Tuesday, December 1, 2009

USA-194

 2007-027A


AV-009 Atlas V 401 from SLC41.

3250 kg each?

NOSS launch codenamed 'PYXIS'. The Centaur second burn had a problem and the payload was delivered to a lower than planned orbit; it was expected that on board propulsion would let the mission reach its planned orbit, assumed to be 1150 km x 63 deg.

After the first Centaur burn, a valve failed to close and fuel leaked out during the coast phase, leading to early fuel depletion during the second burn.

The UN-released orbit was 714 x 953 km x 63.3 deg. The 2009 EELV Cape history by M. Cleary spun the issue as 'there was some loss in performance during the second stage burn, but the payload was launched successfully'. Nevertheless the orbit achieved was signicicantly different from the desired one and I count this flight as a launch failure for statistical purposes.


NROL-30 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

2007 Jun 15  1512:00  Launch by Atlas AV-009  CC SLC41 
  Ascent on Az 46.85 
  Atlas MECO 
  T+4:15? Atlas sep 
  T+4:23? Centaur MES-1 
  T+4:38? Fairing 
 1530? T+18 min? Centaur MECO-1 
 1629? T+1:17? Centaur MES-2 
  Centaur premature shutdown  
 1630? T+1:18? Centaur MECO-2  105.22 783 x 1225 x 63.6 
 1634? T+1:22? Payload sep 
  Centaur blowdown  101.57 715 x 951 63.4  
2007 Jun 18    105.45 847 x 1183 x 62.7 
2007 Aug 11    106.08 904 x 1186 x 63.4 
2008 Feb 17    107.36 997 x 1211 x 63.4 
2008 Jun 10   Orbit raise to operational alt  107.41 1014 x 1198 x 63.4 
2009 Apr 26    107.42 1033 x 1181 x 63.4 

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