

A close analysis of Arianespace’s habitual video sweep of the Jupiter center after the cheering began might show at least one control team member still hunched over a screen in a pose not normally associated with a celebration.

 

[Bomber Bob]

Congrats Europe!

 

[DJMicLuv]

There's no better fuck up than an expensive one.
Congratulations to everyone involved and especially those responsible.

 

[JDSN]

Should have downloaded Kerbal Space Program.

 

[Tesseract]

my grandpa could do that, congrats!

 

[TheOMan]

Congrats Europe!

Haha, that's mean.

 

[jchap]

Metric system fail! How many furlongs too low is it's orbit?

 

[Madness]

Haha, that's mean.

It's the truth though. It's basically European nationalism for this expensive program. GPS is the worldwide leader, embedded in every phone and car, but hey, what if the US declares war on us, or doesn't allow us to use it in the future, so let's basically waste billions of dollars making our own. China, Russia and even India as strong outliers I can understand wanting their own GPS, but when you've basically tasked the US with your defense, I don't think you need to worry they might cut off GPS capability in the future.

 

[SwiftDeath]

Yay more space junk!

 

[ajpw]

"The loss of the two spacecraft is unlikely to have any material effect on Galileo’s in-service schedule"

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Well I guess you learn from your mistakes?

 

[dr3upmushroom]

Yay more space junk!

Need a set up for Gravity 2.

 

[DrForester]

"The loss of the two spacecraft is unlikely to have any material effect on Galileo’s in-service schedule"

GPS system started with only 24 satellites There are 32 now..

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Not like it's rocket science.

 

[cdyhybrid]

Should have used inches instead of centimeters!

Seriously though, that's too bad. You could at least get something out of the failure by figuring out what went wrong.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

You guys have CERN, we have Space.

 

[Tesseract]

You guys have CERN, we have Space.

a euphemism truphemspism

 

[CyclopsRock]

Excellent news!

No idea why this programme exists, at least as a public project, other than presumably create jobs and specialist knowledge. Which it sounds like it's doing a good job in.

 

[Acorn]

Excellent news!

No idea why this programme exists, at least as a public project, other than presumably create jobs and specialist knowledge. Which it sounds like it's doing a good job in.

Because relying on anyone else's infrastructure for numerous critical support systems for defence etc is bad. Even if they are allies.

 

[Suikoguy]

I'm confused how the US could stop anyone from using the GPS system...

I guess if the US were to shut the satellites off?

 

[CyclopsRock]

Because relying on anyone else's infrastructure for numerous critical support systems for defence etc is bad. Even if they are allies.

But the European Commission doesn't have a defence policy because it doesn't have a military. Even if, say, The British Military switched over to a fully functioning alternative to GPS, then we would have infrastructure for numerous critical support systems for defence relying on 28 countries of which we are but one. I'm confused about how that is better (and this is quite aside from all the many other ways that we are, militarily, in bed with the US, the most obvious being Trident).

 

[Drazgul]

It's basically European nationalism for this expensive program.

Oh you mean like the american nationalism, that encompasses all north and south american countries?

Don't be stupid.

 

[twobear]

Good work everyone.

 

[Johnny Cage In The Shower]

Ctrl + F "kerbal" ...I'm not disappointed GAF

Should have downloaded Kerbal Space Program.

 

[Valhelm]

Oh you mean like the american nationalism, that encompasses all north and south american countries?

Don't be stupid.

"European nationalism" can refer to pride in the EU as much as "American nationalism" refers to pride in the US.

 

[sixghost]

Should have downloaded Kerbal Space Program.

Thanks to Kerbal I actually understood most of that article.

 

[DarkFlow]

I'm confused how the US could stop anyone from using the GPS system...

I guess if the US were to shut the satellites off?

Well when I was in the army, our GPS plugger unit was more accurate then a civilian model. I think they can also kill the civilian access in a time of war if needed. I don't think they could kill off just Europe without it affecting others though.

 

[Drazgul]

"European nationalism" can refer to pride in the EU as much as "American nationalism" refers to pride in the US.

Call it european pride then, because using the word nationalism in that context is still completely wrong.

 

[KevinRo]

Today I learned the European Spaceport isn't in Europe.

 

[iidesuyo]

but when you've basically tasked the US with your defense, I don't think you need to worry they might cut off GPS capability in the future.

Are you joking? Navigation systems are modern infrastructure, it would be totally stupid to simply rely on other nations.

The Americans can do whatever they want with the GPS it's their system. They have invested an insane amount of money to get GPS running decades ago.

 

[TarNaru33]

I guess U.S's NASA is still the world's top notch space agency even with reduced budget, ESA should learn from them.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Or maybe that's where they wanted their Death Ray's, I mean GPS satellites to be all along...

 

[Dalek]

Money well spent!

 

[iamblades]

I guess U.S's NASA is still the world's top notch space agency even with reduced budget, ESA should learn from them.

GPS is air force, not NASA, but really budget is not the cause of things like this. Someone along the line just did the math wrong, which can happen at any budget.

Today I learned the European Spaceport isn't in Europe.

Closer to the equator is better for space launches. Continental Europe would be a shit place to launch space craft.

 

[DarkFlow]

Are you joking? Navigation systems are modern infrastructure, it would be totally stupid to simply rely on other nations.

