Sea Launch Project
High Spots
Thuraya D2 Launch
CHRONOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES
| May 26, 2003 |
LP departure from the Home Port for transit to the launch site. |
| May 29, 2003 |
ACS departure from the Home Port for transit to the launch site. |
May 26, 2003 -
June 6, 2003 |
LP and ACS transit to the launch site. Conducting integrated rehearsals of the pre-launch processing with support from MCC at Korolev. |
| June 7, 2003 |
Activities of the first launch day: readying the rocket segment systems for launch site operations, ILV processing. Review of the Sea Launch system readiness for launch site operations and launch of ILV Zenit-3SL No.SL16 with Thuraya 2D SC. |
| June 8, 2003 |
Activities of the second launch day: bringing LP orientation into the launch position, moving ACS into
its nominal position relative to the LP, ILV roll-out to the launch pad, test run of the launch readiness poll. |
| June 9-10, 2003 |
Activities of the third launch day (on Long Beach time):
- 22:40 (06/09/03) the launch crew is delivered to the LP by helicopter;
- 00:00-01:00 (06/10/03) evacuation from LP by helicopter of the personnel who are not involved in the launch operations;
- 00:56 the implementation of the "L-6 hours" command;
- 01:56 the implementation of the "Program start" command; start of the actual run of the launch readiness poll and ILV fuelling;
- 02:16 - 03:40 the final evacuation by helicopter from the LP of the rocket segment and maritime segment personnel;
- 03:51 evacuation of the "Red Team" from the LP;
- 06:55:59 Lift-off signal received (13:55:59 GMT).
|
| June 10, 2003 |
At 13 hrs 55 min 59.16 sec GMT ((17 hrs 55 min 59.16 sec Moscow Time) the ninth launch from the Odyssey
launch platform under the Sea Launch program was accomplished. At 15 hrs 36 min 58.02 sec SC separation was detected.
In 6 minutes after separation reception of the signal from the SC was confirmed. Thuraya D2 spacecraft was inserted into its target orbit.
|
| June 10, 2003 |
Post-launch operations on-board LP and ACS. The start of the ACS sea transit to the Home Port. |
| June 11, 2003 |
The start of the LP sea transit to the Home Port. |
LAUNCH RESULTS
Thuraya D2 spacecraft has been put into its target geotransfer orbit.
| |
target |
actual |
accuracy |
| required |
actual |
Perigee altitude,
km |
1200 |
1200 |
+/-10 |
-0.007 |
Apogee altitude,
km |
35786 |
35796.9 |
+/-80 |
10.9 |
Inclination,
deg. |
6.3 |
6.3 |
+/-0,2 |
0.00 |
The launch of ILV Zenit-3SL #SL16 has demonstrated the feasibility of launching a 6-6.1 ton payload into a geotransfer
orbit (in place of the 5.2-ton capacity available earlier). RSC Energia has implemented the measures which provided
about a half of the achieved increase in performance.
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