04/26/12, 00:17 UTC, PSLV-XL with RISAT 1 from SR 1 to LEO/S
04/30/12, 20:50 UTC, CZ-3B with Compass M3/4 from XC 2 to MTO
05/04/12, 18:42 UTC, Atlas 5-531 with AEHF-2 from CC 41 to GTO+
05/06/12, 07:10 UTC, CZ-2D with Tianhui I-02 from JQ 4L to LEO/S
05/10/12, 07:10 UTC, CZ-3B with Yaogan 14 from TY 2 to LEO/S
05/15/12, 03:01 UTC, Soyuz FG with Soyuz TMA-04M from TB 1/5 to LEO/ISS
05/15/12, 22:13 UTC, Ariane 5 ECA with JCSAT-13/VINASAT-2 from KO 3 to GTO
05/17/12, 14:05 UTC, Soyuz U with Kobalt M from PL 16/2 to LEO
05/17/12, 16:39 UTC, H-2A with GCOM W1/Kompsat 3 from TA Y1 to LEO/S
05/17/12, 19:12 UTC, Proton M Briz M with Nimiq 6 from TB 200/39 to GTO+

Worldwide Space Launch Box Score
as of 05/17/12
All Orbital Launch Attempts(Failures)
2012:  27(1)
2011:  84(6)
2010:  74(4)
2009:  78(5)
Crewed Launch Attempts(Failures)
2012:  1(0)
2011:  7(0)
2010:  7(0)
2009:  9(0)

Proton M/Briz M with Nimiq 6

Three orbital launches took place within about five hours on May 17, 2012.  The burst of flights accounted for more than 11% of the world's year-to-date orbital liftoffs. 

A Soyuz U performed the first launch from Plesetsk Site 16 Pad 2 at 14:05 UTC.   The payload was not announced by Russia's War Department, but analysts believed it was a Kobot M optical photo-reconnaissance satellite.  The satellite entered a 187 x 225 km x 81.38 deg orbit.  It was the 435th and final Soyuz U to fly from Plestesk.   The first such liftoff took place in May 1973.

H-2A-202 F21 at Tanegashima

A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-2A performed the second launch, for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), from LC 1 at Yoshinobu Launch Complex, Tanegashima Space Center.  The 2.5 stage F21 vehicle, flying in a "202" configuration with two strap on SRB-A boosters, lifted off at 16:39 UTC with the 1.99 tonne Global Changing Observation Mission “SHIZUKU” (GCOM-W1) and “KOMPSAT-3” (the Korean Multi-purpose Satellite), an electro-optical imaging satellite for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).  The payloads were boosted into roughly 700 km sun synchronous orbits.  Two small microsatellites were also orbited.

A Proton M/Briz M performed the third launch.  It lifted off from Area 81 Pad 24 at Baikonur Cosmodrome at 19:12 UTC with Telesat of Ottawa's Nimiq 6 communications satellite.  Nimiq 6, a 4.5 tonne Space Systems/Loral satellite, was aimed toward a geosynchronous transfer orbit using a planned nine hour, five-burn Briz M upper stage mission.

Ariane Orbits Two Satellites

Ariane 5 ECA Launcher No. L562 successfully orbited a pair of communications satellites for companies based in Japan and Vietnam on May 15, 2012.  Flying Arianespace Mission VA206, the 2.5 stage rocket lifted off from ELA 3 at Kourou Space Center at 22:13 UTC with JCSAT-13 forJapan’s SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation and VINASAT-2 for Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.  

Both satellites were Lockheed Martin A2100 types.   JCSAT-13 with 44 Ku-band transponders weighed 4.53 tonnes.  VINASAT-2 with 24 Ku-band transponders weighed 2.97 tonnes.  The pair were inserted into 250 x 35,927 km x 1.97 deg transfer orbits. 

Soyuz TMA-04M Launch

Russia's Soyuz FG boosted three cosmo/astronauts into orbit aboard the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft on May 15, 2012.   Liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome Area 1 Pad 5 occurred at 03:01 UTC, beginning a 9 minute ascent to a 51.6 deg low earth orbit.  The crew will join the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 31 crew.  

On board Soyuz TMA-04 were Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba.  It was the first crewed space launch of 2012. 

Liberty Launch System vies for NASA Commercial Crew

ATK, Astrium, and Lockheed Martin team to offer Liberty, a Commercial Crew competitor.

