Satan's conversion...

The story started during the cold war in the context of the missile race between USA and Soviet Union to get a strategical advantage on the other. Such missiles where carrying nuclear heads.

The former Soviet Union developed in the 70ies an intercontinental missile of R36M type called 15A14 and 15A18. This was re-named "Satan" within the NATO terminology.

The picture below shows this SS18-Satan missile,
as displayed at the Historical Museum of the Baikonur Cosmodrome (in the city).


After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90ies, a conversion programme was set to transform "Satan" 'into a peaceful commercial launcher for light weighed spacecrafts (like CryoSat-2).
To make it short: after an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, the Russians attributed the re-design of the missile to Yuzhnoe Design Bureau, a company based in Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine.
Satan became then DNIEPR, the name of the famous Ukrainian/Russian/Belarus/Ukrainian river. The river being the linking element between Russia and Ukraine, could we interpret the choice of this name as the materialisation of this cooperation after the split of the Soviet Union?

The poster below (also on display in the museum) explains the various steps of this transformation programme:
(with a picture zoom-in, the explanations in the top left corner are fully readable for the Russian readers)


The Diepr maiden flight took place on 21/04/1999.
With this type of rocket, the payload is directly injected into orbit. Note the longer head (compared to Satan's one) which contains the spacecraft and the engines needed for the separation.


Some close up views of the poster are interesting because spotting scenes that will never be witnessed by the CryoSat-2 (CS-2) team after the spacecraft will have left the MIK.

-The squared shape of the silo lid:
here under, the team who carried the conversion programme at the Baikonur Launch pad 109, the same one that will be used for Cryosat-2


and a view on the Dniepr fairing (short one?) once the launcher is in the silo:


Here under is a model of the DNIEPR rocket on displayed in the museum:
the CryoSat-2 Launcher.


DNIEPR is operated from Baikonur and Yasnyi by ISC Kosmotrac,
Commercial flights are sold by Roskomos.

Baikonur city has also its own Space museum

Let's have a short look at the Historical Museum of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The place of this museum in the city is interesting for 2 reasons:
-first from there started on May 5th 1955 the new constructions to develop the city that would become Leninsk,

-Second, this large building called the city art palace is the cultural "heart" of the city with a museum, a library, a full scale theater where concerts, dancing performances , as well as many juvenile cultural activities take place.

This museum on the 1st floor and the Gagarine's museum visited last week on the cosmodrome are roughly covering the same topics i.e 50 years of soviet space history.

Here under are few snapshots mostly at random making this museum a "must" to visit in the City.

The 2 rockets on display below, the Gagarin's launcher Vostok on the left and the Soyuz rocket on the right, explain why Russia remains still today a "super" space power. Despite a significant upgrade, the Sozuz launcher is the continuation of the Vostok one and will be in 2 or 3 years time from now, when the US space shuttle will be in the museum, the only access to the International Space Station. This means that by just improving the robust technology from the Gagarin time, Russia is still in the race, while the USA are coming back after the Shuttle experience to more conventional launchers for manned space missions.

On the background, portraits of the key Russian scientists and engineers of this space saga from Tsiolkovkyi till Korolev and after...In between few debris of failed launches.

A beautiful model of the Soyuz on its dedicated launch pad.
Soyuz is fitted here with a manned spacecraft. The top of the rocket is equipped with a device that will enable the capsule to separate from the launcher in case of failure.

A model of the Gagarin's spaceship: the Vostok 3KA spacecraft.

Another strong asset of the Russian Rocket line: The proton carrying rocket, a competitor of the Ariane V Rocket for commercial launches.
2 proton launches took place during the CryoSat-2 launch campaign that were visible early morning (still dark) from the Sputnik hotel.

Buran made a single automatic flight on November 15th 1988. Here on display behind the model is the a real piece of the parachute that helped to brake the shuttle after landing.

An artist impression of the Sputnik flying around the Earth

in the room dedicated to manned space flight
...the famous 1969 movie from Vladymar Motyl: The white sun of the desert . The tradition wants that this movie is seen by Cosmonauts the day before their flights. The exact reason for viewing this particular film remains unclear.

