The System: Autumn Falls Back

Delta IV, the current GPS launch vehicle, awaits a date with space at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delays Ground GPS IIF and Galileo FOC

The scheduled October 23 launch of GPS IIF-5, the fifth in the current “follow-on” generation of GPS satellites, has been postponed in order to complete a review of an adjustment made to the rocket’s upper stage engine. A loss of thrust by a Delta IV rocket upper stage during a GPS launch last year worried the Air Force and the United Launch Alliance (ULA), though the satellite successfully reached its intended orbit.

A subsequent  investigation identified a fuel leak in the engine system as the culprit. Two  medium Delta IV rockets and one heavy version have launched since then, but ULA said further investigation had produced new information about the engine’s first start.

While no new launch date has been set, the ULA released a statement:

“The ongoing Phase II investigation has included extremely detailed characterization and reconstructions of the instrumentation signatures obtained from the October 2012 launch and these have recently resulted in some updated conclusions related to dynamic responses that occurred on the engine system during the first engine start event.

“The GPS IIF-5 Delta IV launch is being delayed to allow the technical team time to further assess these updated conclusions and improvements already implemented and determine whether additional changes are required prior to the next Delta IV launch.

“The Delta IV booster for the GPS IIF-5 mission has completed the standard processing and checkout on the launch pad and will be maintained in a ready state for spacecraft mate and launch pending completion of this assessment. A new launch date will be established when the assessment of the updated dynamic response information is completed in the coming weeks.”

A Soyuz rocket (right) will carry Galileo FOC satellites, but no sooner than June 2014.

Galileo. Continuing delays in ground testing of the first two fully operational Galileo satellites have postponed their launch to June 2014 at the earliest.

According to European officials, the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) thermal vacuum chamber for testing satellites under orbit conditions was not ready for the two FOC satellites delivered by OHB in late summer.

The satellites thus cannot ship to the Guiana spaceport in South America in time for a planned 2013 launch on a Soyuz rocket. The Galileo schedule is also running into bottlenecks with scheduled launches by other satellite programs aboard Guiana Soyuzes.

A six-week test of the first Galileo satellite at ESTEC reportedly got under way in October.

Svalbard station on Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic.

Ground Network Supports Galileo for SAR

Completion of a pair of European Space Agency dedicated ground stations at opposite ends of that continent has enabled Galileo satellites in orbit to participate in global testing of the Cospas–Sarsat search and rescue system.

The Maspalomas station, in mid-Atlantic Canary Islands, was activated in June. In September, the Svalbard site on Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic activated. The two sites can now communicate and will soon undertake joint tests.

The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-based search and rescue (SAR) distress alert detection and information distribution system, established by Canada, France, Russia, and the United States, with participation by 33 other countries.

Activation of the two new stations enables participation of the latest two Galileo satellites in a worldwide test campaign for Cospas-Sarsat expansion.
The program is introducing a new medium-orbit SAR system to improve coverage and response times, with the Galileo satellites in the vanguard.

The second pair of Europe’s Galileo satellites — launched together in October 2012 — are the first of the constellation to host SAR payloads. These can pick up UHF signals from emergency beacons aboard ships or aircraft or carried by individuals, which are then relayed to ground stations. There, the source is pinpointed and automatically passed on to a control center, which then routes it to local authorities for rescue.

“The Galileo satellites, tested in combination with the same SAR payloads on Russian GLONASS satellites as well as compatible repeaters on a pair of U.S. GPS satellites, showed an ability to pinpoint simulated emergency beacons down to an accuracy of 2–5 kilometers in a matter of minutes,” explained Igor Stojkovic, ESA Galileo SAR engineer.

“Our in-orbit validation tests so far have been in line with expectation and beyond, giving us a lot of confidence in the performance of the final system, once completed. And using a combination of satellites is just how the upgraded system will operate in practice, in order to localize distress signals.”

Localization test performed from Maspalomas MEOLUT as part of Galileo’s SAR in-orbit validation. Beacon locations obtained with four satellites are shown in black, while those using three satellites are shown in grey. More than 93 percent of all beacon locations, after only a single beacon burst has been received, are within the required five kilometers from actual beacon position.

System Briefs

GLONASS Seeks UK Ground. According to the website of the Russian magazine GLONASS Messenger, the Russian Federal Space Agency communicated its proposals for specific areas in the United Kingdom (or, more likely, its territories) to accommodate stations of the GLONASS System for Differential Correction and Monitoring (SDCM). Apparently, an offer was made by the deputy head of Roscosmos, Oleg Frolov, in discussions with David Parker, the director of the British Space Agency. The desired locations for the stations will not be disclosed until the approval of their establishment by the British side, the website reported.

Head Rolls. After repeated satellite launch failures and rumblings about embezzlement and corruption within the Russian space program Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin was let go as director and replaced by Oleg Ostapenko, a colonel general in the Russian Military, deputy minister of Defence, and former commander of the Aerospace Defence Forces. The Russian government also announced formation of new agency, the United Rocket and Space Corporation, to manage satellite and rocket manufacturing facilities heretofore supervised by Roscosmos.