China successfully launched Yaogan 14, reportedly a remote-sensing satellite, from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi, on May 10, 2012.  A three-stage CZ-4B carried the satellite into a 470 km sun synchronous orbit after an 07:06 UTC liftoff from Tayuan's second CZ-4B pad, which first saw use in 2008.

In addition to Yaogan 14, a microsatellite named Tiantuo I was also orbited.  Tiantou, built by the National University of Defense Technology, weighed only 9.3 kg.  It has a naval Automatic Identification System receiver, a small camera, and other experimental equipment.  

An Atlas 5-531 orbited the Advanced Extremely High Frequency-2 (AEHF-2) satellite for the United States Air Force from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 on May 4, 2012.   Liftoff occurred at 18:42 UTC.  About 51 minutes later, after two burns by the rocket's Centaur upper stage and an extended coast period, AEHF-2, a 6.17 tonne Lockheed Martin A2100 series communications satellite, seperated into a 222 x 50,244 km x 20.7 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit.

Prior records identified the rocket as "AV-031", but for the first time an Atlas Centaur flew without a tail number decal, preventing vehicle number confirmation.  ULA stopped providing numbers for its Atlas and Delta rockets this year, ending a practice that dated to the dawn of the Space Age.  It was the 30th Atlas 5 launch, the 60th United Launch Alliance mission, and the 20th launch attempt worldwide in 2012 to date.  . 

This was the second Atlas 5-531, which uses a 5-meter diameter Swiss built RUAG payload fairing, three Aerojet solid rocket motors strapped to a Russian Energomash RD-180 powered Atlas first stage, and a Centaur liquid hydrogen upper stage with a single PWR RL10A engine. 

Predecessor AEHF-1 suffered an on-board hydrazine propulsion system failure after its successful 2010 launch by the first Atlas 5-531, forcing it to use its Hall Current Thrusters over an extended period to reach its operational orbit. 


China Launches Navsat Pair

China orbited two navigation satellites on April 30, 2012 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.  A Chang Zheng 3B (CZ-3B) rocket perfomed the mission, lifting off from LC 2 at 20:50 UTC with the Compass-M3 and Compass-M4 satellites.  The satellites were inserted into a planned approximate 240 x 21,575 km x 55 deg. transfer orbit.

India Orbits Radarsat

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C19), boosted RISAT 1, the country's first home-built radar imaging satellite, into orbit from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota on April 26, 2012.  The 1,858 kg satellite, heaviest ever launched by a PSLV, was inserted into a 480 km x 97.55 deg orbit about 18 minutes after the 00:17 UTC liftoff.

RISAT 1 has a C-Band synthetic aperature radar (SAR) imager, designed to peer through clouds and darkness to map the Earth's surface. 

PSLV-C19 was the third PSLV-XL flight using stretched solid strap-on motors to augment the four stage core vehicle.  It was the 19th successfull PSLV launch in 21 attempts. 

Proton Boosts Comsat for Abu Dhabi

A Russian Proton M/Briz M rocket successfully boosted the Y1B communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit on April 23, 2012 for Al Yah Satellite Communications (Yahsat) of Abu Dhabi.  Proton lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome Area 200 Pad 39 at 22:18 UTC.   After a 9 hour, 12-minute, 5-burn Briz M mission, Y1B, a 6.05 tonne Astrium Eurostar E3000 spacecraft, separated.  Y1B will deliver Ka-band communications for commercial and government users.

It was the 55th Proton M/Briz M flight, the 72nd Proton mission for International Launch Services and the 376th Proton launch overall.

Soyuz U Launches Progress M-15M

Russia launched its Progress M-15M cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on April 20, 2012.   A 3-stage Soyuz U rocket lifted the Progress, with its 2.4 tonnes of cargo, aloft from Area 31 Pad 6 at 12:50 UTC.    

Progress M-15M was inserted into a 193.68 x 256.52 km x 51.63 deg. inclination orbit, from which it will gradually ascend to meet ISS during a two day flight. The spacecraft carried propellant, oxygen, food, experiment equipment, hardware for the Russian segment, and packages for the ISS crew.  Current ISS crewmembers include Russian cosmonauts Anton Skaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin, and Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronauts Daniel Burbank and Donald Pettit, and European astronaut Andre Kuipers.