And a picture of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky of the father of the rocket design and modern astronautics in his cabinet with its acoustic horn.

Full tank , please!...

1,5 billion kilometers is roughly the distance Cryosat-2 will fly over its mission i.e. 3,5 years nominal and 2 years more (nice to have but not a mission requirement) at 717 kms altitude above the Earth with 16 orbits a day.

After the end of the rocket push and separation, the spacecraft will need energy to perform its maneuvers during the rest of the mission.

Pressurized Nitrogen is the CryoSat-2 "propellant' used by the Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS). This N2 gas is stored in a pressurized tank at ca 280 bars. After the tank, pressure is reduced to few bars and N2 flow will be ejected into space trough Attitude and Orbit thrusters. Short gas blows through the Attitude Control Thrusters, positioned on the 3 axes of the spacecraft, enable fine moves, whilst Orbit Control Thrusters on the X axis only allow maneuvers and orbit change.

For CryoSat-2, it has been calculated that 36,5 kgs (+/- 0,3) of Nitrogen will suffice to perform the (extended) mission.

Tank loading is then a very important step to prepare the spacecraft for the mission as well as to thoroughly check the tightness of all the "plumbing pipes and devices" of the AOCS subsystem.

Here is the set up for the tank loading activity:


On the right hand side, 2 sets of compressed Nitrogen bottles at 200 bars.

Note that the operators are not in the same room as the spacecraft for safety reasons. They are also protected by a removable protective wall opposite to the door (in brown) and close to the spacecraft in the next room.

Below, a close up view on:
- the computer which is used for Pressure and Temperature monitoring
- and on the left, the "Maximator'' that will "push" the Nitrogen gas to the spacecraft tank when the tank pressure will reached 200 bars (i.e. the same pressure of the compressed nitrogen in the bottles).



The screen snapshot below was taken just before the end of the tank loading activity and proves the successful performance of the activity.
As we can read:
-36,75kg* of nitrogen have been loaded and a final tank pressure of ca 279 bars.

* T3 and T4 Temperatures had to be balanced before the exact quantity of N2 gas can be calculated and the last Nitrogen top up can be made in order to complete the loading.



This activity was successfully completed this morning, Cryosat-2 gets then closer to its journey to space.

Soyuz launch today

CroySat-2 team was invited to see a Soyuz rocket U-LV launch this morning (3/2/2010).
Payload was a Progress cargo (M-04M) heading to the ISS.

At about 8:45 am (i.e. 1 hour before launch) , we arrived at sunrise...


...on an empty parking lot where standing more that 10 minutes by -17C with a slight northern breeze was a prowess. We just made few pictures of the rocket standing on the launch pad at about 1km distance before getting back and wait in the warm bus the end of the count down.


15 minutes before launch the attendance increased on parking lot and then after launch all people were trying to get the best angle:

"CS-2 uniforms" in action


other (polar?) uniforms but not from the team.


But at 9:45 , that is exactly hat we saw: A splendid show that just leaves you breathless.
This launch pad was visited last Saturday, refer to earlier note.


Around 10:00 am the show was over. Just a vanishing cloud (water vapor from the cryogenics?) in the sunny sky of the steppe.


The same cloud over the tracking station few minutes later masking the sun.
Note the different position of the left tracking antenna compared with picture#1 above.

After the Surgeon, the Priest...

Let's reassure all of you first, nothing terminal.

Few days ago, Alexander showed by chance a series of launch pictures to Bill among which, one with a priest on the launch site, obviously triggered a question on our side:
-What is that for?
-Just the usual blessing ceremony... answered Alexander

and then?

To know more, Bill, Richard and Andrei went to the Baikonur Russian Orthodox church (Saint George). They manage to meet with Father Sergei who provided some more details.


They learned that it has now become a tradition on the Russian side that 1 day before launch at about 12:00 am an Orthodox Father is invited to the launch pad for blessing the launcher.

The exact procedure is not known but it seems that Priest has to spread droplets of blessed water on the "head"of the launcher.

According to Farther Sergei, this ceremony should be interpreted as blessing the intense team work and positive aspects of the mission more than blessing a "piece of metal".

