It seems that we now have the full picture of military satellites launched in 2005. Two of the five launches scheduled for this year have already taken place - a successful one of a Parus satellite and a failed attempt to launch a Molniya-3K communication satellite. We also know that there will be a Proton launch with three Glonass satellites later this year (most likely in December). This leaves two launches with two satellites unaccounted for.
It looks like one of these satellites is going to be a reconnaissance satellite, which is to be launched in late August-early September - the quarterly launch plan mentions that the Progress launch scheduled for September 9th may interfere with the launch of 11F660, which is a Yantar-1KFT/Kometa wide-area imaging satellite (my thanks to SC for bringing this to my attention). This was confirmed by Vladimir Popovkin, who mentioned at a recent press-conference that a launch of a new reconnaissance satellite will take place later this year (he also confirmed that there were problems with the new reconnaissance satellite that was launched in September 2004).
The last satellite remains somewhat of a mystery, but we can make an guess - speaking about the Molniya-M launcher failure, Vladimir Popovkin expressed hope that the launcher may resume flights in October. This may have been just his way of saying that the problem with the launcher will be fixed sooner rather than later, but it is quite possible that he was saying that it will be fixed by the time of a planned launch. Since a launch of another Molniya-class communication satellite is unlikely, it leaves a possibility of a launch of a new US-KS/Oko early-warning satellite into a highly-elliptical orbit. It would be about time - the two satellites that work there were launched in 2002.
The book
Comments
So what happened to the other Proton launch? Ekspress-AM3 was launched with a military sourced Proton, swapping places with a satellite possibly now to be launched with Kazsat?
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ has for sometime mentioned Geizer-21 as of 2004 so it might be from that year?
Could the Parus launch be regarded as a 2004 mission?
No, I think the military counted Parus as a 2005 launch (even though it may have been planned for 2004 initially).
There was an article in Kommersant a couple of weeks ago reporting that Roskosmos and the Space Troops have filed a law suit against TsSKB [Central Specialized Design Bureau]-Progress plant (Samara). The suit is for an unspecified amount "for compensation for damages caused by the failure of a Molniya-M booster rocket."
Is such legal action "unprecedented" as the article suggests? The article reported that the loss to military would be at least 6ooM rubles, but insurance for the launch only covered $190M for fault from third parties.
The article also notes that Popovkin said launches of this type of rocket may resume in October: "Incidentally, this corresponds to the General Staff's schedule," for an unspecified payload.
Yes, the lawsuit is rather unprecedented. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
Charles Thornton wrote: "The article reported that the loss to military would be at least 6ooM rubles, but insurance for the launch only covered $190M for fault from third parties."
According to the current exchange rate - and it hasn't changed much since July - $190M is some RUR 5,415M - and that's coveted money for Russian military. Now the big question for Roskosmos is "How to get that money?" In this sense the case is, undoubtedly, unprecedented.
Здравствуйте
РЕКЛАМА ДОЛРНА РАБОТАТЬ НА ВАС,а мы поможем!.
www.doski-inet.com
Будем рады оказаться Вам полезными.