North Korean Launch Fails [Updated 4/20/12]

North Korea attempted to orbit a satellite with an Unha (or "Galaxy", identified as "Unha 3") rocket from its new Sohae Satellite Launching Station near Tongchang-ri in the northwest corner of the country on April 12, 2012, but the launch was reported by U.S. and South Korean officials to have failed.  A "flare" was reportedly observed more than one minute after 22:38:55 UTC liftoff and the rocket fell into the North China Sea.  Fragments fell into an area near the planned first stage drop zone, around 190-200 km west of Kunsan, South Korea, indicating that something went wrong around the time of staging between the first and second stages.  

One report suggested that the "flare" came from the upper section of the rocket (third stage or payload fairing) and that the first stage completed its burn, continuing its flight after the "flare" for perhaps another minute.     

"Unha 3" was aimed toward the south in an attempt to place its 100 kg Kwangmyongsong 3 ("Bright Shining Star") satellite into near-polar Earth orbit.  

The 80+tonne three-stage rocket, similar in appearance to the "Unha 2" launched in 2009, was exhibited by the North Koreans to international media several days before the launch, the first time outsiders have been allowed to see this long-range rocket.  Media personnel were not notified of the launch before it took place and were unable to observe the flight or the failure.  In a break from past launch failure denials, North Korea announced the failure in a state television broadcast several hours after the attempt. 

Delta 4 Launches with Secret Spysat

Delta 359, a Delta 4M+5,2 with two GEM-60 solid boosters, a five-meter upper stage, and a five-meter payload fairing, lifted off from Vandenberg AFB with a secret National Reconnaisance Office satellite on April 3, 2012.  Delta 359 headed on a southwest azimuth with the NROL-25 mission payload, toward what analysts expected to be a 123 degree inclination retrograde orbit.   A similar orbit was used for the 2010 Atlas 5 AV-025 launch of NROL-41, which was believed to be a Future Imaging Architecture radar imaging satellite.  NROL-41 was subsequently observed by amatuers in a 1,100 km x 123 deg circular orbit.  

Delta 359 was the first Delta 4M+5,2, a vehicle capable of lifting 7.85 tonnes to sun synchronous orbit or 4.68 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit. The upper stage is expected to perform two ascent burns, followed by a deorbit burn.

CZ 3B Launches Comsat

China's Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B rocket orbited Apstar 7, a French-built communications satellite, on March 31, 2012.  Liftoff from Xichang LC 2 occurred at 10:27 UTC.  An "Enhanced" CZ-3B, with improved first stage and strap-on boosters, performed the mission.

The rockets's liquid hydrogen fueled third stage performed two burns to lift 5,054 kg Apstar 7 into a 240 x 50,127 km x 27.42 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit. 

Apstar 7 is a Thales Alenia/Cannes Spacebus 4000C2 "ITAR-free" satellite built for Asia Pacific Telecom Satellite Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong.  It will serve China, the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Australia, and part of Europe.

Final Proton K Launched

Russia's final Proton K rocket, topped by the final Blok DM-2 upper stage, successfully orbited an Oko-1 early warning satellite for Russia's Ministry of Defense on March 30, 2012.   Liftoff from Area 81 Pad 24 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan took place at 05:49 UTC.  The Blok DM-2 upper stage inserted Oko-1, identified as Kosmos 2479, into a 219 x 35,906 km x 49.28 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit, then fired again several hours later to circularize the orbit. 

Proton K serial 41018 with Blok DM-2 serial 117L performed the mission. Proton K, based on the two-stage UR-500 rocket, was developed by Vladimir Chelomei during the 1960s.   The first launch took place on March 10, 1967. During the past decade, the updated Proton M series has gradually replaced Proton-K.  Likewise, the Blok DM upper stage is being replaced by the Krunichev Briz M stage.

Proton Orbits Intelsat 22

Russia's Proton M/Briz M orbited Intelsat 22 from Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 25, 2012.  The 705 tonne, 58.2 meter tall Khrunichev-built four-stage rocket lifted off from Area 200 Pad 39 at 12:10 UTC to begin an unprecendented 15.5 hour long ascent to supersynchronous transfer orbit.   During the extended mission, the hypergolic storable fueled Briz M upper stage performed five burns to lift the 6,199 kg Boeing 702MP communications satellite, the first of its type, into a 3,791 km x 65,000 km x 28.5 degree orbit. 

Intelsat 22 will be positioned at 72 degrees East in geostationary orbit to provide Ku-band capacity for the Middle East and eastern Africa, C-band coverage for most of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and eastern Asia.  The satellite also carries an Ultra-High Frequency payload for the Australian Defence Force.