This interview gave us also a better insight on the origin of this tradition.
It started in 1998 with the 1st Proton launch. The second launch that was not blessed failed. The blessing was re-established for the 3rd launch (successful), and forgotten(?) for the 4th launch which failed.
Since, the "rocket blessing tradition" is fully re-enforced but exact statistics showing correlation between launch success and Rocket blessing are not available and do not allow scientific conclusions.

But..
In 2006, launch of Belorussians satellite "Belka" ended up in a failure. According to father Sergei, no blessing was performed.

And very recently, Saudians had a payload to be launched on a Dniepr rocket. During the integration they experienced serious problems that led to postpone the launch twice. At that stage it was decided to perform the blessing and according to available information the 3rd time was the good one where the launch took place!

Back to CryoSat-2, be informed that the launcher blessing is planned to take place on 24/02/2010 at 12:00 (likely there will be no witness on our side (?)).
In case you pop up at the Baikonur church at this time for urgent matters, you may read on the door the following message:

"We will be back shortly!"

photo Baikonur St George's church credit

SHM fit check on the launcher

On the Russian side, the following activities shall take place this week:

• the loading of the empty Space Head Module (SHM) on a dedicated truck,
• the SHM transport from MIK to the launch pad and
• the fit check of the SHM on the launcher in the Silo

The truck, called the crocodile*, arrived in Building C of the MIK this morning.

The CS-2 team was invited by the Russians to see the very beginning of this activity: i.e. moving the empty SHM towards the truck. Further activities are "classified" to us and will not be witnessed by the CS-2 team.

Here are 2 pictures of what was seen this morning:

The crocodile


Push of the SHM into the truck open container.
(the container once filled will be tilted horizontally)


*Another angle of view on the "open crocodile's jaw"!
Hope you got it now? :-)

Campaign mid-term

We are roughly today on the middle of bridge.

Yesterday a test with ESOC called SVT-4 successfully took place. The purpose of this test was to check that telecommands sent by the ESA Control Centre are well executed by the satellite and the generated telemetry data received at ESOC are nominal. In other words it is one of the last check to verify that the space and the ground segments talk the same language.

To date, almost all functional, flight-like, performance, health checks... tests foreseen during the campaign on the Spacecraft and the Instrument have been performed.

Therefore a crowd of the support team is leaving Baikonur today to fly home namely to Noordwijk, Toulouse and Friedrichshafen. Their job close to the spacecraft has been completed and some of them will carry on the campaign soon at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.

To say good bye to them, a song contest-like was organised at the sputnik bar yesterday evening where certainly German, Welsh and Russian talents had the lead (not quoted by order order of ranking).


For those who stay, another type of exciting activities will start.
The aim will be now to progressively prepare the spacecraft to be integrated in the Space Head Module (SHM) as well the Launch operations. This will cover among other:
- (Still) some antenna tests
- Pressurization of the tank (to give the spacecraft enough "fuel"to perform its orbit and attitude control maneuvers once in space)
- Progressively remove the "red tag items" (those that are still on the spacecraft like protective caps on optical devices or electrical connectors...)
- Install the "green tag item" ones (those that have not yet been put on the spacecraft or that will be put at the last minute. For instance some pieces of thermal blankets that were not installed to give access to some working areas...)
- Careful spacecraft visual inspection
- Final charging of the battery (will be done on the launch day)
- Repeat the procedure from OFF to launch mode
- Rehearse the Count Down
-Perform Flight Readiness (FRR) related activites
-...

For those who stay, some are progressively showing remarkable adaptation to the Kazakh fashion!

CryoSat-2 flag flies high

Dear all,

Last Friday night, Bill and Rob installed the CS-2 flag on the roof of Sputnik hotel.

Coming back from a round walk in Baikonur city today at lunch time, here is how it looked like.



Cheers
K. B.

Bill got an Award

After almost 3 weeks of launch campaign, the idea surfaced to congratulate the key person without which the campaign would certainly not have reached the point of achievement where we are today. Therefore, as a mark of recognition, the "dream team" offered to Bill a huge poster of a baby seal where each one expressed how good he feels the campaign has been led so far.

