1995-U01
The Experiment Reentry Space System (EXPRESS) was a joint German-Japanese project to develop a recoverable microgravity system. If it had been successful, EXPRESS would have made Germany and Japan jointly the fourth nations to recover a spacecraft from orbit, after the US, the USSR, and China. The spacecraft was built by a collaboration of Deutsche Aerospace and the Krunichev factory; the reentry vehicle was based on a KB Salyut reentry vehicle. The 765 kg satellite ( 360 kg SM, 405 kg RV) was due to make a five day flight in a 210 x 398 km x 33 deg orbit. and deorbit at perigee and reenter to land in the Australian desert Woomera range. Program management was led by the DLR, with ISAS providing the launch vehicle, the final Mu-3S-2 with a modified KM-M kick stage. Control by GSOC.
RV was 1.31m long 1.0 dia. SM was 0.9m long 1.0 dia. The KM had a mass of 610 kg full 105 empty. The M-3S third stage was 4980 kg full 1700 kg empty with upper composite, 3605 kg f 325 kg em on its own.
The payload included an experiment to process oil refining catalyst, as well as three reentry materials tests. The vehicle was SM No. 19507 with a 92E No. 19590 reentry vehicle.
EXPRESS was launched at 1345 on 1995 Jan 15, but at T+103 seconds the thrust vector control on the second stage malfunctioned, throwing the vehicle off course. The rocket did reach orbit, but only just: the orbital parameters were 110-114 km x 230-239 km x 31.1 deg, according to a later study. The reentry capsule and the service module, still attached to each other, was thought to have reentered over the Pacific between 1600 and 1630, on its second orbit of the Earth. However, in Dec 1995 it was finally reported in Western aerospace circles, thanks to the work of the Kettering Group, that a newspaper in Ghana had recorded the reentry and landing of an object near Kotorigu, Ghana which may have been the Express reentry module. This was later confirmed and the vehicle returned to Germany, with some experimental results. Reentry was probably at about 1750 on Jan 15; the deorbit system probably did not operate, but SM separation may have operated automatically.
| EXPRESS | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 Jan 15 | 1345 | Launch by Mu-3S-II | Kagoshima |
| T+1:23? B1 sep | |||
| B2 ignition | |||
| 1346 | Stage 2 TVC malfunction | ||
| 1350? | Stage 3 burn | ||
| 1351? | KM-M burn? | ||
| 1351? | Orbit insertion | 110 x 250 x 31 | |
| 1355? | KM-M sep | ||
| 1430? | Perigee at 105 km near Santiago | ||
| 1520? | Apogee at 210 km? | 103? x 210 x 31 | |
| 1605? | Perigee at 103 km? | ||
| 1650? | Apogee at 155 km? | 90? x 155 | |
| 1755? | Reentry | ||
| 1800? | Landed in Ghana | ||
