SIGHTINGS



New Russian Reusable
Space Launch Vehicle
Disappears After Test
By Patricia Reaney
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000209/sc/science_sleep_1.html
2-10-2000
 
 
 
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- Russia said on Wednesday it had successfully tested a new, reusable space launch vehicle with engines that can be switched on and off in orbit -- but it was still missing after returning to earth.
 
By nightfall the craft had yet to be found after returning from its one-day maiden voyage.
 
"We consider the operation successful. We will continue searching for the device in the morning," a Russian Space Agency spokesman said.
 
The "Fregat" accelerator block, made by Russia's Lavochkina Science Production Association, had blasted off earlier in the day from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.
 
Helicopters and planes scoured Russia's Orenburg region in the southern Ural mountains for the craft, but the search was hindered by poor weather.
 
In Baikonur, the Fregat was hailed as a revolution in space flight.
 
"This block is the new word in rocket technology," Lavochkina's deputy general constructor Valeryan Baikin said after the launch.
 
"It has an effective, compact design, a triple-axis steering system, and the ability to switch on the engines several times during a flight," Baikin told reporters. "Furthermore, it can return to earth and be used again."
 
The test mission involved circling the earth five times in about eight hours before returning to earth.
 
If the mission and a second test planned for March are successful, the Fregat is due to make two launches this summer with equipment for the European Space Agency.
 
The Fregat is capable of carrying space equipment weighing up to 4.2 tons to an altitude of 875 miles and lighter loads far higher.
 
It has a special cone-shaped braking system, which allows the craft to return to earth after it has completed its mission in space as well as serving to soften the impact on landing.
 
It also boasts its own parachute system, meaning that if a launch goes wrong the Fregat block and its load could return to earth largely undamaged.
 
Two Russian Proton rocket boosters failed last year shortly after taking off from Baikonur, raining debris over the remote Kazakh steppe and triggering temporary suspensions of Proton launches.
 
Vladimir Yefanov, the deputy head of the Fregat project at Lavochkina, said the craft could be used with all the main rocket boosters used for Russia's space program.
 
"The Fregat is a universal model. It can be used with the Proton, Zenit, Soyuz and Dnepr boosters," he said.
 
Wednesday's launch was on a Soyuz booster.
 
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