2004-12-27 12:56 * UKRAINE MISSILE CARRIER FAILS TO DELIVER CARGO [EXCERPT] MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti) - A Cyclone-3 missile carrier produced in Ukraine that was launched with two Ukrainian satellites, Sich-1M and KS5MF2, by Russia's Space Forces last Friday from the Plesetsk launch site (the Arkhangelsk region, northwestern Russia) has failed to deliver its cargo to the necessary circum-terrestrial orbits. The flight proceeded as planned for 40 minutes. But the second cycle of the engine in the third stage was complete almost a minute earlier, sending the vehicles to the elliptic orbit of 280 by 645km instead of a circular orbit of 640-680km. According to Commersant, the Sich-1M will now have to burn its onboard reserve fuel to reach to the circular orbit. This will reduce its guaranteed flight term from three to one year. The other craft, the KS5MF2, which has no engines, will descend into Earth's atmosphere and burn up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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