Galileo GPS satellites launched into wrong orbit

[mr friendly guy]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... rong-orbit

Galileo GPS satellites launched into wrong orbit
Setback for European-run navigational network as space agency announces satellites missed their target positions

Sunday 24 August 2014 14.59 AEST

Two satellites meant to form part of a European-run GPS navigational network have been launched into the wrong orbit in a blow for the programme.

European space officials say they are investigating whether the inaccurate deployment will complicate their efforts to develop the Galileo system, which would rival the American-run GPS network.

The European Space Agency and launch company Arianespace said the satellites – meant to be the fifth and sixth in the network – ended up in off-target orbits after being launched on Friday from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a Soyuz rocket.

Saturday’s agency statement did not explain whether their orbital paths could be corrected.

Arianespace said the satellites settled into a lower elliptical orbit instead of the circular one intended, and initial analysis suggested the mishap occurred during the flight phase and involved the Fregat upper stage of Soyuz.

“Our aim is of course to fully understand this anomaly,” said Stephane Israel, Arianespace chairman and chief executive. “While it is too early to determine the exact causes, we would like to offer our sincere excuses to ESA and the European commission for this orbital injection that did not meet expectations.”

Israel said Arianespace along with customer ESA and the commission would create an independent panel to investigate what caused the inaccurate deployment and to develop corrective actions so Soyuz launches could resume.

The European Union hopes to have its 30-satellite Galileo navigation network operating fully by 2020. The Prague-based programme oversaw the launch of its first two satellites in 2011, two more in 2012 and the two that went up on Friday.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the French space agency CNES, said the investigation still needed to determine precisely how far off course the satellites were. He said ESA experts in Toulouse, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, were calculating whether small motors inside the satellites would be strong enough to push them into the correct orbit.

Le Gall said the investigation would take “several days to understand what has happened. And then we’ll see about the possible consequences on the launch calendar,” he said, referring to plans to launch more satellites in coming months.

He called the Galileo navigation network “a very complex programme, and even if we have some failures that’s unfortunately part of the life of operations.”

If the two satellites cannot be pushed to the correct altitude above the earth, he said, subsequent satellites would have to take up the slack.

The programme has faced other delays and operational hiccups. ESA officials said on Wednesday that they had to reduce the strength of another Galileo satellite’s signal because of unspecified problems.

The agency says it hopes Galileo will provide greater precision for satellite navigation systems than the GPS system already used worldwide to pinpoint locations and plot routes.

Cue the conspiracy theorists about being launched with a Soyuz rocket, in 3,2,1.

[FTeik]

The important question with every conspiracy-theory is "qui bono" - who benefits most, if the system is a failure?

And that wouldn't be the evil russians in the east, but the benevolent hegemon of the western world.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Oh dear.

Also, possibly amusing language barrier when the Arianespace chief says "we offer our sincere excuses to the ESA." In English that sounds hilariously insincere.

[mr friendly guy]

linky

An anonymous source from Russian space Agency Roscosmos told the paper: “The nonstandard operation of the integrated management system was likely caused by an error in the embedded software. As a result, the upper stage received an incorrect flight assignment, and, operating in full accordance with the embedded software, it has delivered the units to the wrong destination.”

Well the conspiracy theorists are going to get a buzz out of this.

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, they are, but seriously this has happened many many times in the past 50-60 years of rocket launches.

Also, "who benefits?" is only half of what you ask when dealing with a conspiracy theory. The other half is "who suffers?" Often, the conspiracy theorists are arguing that the very people who suffered from a conspiracy's effects are the ones who are complicit in maintaining its existence. Here, for instance, having Russian rockets malfunction and put satellites in the wrong orbit cannot possibly benefit Russia, because they are active sellers of launch capacity and have reason to want a reputation for reliability... And yet the Russians are supposed to have done exactly that purely to cause some petty, temporary interference in ESA's plans.

[mr friendly guy]

Bit more info

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2 ... ced-orbit/

ESA Is Investigating Solutions For Galileo Satellites' Misplaced Orbit

On Friday, August 22, two European Space Agency Galileo satellites were injected into improper orbits shortly after their launch from French Guiana. Since then, the ESA has been actively investigating the situation in order to determine what – if anything – can be done to salvage these satellites for use in the Galileo program.

The Galileo program is the ESA’s project to place a constellation of satellites in orbit that can be used for navigation on the ground. But unlike the U.S.’s GPS satellites, the ESA’s Galileo program will be primarily used for civilian, rather than military, navigation.

Today, the ESA announced an update on their efforts to determine how the satellites can be used going forward. ESA ground teams have confirmed that they are in contact with the satellites and able to control them. Additionally, they’ve been able to successfully deploy the solar array on one of the satellites and aim to deploy the array on the second shortly.

But the real question facing the ESA is whether these satellites will be usable for the Galileo navigation program, or whether they’ll have to be repurposed. A spokesperson for the ESA told me via email that it would probably be “early next week” before any solution is determined.

Both satellites are equipped with 70kg each of propellant and are capable of moving away from their current orbit. But one of the problems facing the Galileo team, the ESA spokesperson told me, is that moving the satellites to the target orbit might require the use of all of the available fuel – meaning that the life cycle of the satellites would be shortened. Additionally, he added, there may not even be enough fuel to get to the target orbit anyway.

The ESA is also investigating the possibility that the satellites might still be usable for navigation in their current orbits, but that’s still being evaluated by teams on the ground. “The worst case scenario,” according to the ESA, is that the satellites may not be able to be used for the Galileo program at all. But even in that case, the satellites could be put to use to “further push the limits of the system.”

In any event, the spokesperson emphasized to me that this incident does not diminish ESA’s commitment to get the Galileo program up and running on schedule.

“Galileo does not stop here: it is a train on tracks and will get to its final destination,” he said. “This is an unfortunate and unforeseen stop in its journey but we will get the end of the journey in 2020.”

Summary

1. They might not be able to correct this misplacement with the existing satellites themselves, so presumably they need new satellites
2. They still think they will get the system up and running by the original date. I am going to wait and see. However given the fact that Galileo has fallen behind the original schedule, I am not going to hold my breath.