After two days of search operations, Russia has suspended its efforts to find the experimental mini-spacecraft missing on the Kamchatka peninsula. The search involved five aircraft and 150 ground personnel.
A Volna rocket blasts off from the nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea
On February 2000 the first launch on a Soyuz booster was unsuccessful because of bad weather, which foiled the landing. The mini-shuttle was found only eight days after the launch in Kazakh steppe. The second launch on July 20, 2001 by the Volna booster was staged by the same Borisoglebsk submarine. However the mini-shuttle did not separate from the booster and splashed down. The third launch on July 12, 2002 by the Volna booster from the Ryazan nuclear submarine failed because of technical faults in the booster, which is a converted RSM-50 ballistic missile designed yet in the ‘70s.
The Demonstrator was built by the Russian Lavochkin Company for the European Space Agency, and launched by the Delta III-class nuclear submarine K-496 Borisoglebs.
The Russian Northern Fleet headquarters is located in Severomorsk (Murmansk oblast). The fleet includes the 12th squadron of strategic submarines. The Squadron, based in Gadzhiyevo (Yagelnaya Bay, Sayda Inlet), includes three active Project 667BDRM (Delta IV) submarines (K-51 Verkhoturie, K-84 Ekaterinburg, and K-407 Novomoskovsk), two Project 667BDR (Delta III) submarines - K-44 Ryazan and K-496 Borisoglebsk and Three Project 667BDRM submarines - K-114 Tula, K-117 Bryansk, and K-18 Karelia.
The Demonstrator was launched atop a R-29R Volna (Wave) rocket which is based on an RSM-50 ICBM (SS-N-18, 'Stingray').
The Volna is a three-stage liquid fuelled rocket, capable of deploying small spacecraft in LEO.
It is probable that the apogee of the suborbital flight path is that of a standard Volna commercial microgravity trajectory of 2200 x 200 km.
Before the mini-shuttle enters the dense layers of the atmosphere the mini-shuttle inflates with nitrogen and decelerates from 8-11 kilometres a second to 13-14 metres a second. It then floats to the ground. The Kura test range is 90 kilometres wide and 100 kilometres long.
IRDT (Inflatable Re-Entry and Descent Technology) is a new technology to return payloads from orbit without a heavy heat shield and parachute system. An inflatable cone will provide protection during re-entry and a second inflatable extension of the cone will reduce the speed to ensure a safe landing.
This particular Demonstrator model is not reusable, but future mini-shuttles will be reusable. The 146 kg mini-shuttle is 0.8 meters in diameter when folded.
Russia on Friday successfully test-launched a mini-shuttle spacecraft on a sea-based ballistic missile.
The Demonstrator-2R spacecraft was launched at 21:30 GMT, on a converted Volna booster rocket from the Borisoglebsk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, and was supposed to land in the Kura test range on Russia's Far East Kamchatka Peninsula. But contact was lost with it when it began descending.
An agency official said experts could not establish communication with the vehicle because it might have landed in an area with heavy radio interference or its transmitter had been damaged during the landing. A search would continue for three days as a matter of routine; but it is too early to declare the craft lost.
The Demonstrator-2R inflatable re-entry vehicle was developed under a European Space Agency contract and the German firm EADS ST, and is designed to return payloads from orbit without a heavy heat shield and parachute system through the use of an Inflatable Re-Entry and Descent Technology (IRDT) system. An inflatable cone provides protection during re-entry and a second inflatable extension of the cone reduces the speed to ensure a safe landing. The spacecraft is to be folded up and transported to the international space station on a Russian cargo ship, and is to be used to bring cargoes back to earth.
Three previous launches failed, but this time the Demonstrator launched successfully.
"The unfolding and inflating system worked successfully in space, the heat protection did not let the craft down in the dense layers of the atmosphere" - Russian space agency.