The first three Proton stages placed Briz M and payload into a sub-orbital trajectory.  Briz M fired to reach a circular parking orbit, then fired four more times to reach its final transfer orbit.

 
Ariane 5 Launches ISS Cargo Ship

Ariane 5 ES vehicle L553 successfully orbited Europe's third ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), named Edoardo Amaldi, toward the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2012.   Liftoff from Kourou's ELA 3 occurred at 04:34 UTC.

At 19.714 tonnes, ATV-3 was Ariane's heaviest-ever payload.  Edoardo Amaldi carried 6.96 tonnes of cargo, including on-board propellant, for ISS. 

The rocket's hypergolic EPS stage fired twice to deploy ATV-3 into a 260 km x 51.6 deg orbit.  Separation occurred about one hour after liftoff.  About 90 minutes later, EPS performed a third, deorbit burn. 

It was the 61st Ariane 5 launch and the third Ariane 5 ES flight.  Prior ES missions orbited ATV-1 "Jules Verne" in 2008 and ATV-2 "Johannes Kepler" in 2011.

Atlas 5 with 200th Centaur Orbits its Heaviest Payload

AV-030, an Atlas 5-551 with five strap on solid motors and a five meter diameter payload fairing, lifted the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS 1) communications satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 24, 2012.  Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 41 took place at at 22:15 UTC.  The Centaur upper stage, performing a landmark 200th Centaur flight, performed three burns during a 3 hour mission to place MUOS 1 into a 35,786 x 3,461 km x 19 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit. 

At 6.8 tonnes, MUOS 1 was the heaviest payload launched to date by an Atlas 5.  It was the 29th Atlas 5 and the third by Atlas 5-551, the most powerful variant. 

Centaur, the world's first liquid hydrogen fueled upper stage, was originally developed by NASA to fly atop Rocketdyne powered balloon-tank Atlas boosters.  Beginning in 1962, 148 Atlas-Centaur launch attempts occurred.  During the 1970s, seven Centaurs flew on Titan 3E rockets, boosting, among other payloads, NASA's Viking Mars landers and Voyager deep space probes.    Subsequently, 16 fat-tank Centaur stages flew atop Titan 4 launch vehicles for the U.S. Department of Defense.   

Over five decades of service, 12 of the 200 flown Centaur stages suffered an in-flight failure.  These included propulsion, structural, control, and guidance/control system failures.  Of the 12 Centaur failures, 9 were on Atlas Centaur and one each were on Atlas 5, Titan 3E, and Titan 401B.

Chang Zheng Orbits Navsat

China supplemented its navigation satellite constellation on February 24, 2012 when a CZ-3C rocket orbited Beidou 11 (2-G5) from Xichang space center.  The 3.5 stage launch vehicle lifted off at 16:12 UTC from Pad 2.  After two liquid hydrogen fueled upper stage burns, the satellite separated into a 203 x 36,012 km x 20.54 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit.

China is in the process of building a 30-satellite Beidou constellation.

It was China's third orbital launch of the year.

Proton Orbits Big SES Satellite

A previously twice-delayed Proton M Briz M rocket successfully orbited the SES 4 communications satellite for SES of Luxembourg on February 14, 2012.  The 373rd Krunichev Proton lifted off from Baikonur's Area 200 Pad 39 at 19:36 UTC to begin its 9 hour 13 minute mission.  The Briz M fourth stage performed five burns to lift the 6.18 tonne Space Systems/Loral 1300 series satellite into a 3,714 x 35,786 km x 24.6 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit.

The launch was the 70th Proton mission performed for International Launch Services. 

SES 4 will provide extensive C and Ku-band coverage across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Western Africa and Latin America.

Vega Qualification Flight Success

Europe's new Vega launch vehicle performed a successful inaugural qualification flight on February 13, 2012.  The small launcher lifted off at 10:00 UTC from the former ELA 1 pad, rebuilt as the Vega Launch Site (ZLV: Zone de Lancement Vega) at the Guiana Space Centre, in Kourou, French Guiana.  Flying the VV01 mission for the European Space Agency (ESA), Vega orbited two scientific satellites and seven picosatellites.  These included Italy’s 400 kg LARES laser relativity satellite, the 12.5 kg ALMASat-1 technology microsatellite demonstrator from the University of Bologne, and seven 1kg university CubeSats.