The Americans can do whatever they want with the GPS it's their system. They have invested an insane amount of money to get GPS running decades ago.

Why would we block Europe?

 

[NH Apache]

GPS is air force, not NASA, but really budget is not the cause of things like this. Someone along the line just did the math wrong, which can happen at any budget.



Closer to the equator is better for space launches. Continental Europe would be a shit place to launch space craft.

But budget allows 4 people to check it.

Similar to our own conversion issue.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Excellent news!

No idea why this programme exists, at least as a public project, other than presumably create jobs and specialist knowledge. Which it sounds like it's doing a good job in.

Because in this day and age it's a vital piece of infrastructure, infrastructure where shitholes like russia, china and india will be investing heavily in.

 

[Suikoguy]

Well when I was in the army, our GPS plugger unit was more accurate then a civilian model. I think they can also kill the civilian access in a time of war if needed. I don't think they could kill off just Europe without it affecting others though.

Perhaps they restricted access to some of the satellites for Military use only?
The more you can triangulate with them more accurate it would be.

If that the case, then perhaps they could change others. But it would fuck over all consumer users...

Things would have to change so much for that to ever happen.

 

[delirium]

Perhaps they restricted access to some of the satellites for Military use only?
The more you can triangulate with them more accurate it would be.

If that the case, then perhaps they could change others. But it would fuck over all consumer users...

Things would have to change so much for that to ever happen.

The US military has the ability to degrade and deny GPS access for certain regions. It's not a global thing.

 

[yuraya]

 

[Almighty]

As other have said thanks to Kerbal Space Program I actually understood that.

 

[iidesuyo]

Why would we block Europe?

Why would Germany need an army when there are tens of thousands US troops plus nuclear weapons stationed on German soil? It's just a basic piece of infrastracture. A country (or continent) should be able to get the basic things done.

Plus it creates many jobs and leads to developing new technology.

 

[DarkFlow]

Why would Germany need an army when there are tens of thousands US troops plus nuclear weapons stationed on German soil? It's just a basic piece of infrastracture. A country (or continent) should be able to get the basic things done.

Plus it creates many jobs and leads to developing new technology.

It's not "basic" it's highly advanced shit, or did this fuck up not show you that.

 

[iidesuyo]

It's not "basic" it's highly advanced shit, or did this fuck up not show you that.

In the year 2014, navigation systems are a given. Every truck driver depends on it.

It may be hard to get running as ESA has learned the hard way, but it has to be done.

That said, who knows how many backlashes the US military had to cope with back then, they probably simply never went public with it. And the money flowed in anyway. The US military has a budget of what, 450 billion USD/year? They spent billions over billions of dollars for developing helicopters they never got built. Money never played a role.

 

[DarkFlow]

In the year 2014, navigation systems are a given. Every truck driver depends on it.

It may be hard to get running as ESA has learned the hard way, but it has to be done.

That said, who knows how many backlashes the US military had to cope with back then, they probably simply never went public with it. And the money flowed in anyway. The US military has a budget of what, 450 billion USD/year? They spent billions over billions of dollars for developing helicopters they never got built. Money never played a role.

You still haven't answered WHY the US would block out Europe. If it ever got to that point, I don't think truck drivers knowing where they are going is really all that important.

 

[iidesuyo]

You still haven't answered WHY the US would block out Europe. If it ever got to that point, I don't think truck drivers knowing where they are going is really all that important.

This is not the point.

But to answer your question, noone would have thought 10 years ago that the EU and Russia would boycott each other. Europe relies heavily on Russian gas and now everyone regrets it.


Just get the basic things done yourself. Learn to feed your family with your own means. No need to rely on others when you don't have to. Europe has the ability to get an own navigation system, so we should do it instead of sucking the tits of the USA. Backlashes are part of the way to get there, but you'll learn from them. Just like in real life.

 

[TarNaru33]

GPS is air force, not NASA, but really budget is not the cause of things like this. Someone along the line just did the math wrong, which can happen at any budget.

I know that, but I figured comparing to space agencies rather than a space agency a military branch of another country. This is within the realm of NASA's capabilities too. I also know it isn't the budget's fault for it.

Didn't expect a seemingly serious reply to my troll post

 

[DrForester]

GPS is air force, not NASA, but really budget is not the cause of things like this. Someone along the line just did the math wrong, which can happen at any budget.



Closer to the equator is better for space launches. Continental Europe would be a shit place to launch space craft.

Blows people's mind when you tell them that the Air Force has to constantly monitor and update the GPS clock, because the satellites are traveling through time slower than we are thanks to relativity.

 

[jamesinclair]

Today I learned the European Spaceport isn't in Europe.

French Guyana is part of Europe.

 

[KHarvey16]

To block out a specific region they'd have to turn the satellites off while they were over that region since the satellites aren't stationary. And usually you need 4 or more of them...and when is a satellite usable in, say, Europe, but not anywhere else? That would be difficult.

The satellites themselves constantly transmit and our phones and navigation systems are just receivers. They could turn the civilian messages off and just leave the encoded military messages going I guess, but that would lock out everyone but the military no matter where they are.

And, I mean, it's not a global positioning system anymore if you don't cover the whole planet.