Just a sample of Bill's tasks: CS-2 campaign schedule and planning, lead of daily meeting, interface with the Russians, resolving technical problems, logistics, security and safety, collecting data for visas, passenger count in the bus (we only forgot Fabio once at the sputnik :-), bi daily bus (re)-scheduling, organising shifts, rescheduling flight tickets (between Baikonur and Moscow), planning socials, getting medical support, interfacing with hotel Sputnik management for lunch boxes diner, drinks laundry, distribution of PR gifts, etc...
So in one word how to make things working smoothly in an environment where every little thing may become a huge problem, and most important ... get people happy!

Bill receiving his "award", well done!


On the same evening, the chef of the Sputnik Restaurant prepared a Lebanese diner for us.



A nice opportunity to thank the very efficient and devoted team of the Restaurant:
from left to right: Sholtan, Aida, Hassan and Laura

From Gagarin to CryoSat-2

On this poster displayed in the Gagarin's museum, the Cosmonaut talks to us:

"Orbiting the Earth in a spaceship, I have seen how beautiful is our planet. People, let's preserve it and not destroy it "

Since Gagarin's maiden flight, this message of Earth beauty and fragility seen from space has been re-iterated several times by space travelers.

Cryosat-2, the ESA icy mission, together with other environmental missions, will help to better answer questions raised by the present global warming. To that respect, CryoSat-2 mission carries on the original Gagarin's message by better understanding the complexity of the Earth environmental "machinery".

Bill handed over a (still half packed :-) model of the spacecraft to Venera, our guide.


CS-2 will be soon displayed in this prestigious Baikonur space museum. It is certainly an honor for all the persons who have contributed to this project.

Richard was then invited to sign the guest book.


He wrote:

"The Cryosat-2 team are (almost) ready for launch - thanks to the great support of the Russian team and the local hospital*!" R. F.

*See the previous note: Surgeon of the Baikonur hospital brought great support to the project

CS-2 team at Gagarin's Launch pad and Museum

Saturday morning we could observe the full moon set during our trip in the bus and when we arrived at the MIK.


After a busy morning all SIRAL-2 and DORIS tests were successfully completed at noon. A big milestone reached in the launch campaign!

In the afternoon, a visit of the Gagarin's launch pad and museum was organised for the CS-2 team with the support of the Russians.

While a Soyuz launch was in preparation, we were allowed to approach Launch pad #1. From this place, Gagarin flew for the first time to space in April 1961, made few orbit around the Earth before landing safely. The exact details of the Vostok-1 mission were kept secret by the Soviet regime for a long time. Today this atmosphere of secrecy has mostly dropped and we have been escorted very friendly through these historical places.

Gagarin's launch pad
Note open arms will close when the rocket will be placed on the pad.


CS-2 team at Baikonur launch pad#1


The visit continued at the Gagarin's museum which contains the full memory of what is related to the Baiknonur cosmodrome. Therefore, it is not possible to make a realistic summary of it.
In the yard in the front of the museum, a simple glance carries you form Gagarin to Buran.


A model of the cosmodrome, and the sputnik second model ever produced.
(note the village along the Syr Daria river)


ESA CS-2 team in the museum
From left to right: Rob, Richard, Fabio, Bill and Andrea


Few meters further the museum, the 2 houses where Korolev and Gagarin overnighted the day before the historical mission have been kept intact and can be visited.


The Gagrin's sleeping room.


During this visit we have seen in few hours more than 50 years of Soviet space history. This is very emotional because most of us have been grown up in the excitement of the "race to Space" and seen at the time almost "live' on TV screens the prowess of the space pioneers.
This was in fact reflecting, in the context cold war, the interest the USA and Soviet Union had to get access to space and the price they were ready to pay for it. Today space is also used as a media to develop missions that aim at a better understanding our planet and its complex environment.

PS:
It seems that some French visitors in the past were quiet impressed by the broad scope of objects on display in the museum as they noted it in the "guest book" :-)


Finally a big "thanks" to Venera (means Venus in Russian) our museum guide who had made this tour so living and interesting!