Vega is powered by three solid propellant stages and a liquid-propellant fourth stage.  The P80FW first stage, roughly speaking, corresponds to one segment of the standard P230 Ariane 5 booster, but is only loaded with 88.365 tonnes of HTPB propellant.  A P230 uses two 100 tonne segments and one 30 tonne segment.  In addition, P80FW uses a carbon-epoxy filament-wound motor casing rather than the steel casing used by P230.

The Zefiro-Z23 second stage and Zefiro-Z9A third stage were developed in Italy for Vega.  Vega’s liquid fourth stage, the restartable, hypergolic bipropellant Attitude and Vernier Upper Module (AVUM), is powered by a 250 kgf Ukranian RD-869 engine.  AVUM is loaded with 550 kg of UDMH/NTO propellant in four tanks. Vega is topped by a 2.6 meter diameter payload fairing. 

The four-stage rocket is designed to inject 1,500 kg into a 700 km x 90 deg polar orbit.  Vega weighed 136.7 tonnes at liftoff and stood 30.1 meters with a maximum diameter of 3 meters.   

During the VV01 mission, AVUM performed three burns.  The first burn trimmed the vehicle into a transfer orbit.  After a 40 minute coast, the second burn pushed the stage into a 1,450 km x 69.5 deg circular orbit, where it released LARES.  AVUM then fired again to reduce the perigee to 350 km before deploying the other payloads. 

Vega was developed by the European Space Agency, Italy’s ASI space agency, and the French CNES space agency.  ELV SpA is the prime contractor. 

Iran Orbits Third Satellite

Iran performed its fourth Earth orbiting satellite attempt using its Safir launch vehicle on February 3, 2012.  The home-built Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite, fitted with an imaging payload, reportedly weighed 50 kg.  Safir lifted off from the Dasht-e-Kavir desert southeast of Semnan, Iran at about 00:04 UTC and boosted Navid-e Elm-o Sanat into a 375 x 276 km x 56 deg orbit. 

Iran launched its first satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009, which made it the ninth country to join the "Space Club".  A second success occurred in 2011 when a Safir orbited the Rassad satellite.   The successes followed an initial Safir launch failure in 2008.

Iran's Safir launcher is believed to have been derived from Iran's Shahab ("Shooting Star") 3 intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) series, itself thought to have been based on North Korea's No Dong missile.    The road-mobile rocket is erected by a transporter-erector next to a retractable umbilical tower on a flat pad.  The tower, which is retracted shortly before launch, is used to fuel the rocket and to provide arming access to the vehicle and payload.   Launches are aimed toward the southeast, toward the Arabian Sea.

Soyuz U Orbits Progress M-14M

Russia's Soyuz U launched Progress M-14M, loaded with 2.66 tonnes of cargo for the International Space Station (ISS), from Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on January 25, 2012.   The 3-stage rocket lifted off from Area 1 Pad 5 at 23:06 UTC. 

It was the first of five Progress cargo flights planned for 2012.

Delta 4 Lifts MilComSat WGS-4

Delta 358, a Delta 4M+5,4 consisting of a common booster core augmented by four solid rocket motors, a five meter diameter Delta cryogenic second stage (DCSS), and a five meter diameter payload fairing, boosted Wideband Global SATCOM No. 4 into supersynchronous transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral Florida on January 20, 2012.  The 66.3 meter tall orange and white rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37B at 00:38 UTC.  DCSS performed two burns to push the 5.988 tonne Boeing built satellite into a 439 x 66,872 km x 24 deg transfer orbit during the 40 minute 47 second long mission. 

WGS-4 will provide 500 MHz range, X-band, and 1 GHz range (Ka-band) communication links for the Pentagon.  It can support up to 3.6 Gbps data transmission rates.

It was the 18th Delta 4 mission, but only the second flight of a Delta 4M+5,4 variant, the only single-core version that flies a five-meter DCSS.  The RL10-powered DCSS is under consideration for use as an interim cryogenic propulsion stage for NASA's planned Space Launch System. 

CZ-3A Launches Weather Satellite

China's CZ-3A successfully launched Fengyun 2-07, a weather satellite, from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on January 13, 2012.  Liftoff from LC3 occurred at 00:56 UTC.  The rocket's liquid hydrogen fueled third stage performed two burns to insert the satellite into a 224 x 35,941 km x 24.3 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit.  Spacecraft separation occurred 28 minutes after liftoff.

It was the 23rd CZ-3A launch, performed by CZ-3A tail number Y22.