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Moscow, Russia

ILS Board to Review Findings of Russian
Launch Investigation Into Block DM Failure
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MOSCOW, Jan. 20, 2003 - The State Commission investigating the failure 
of a Proton/Block DM launch vehicle, which left the ASTRA 1K satellite 
in a lower-than-planned orbit, has submitted its final report to the 
Russian government, International Launch Services (ILS) announced 
today.

The commission also provided a report to the ILS Failure Review 
Oversight Board (FROB), which begins its review of the findings this 
week in Moscow.  The State Commission and the FROB were formed shortly 
after the Nov. 26 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The State Commission exonerated the Khrunichev-built, three-stage 
Proton launch vehicle early in its investigation. "No fault has been 
found with the implementation of the mission profile during the 
powered flight of Proton's Stages 1 through 3," the final report 
states.

The commission identified the Block DM upper stage as the source of 
the failure. RSC Energia builds the Block DM. The commission noted 
that the anomaly occurred at the start of the second Block DM main 
engine burn, as did three other Block DM failures since 1996.

In the final report, the commission was unable to pinpoint a single 
root cause for the failure. There was excessive fuel in the main 
engine when it was ignited for the second burn, which led to 
extraordinarily high temperatures that destroyed the engine, the 
commission found. It identified two possible scenarios for the fuel 
build-up, both attributed to "stray particles" that clogged the engine 
components.

"The failure to perform the second burn was caused by an abnormal
development of the start-up process in the course of which ignition 
took place in the gas duct due to the excessive amount of the fuel . 
present at the ignition time during the attempted second burn," the 
report states.  "This in turn was caused by either 1) stray particles 
clogging the manifolds through which the fuel is drained from the 
starting-fluid feed line after the first burn or 2) loss of 
air-tightness, due to stray particles, of the valve designed to supply 
the fuel to the gas generator injector."

Energia is developing a corrective action plan to submit to the 
commission.  The commission in turn will review the plan to determine 
the validity and sufficiency of the proposed remedies. The commission 
recommended seven areas to review for corrective action, including 
Block DM testing and inspection, and processing of propellants, all to 
be addressed by Energia.

ILS established the Failure Review Oversight Board to provide an 
independent assessment of the State Commission findings and to ensure 
that a robust corrective action plan is in place before commercial 
flights are resumed.  FROB Chairman Eric Laursen, ILS vice president 
and chief engineer, and other members arrived in Moscow to begin their 
review this week. The FROB process includes meeting with 
representatives from the State Commission and from hardware 
subcontractors.

"This incident shows similarities to other Block DM failures, and we 
will take as much time as necessary to determine that the cause is 
properly addressed," Laursen said. "We won't use this upper stage 
until we are certain it is flight-worthy. ILS remains committed to 
providing reliable, timely launch services for all our customers."

Besides Laursen, FROB members include retired NASA and launch industry
experts, and representatives of SES Global, owner of ASTRA 1K, and SES
Americom, the next scheduled ILS customer for Proton.

The Russian commission was led by Anatoli Koroteev, general director 
of the Thermal Processes Institute of the Keldish Center, and includes
representatives of all organizations involved in the design, 
manufacture, operation and support of the Proton/Block DM launch 
vehicle.

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Contact: Fran Slimmer, International Launch Services, McLean, Va.;
1-571-633-7462; mobile: 1-646-229-4801; fran.slimmer{at}lmco.com.

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