O.K. I won’t do it .... but you know it’s coming .....
Oops.
How do you say “Oh darn!!” in French???
Guiana Space Center in French Guiana
Seems like they payload(s) deployed anyway. Pretty unusual.
vhttp://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42215.240
I think I saw this in a Bond movie a long time ago.
“I want to present my deepest excuses to our customers, who have entrusted us one more time. “
Never heard that one before.
This sounds like satire.
Al Yah?
Another communications satellite, called Al Yah 3, launched on the same rocket.
Yes, it was heard to communicate “Allah Akbar!” before
communication was lost...
Oh, those Frogs! Delivering only the best in North Korean technology...
Sounds like it was a communication issue, but the mission continued and the satellites are now in orbit.
C’est la vie! Rockets are volatile. Sometimes they explode as planned, sometimes they just explode.
Apparently the satellites are in their proper orbits. This turned out to be a communications problem.
Europe’s Ariane 5 lifted off on its 97th mission at 22:20:07 UTC on January 25, 2018 from the ELA-3 launch site at the Guiana Space Center. The mission suffered what Arianespace described as a “trajectory deviation” when the 55-meter tall rocket apparently flew to an improper launch azimuth from the very beginning of its climb toward orbit.
It since transpired – per reports from La Tribune and Le Figaro – that Ariane 5 launched with an improper flight program, sending the rocket on the wrong azimuth and dangerously close to the French Guiana Coast Line. The article also reports that the VA241 mission was the first time ArianeGroup, a venture between Airbus & Safran, controlled the launcher until the countdown reached zero. According to multiple sources, this transition came with the elimination of a double-checking of Ariane’s flight program before liftoff in an effort to reduce cost.
Figuring out what exactly transpired in what usually is a complex chain of events will be up to an expert commission set up between Arianespace and the European Space Agency. But, through a wealth of publicly available data, some interesting conclusions can be made – some are presented below.
[technical details follow]
http://spaceflight101.com/ariane-5-va241/ariane-5-va241-anomaly-analysis/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5_flight_VA241
The telemetry of the launcher was lost from about 9 minutes to 9 minutes and 30 seconds (the uncertainty being due to the fact that the data as displayed in real-time may have been extrapolated for a finite amount of time) into the flight, close to the moment when the main stage (EPC) separation and upper stage (ESC-A) ignition should have occurred.[2]
Then about 1 hour after liftoff, Arianespace’s CEO and chairman Stéphane Israël made a quick speech saying that the launcher suffered an anomaly. His statement in front of the VIP audience in the Jupiter control room was:
“Ladies and gentlemen, so I come to give you some information because we have had an anomaly on this launch. Indeed, we lost contact with the launcher a few seconds after the ignition of the upper stage. At that time, we can consider that the upper composite and the satellite[s] have been satellised [sic: bad translation of French satellisés, meaning put in orbit]. But as I said, we lost contact. So up to now, our customers do not have contact with the satellite[s]. We need now some time to know if they have been separated [sic], and where they are exactly, to better analyse the consequences of this anomaly. I want to present my deepest excuses to our customers, who have entrusted us one more time. We know that there is no launch with no risk. We know that launch is always difficult, and tonight Ariane 5 has had an anomaly, so let’s take time now to better understand the situation of the satellite[s]. Arianespace, in full transparency, will come back to you to provide you with some more information as soon as we have them. I apologise on behalf of Arianespace.”[4]
Later in the night, Arianespace issued a first press release[3] mentioning that the Natal tracking station did not acquire telemetry of the launcher, which lasted until the end of the mission, and that the separation of both payloads was confirmed, together with their successful injection into Earth orbit and the link acquisition by both customers.
On the same day, Arianespace issued a second press release[1] stating that SES and YahSat confirmed the acquisition and good health of the two satellites despite a deviation of their trajectory. It was also stated that the telemetry was lost by the tracking stations 9 minutes and 26 seconds after reference time T, due to a deviation of the trajectory.
On 26 January 2018, SES informed on their website that while its satellite is in good health it would require to “set up a new orbit raising plan”, and that it would thus “reach the geostationary orbit only four weeks later than originally planned”[5], indicating that the satellites were not delivered to the intended super-synchronous transfer orbit (with an apogee of 45,000 km and inclination of 3°[2]) by the launch vehicle. This was confirmed later that day when the orbital elements of the satellites were released, revealing that the deployment orbit’s apogee had a minor deviation of about 2,000 km while the inclination suffered a significant deviation of almost 18° from intended.[6]
The flight path anomaly became obvious when initial analysis showed that the launch azimuth had gone wrong since the very beginning of the flight, during the first stage firing.[6]
The anomaly would be due to a human error during the programming of the flight computer combined with a failing verification procedure according to early developments as the launch team did not double-check the guidance computer parameters to reduce workload duplication, even though double-checking them played the vital role for the rocket’s reliability.[7][8]
Aftermath
An independent investigation board was estabished in collaboration with the European Space Agency and under the chairmanship of ESA’s inspector general to investigate what caused the trajectory deviation during flight. The conclusions of the investigation commission lead by ESA’s inspector general, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, are expected by mid-February 2018.[7]
Both satellites now conducted orbital make-up procedure by changing the maneuvering plan, which would extend commissioning time.[9]
SES-14 needs about 4 weeks longer than planned commissioning time, meaning that entry into service now expected in August instead of July.[10] Nevertheless, SES-14 is still expected to be able to meet the designed life time, since it does not use chemical propulsion which could reduce more life time if such thing happened.[11] SES informed NASA that they expect no effect on the quality of observations and data of the agency’s GOLD instrument after the launch anomaly.[12]
Al Yah 3 was also confirmed healthy after more than 12 hours without further statement, and like SES-14, Al Yah 3’s maneuvering plan was also revised to still fulfill the original mission.[13]
This mission anomaly marked the end of 82nd consecutive success streak since 2003.[14]