Sea Launch Project

High Spots

ICO-F1 Launch Abort

CHRONOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES

December 24, 1999 - February 7, 2000	Preparation for ILV assembly.
February 8-23, 2000	ILV assembly.
February 24, 2000	ILV transfer from ACS to LP.
February 25-27, 2000	Performance of two ILV tests under the Dry Roll-Out program.
February 27 - March 9, 2000	LP/ACS transit to the launch site.
March 10-13, 2000	Pre-launch processing at the launch site.
March 12, 2000	ICO-F1 launch at 6:49:15 A.M. Eastern Pacific Time. ILV Stage 2 launch abort on the 471st second.

The failure cause analysis panel has stated that the launch abort was caused by the non-issue (during launch processing 105 s prior to launch) of a command to close a electropneumatic valve (ЭПК ВЗТ23) of LV Stage 2 pneumatic system from the Ground Complex of Automated Control Systems of Processing and Launch. As a result of it, due to considerable gas release from LV Stage 2 onboard bottles the starting and operation of LV Stage 2 steering engine were performed in off-nominal conditions with subsequent unauthorized termination of steering engine operation. The absence of a command to close ЭПК ВЗТ23 in the pre-launch processing control law was the result of a logical mistake made by the developer during the control law updating prior to launch of Zenit-3SL ILV with ICO-F1 SC.