Sich-1M

Spacecraft n°:

Ukraine spacecraft n°: 2

Launch data: Designation  28505 / 04052A Launch date  24 Dec 2004 - 11:20 UT Launch site  Pl, LC-32/2 Launch vehicle  Tsiklon-3 Mission  Remote sen. Perigee / Apogee   km Inclination  ° Period   min

Mission details:

• Russian authorities have confirmed that Sich-1M and Mikron did not reach their planned orbits.
• After launch at 11:20 UT on 24 Dec 2004, the Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle first stage separated at 48 km altitude and coasted to around 70 km before falling back to Earth. The second stage burned for two minutes and entered an approximately -2600 x 180 km suborbital path, falling in the East Siberian sea. The first burn of the third stage should have placed the vehicle in a roughly 78 x 650 km transfer orbit at 11:26 UT, coasting over the Arctic and then southward over the Pacific until 12:00 UT when it was at around 24 deg south latitude, while rising towards apogee. At this point the third stage fired again, raising the perigee point from 78 km to 280 km. The velocity increase was about 100 m/s too small to get to the desired 650 km circular orbit. (Russian newspapers have suggested that Sich-1M has an onboard propulsion system which will be used to reach the target orbit, but earlier satellites in the series don't have such a system and it's not mentioned in the official publicity information about the satellite). The MK-1TS subsatellite was attached to Sich-1M, and ejected from it at about 21:00 UTC on 25 Dec.