Tim Furniss
The failure of a Russian Zenit 2 booster during launch yesterday with the loss of 12 Globalstar mobile communications satellites, may force Boeing to carry a dummy satellite on its First Sea Launch flight, a booster based on the Zenit 2 and equipped with an additional third stage. The Zenit 2 was 272s into its flight when a "-faulty command was issued in the control system, shutting down the engines."
The vehicle and its payloads crashed in the Gorno-Altaysk region.
The Zenit 2 booster has flown 31 times and suffered eight failures, with a failure rate of 26%, says the Airclaims Spacetrack database in Hall 1. The Zenit has lost 19 satellites of the 40 that it has carried. The booster has been booked to fly two more launches of 24 Globalstars.
"It sounds like software and that would not be a major problem," says Joseph Palsulich, senior manager for business development on Boeing's Delta programme. It took us four days to confirm the guidance problem on the Delta III" which failed on 26 August. "I would guess that it would not impact Sea Launch but it is a major problem for Globalstar that's for sure."
Boeing has successfully launched eight Globalstar satellites on two Delta IIs.
"It's obviously a concern but I don't believe it will have a schedule impact on Sea Launch," says Glen Anderson, business and marketing analysts for the venture. Anderson reveals that Sea Launch has already considered launching the first Zenit 3 with a dummy payload rather than the Galaxy XI communications satellite. Galaxy XI is owned by PanAmSat, which lost Galaxy X on the Delta III failure and one satellite in orbit earlier.
Source: Flight Daily News
