Proton failure highlights unresolved tensions between Russia and Kazakhstan

Published: 7/8/1999

The failure of the Russian a Proton launch vehicle has renewed tensions between Russia and Kazakhstan over political and financial issues regarding the space activities from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The ill-fated Proton-K was launched on June 5th, at 17:32 Moscow time, from Baikonur's 24th launch pad, off the 81-launch site. It had to deploy a Raduga communications satellite belonging to the Russian MoD. This flight was the first life test for the Breeze-M boosting block, designed and manufactured by Khrunichev State Space Scientific Industrial Center (GKNPTsKh), which also makes the launch vehicle. 123 seconds into the flight, the second-stage engines ignited, and then, at 127 seconds, the exhausted first stage departed from the rocket and fell in the proper area,some 310 km from the launch site. At 132 seconds the second stage engines began runnng at full power. Trouble began at 227 seconds into the flight, when telemetry coming from the Proton started to report malfunctions. At 230seconds, the on-board flight control system generated a command to cut off fuel supply to the second-stage engines. (In normal situation, this would be done at 333 seconds). At 330 seconds, when the Proton was flying at an altitude of 140 km and a speed of 4 km/sec, the ground surveillance systems began noting that the rocket trajectory was not following the desired track. At 390 seconds, the error was 14 km. At this point, the telemetry from the second stage terminated. However, data continued to come from the Breeze-M boosting block and the third stage, almost until the moment of rocket disintegration. As the rocket reached an altitude of 20 km, it began to disintegrate. At that moment, the Proton had 46.35 and 19.80 tons of fuel in the tanks of the third stage and the boosting block respectively. In addition, some 38t of fuel remained in the second stage: the amount that had not been burnt out owing to the command to cut off the fuel supply at 230 seconds. The fuel began to burn uncontrollably. Apparently, all its highly toxic components had burnt out before the Proton pieces fell on the ground. The latter happened shortly after the rocket entered the dense atmospheric layers. Wreckage of the third stage should have fallen within a special area in Altai Mountings, some 1985 km from the launch site. However, because of the fuel supply cut-off, the wreckage of the third stage, the boosting block and the satellite fell in Karaganda region, some 1050 km from the launch site. By the joint order of Yuri Koptev, General Director of the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and Vladimir Yakovlev, Commander of the Strategic Nuclear Missile Force (RVSN), an investigation commission looking into the Proton failure has been launched. The commission consists of representatives from Khrunichev and its subcontractors, scientific establishments, NII-4 (Scientific Research Institute no.4), the MoD,RKA and RVSN. The commission has to prepare a report in one month's time. Until this is done, Proton launches are suspended. By midday on June 6th 1999, it was possible to judge that the damage caused by the Proton wracks was minor, but this did not prevent the Kazakh state authorities from issuing a decree, later that day, prohibiting all launches from Baikonur. The Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note of protest to its Russian counterpart, which met it with a "frozen compunction". The launch ban put on hold the mission of a Zenit-2 carrying the Oksan-O ocean research satellite (originally planned for July 8th 1999) and that of a Soyuz-U, with the Progress-M automatic supply ship, for the Mir space station planned for July 10-14th 1999. It would seem that Kazakhstan is trying to capitalise on the accident, both in financial and political terms. Kazakhstan has pounced on every opportunity to put Russia under pressure through threatening the closure of the Baikonur cosmodrome, since the USSR collapse in 1991. Moscow-based space observers believe that the launch ban will ultimately be lifted. Political leaders of Kazakhstan, the very same people who imposed the ban, had themselves signed documents on a 20-year lease of Baikonur to Russia for which Kazakhstan gets $115m annually in rentals. The rentals, however, are not coming in cash; instead, they get written-off to help offset the huge state debt owed to Russia by Kazakhstan. The observers also say that in this particular case Russia is likely to pay in cash for the rocket failure consequences. This is demanded by theinternational convention on responsibility for the damage done by artificial space objects. The document was approved by the UN in November 1971and signed by URSS, UK and US on March 29th 1972. Russia, as the USSR right-holder, should follow the convention. The Russian state financial losses will partly be compensated by Megarus, a Russian insurance company which insured the launch vehicle, its boosting block and the satellite for $15m. The Proton has established itself as a reliable launch vehicle. The recent failure is the second such event during the last ten years, caused by the launch vehicle itself. During that time, a total of 95 Proton flights have been performed to deploy 140 spacecraft. The previous failure in which the launch vehicle was blamed occurred on August 9th 1990, when the main engine of the third stage refused to function. There were a number of other malfunctions that resulted in the payloads not been put into desired orbits, but these were not attributed to the Proton launch vehicle itself. On May 17th 1993, a Proton-K failed to reach the assigned orbit, caused by filling it with 'bad fuel' at the cosmodrome. In 1996 and 1997, the Proton failed to put satellites into right orbits on three occasions, all due to malfunctions of the DM-series boosting blocks supplied by RKK Energia. On the international market the Proton has a reputation of a reliable launch vehicle. Since 1996, it has performed 16 commercial launches. It remains to be seen what impact the latest failure will have on the Proton and Russian space activities as a whole. The acute economic difficulties experienced by Kazakhstan make its leaders seize every chance to obtain extra cash. The Proton failure simply represented another such opportunity.

Article ID: 671