Screenshot from ULA Webcast of the launch of Morelos-3. Isn’t that Casper the friendly ghost?
Mission Rundown: ULA - Atlas V 421 - Morelos-3
Written: January 8, 2023
Morelos. Vamos a la Espacio
United Launch Alliance has conducted its hundredth launch Friday with a rare commercial mission on behalf of Lockheed Martin to deploy Mexico’s Morelos-3 spacecraft.
The launch, which made use of an Atlas V rocket flying out of Cape Canaveral, launched at the end of a twenty-minute window that opened at 06:28 local time (10:28 UTC).
Including Friday’s launch, ULA has launched 49 Atlas V rockets and 51 Deltas – with the Delta launches breaking down into 28 flights for the venerable Delta II and 23 for Delta IV.
Morelos-3 was launched on the fifty-seventh flight of the Atlas V rocket. Having first flown in 2002, the rocket was developed by Lockheed Martin and launches from the former Titan launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41.
The Morelos-3 Payload
MEXSAT is a constellation of satellites owned by Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes and operated by Telecomunicaciones de Mexico that delivers advanced telecommunications throughout Mexico.
Known as MEXSAT-2, Morelos-3 was constructed by Boeing and is based around the BSS-702HP GeoMobile platform. Using L and Ku-band transponders reflected through 22 and 2-meter (72 and 7-foot) antennas respectively to provide secure communications for the Mexican government, the satellite will serve both military and civilian applications.
With a mass of approximately 5,300 kilograms (11,700 lb), the spacecraft is designed to provide fifteen years of service. Power generation, of up to 14 kilowatts, will be provided by twin solar arrays each consisting of five panels of triple junction gallium arsenide cells.
Friday’s launch came four and a half months after Morelos-3’s sister craft, Centenario – or MEXSAT-1 – was lost in the failure of a Russian Proton-M/Briz-M vehicle.
The name Morelos-3 carries on from two earlier Morelos satellites launched in 1985.
The satellite launched as SATMEX-5 in 1998 to replace Morelos-2 was originally to have been named Morelos-3, however it was renamed after Mexico’s satellite operations were privatized and ownership of the satellites transferred to the new SATMEX organization.
Like a bird, Morelos-3 is standing on its satellite mount awaiting encapsulation by the two XLPF fairing halves. Solar Panels, antennas and ‘what not’ mounted on a Boeing BSS-702HP satellite
The Atlas V 421 launch
Following the countdown, the launch of AV-059 began with the rocket igniting its RD-180 first stage engine 2.7 seconds ahead of the scheduled launch time.
This built up thrust in preparation for booster ignition and liftoff, with the rocket beginning to ascend once the thrust from its first stage and boosters exceeded the mass of the fully-fuelled vehicle – at approximately the T+1.1 second mark.
After clearing the tower, the Atlas began a series of pitch and yaw maneuvers about 5.8 seconds after liftoff to place it onto course for a south-easterly climb over the Atlantic Ocean.
At 46.7 seconds elapsed time AV-059 reached a speed of Mach 1, followed 12.3 seconds later by the rocket passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure.
The solid rocket motors burnt out around ninety seconds after ignition, remaining attached until 127.4 seconds into the flight due to aerodynamic concerns regarding separation at too low an altitude.
The first stage burned for four minutes and 9.4 seconds, with stage separation taking place six seconds after Booster Engine Cutoff, or BECO.
Atlas V’s is heading south-easterly over the Atlantic Ocean. SRB’s and fairing halves lands close to Cape Canaveral, but the Core Booster crash lands some 2750 kilometer ±100 km downrange
Ignition of the Centaur’s RL10C-1 engine occurred ten seconds after staging, and the payload fairing separated eight seconds into its first burn.
The first burn of the Centaur’s engine lasted thirteen minutes and 36 seconds, establishing an initial parking and transfer orbit.
Following a coast phase lasting three tenths of a second more than two and a half hours, the RL10 will restart to raise the perigee of the orbit, reducing the satellite’s necessary fuel consumption to reach its final orbit. Lasting 51.5 seconds, this burn will conclude AV-059’s powered flight. Spacecraft separation is expected to occur two minutes and 49 seconds after its completion.
The target orbit for Friday’s launch has a perigee of 4,790 kilometers (3,000 miles, 2,600 nautical miles), an apogee of 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles, 19,300 nautical miles) and inclination of 27 degrees. Morelos-3 will use its onboard RD-4 liquid-propellant motor to raise itself into geostationary orbit.
The Atlas V 421 rocket
The rocket that flew on Friday had tail number AV-059 and was operating in the Atlas’ 421 configuration. This consists of a Common Core Booster first stage powered by a single RD-180 engine, a single-engine Centaur upper stage powered by an RL10, and two Aerojet AJ-60A solid rocket motors augmenting the first stage during the early stages of flight.
The payload is encapsulated in a payload fairing with a diameter of four meters (13 feet); for Friday’s mission an Extra-Extended Payload Fairing (XPF) was used, the longest of the three available four-meter fairings.
Facts on the Atlas V 421 launch vehicle
Height of Atlas V 421: 194 feet (59.1 meters)
Mass at liftoff: 439,758 kg - 969,500 pounds
Thrust at liftoff: 7.1 mega-Newtons - 1.6 million lbf
Fuel onboard: 91,000 gallons of liquid propellant
LOX+LH2 = 66,000 gallon of cryogenic liquid propellant in three tanks
Core stage Atlas: 25,000 gallon RP-1 - 48,800 gallon LOX
Core stage weighs fully fueled 306,271.7 kilograms - 675,213.5 pounds
Core stage measures 35.63 meters - 116,9 feet tall and 3.81 meters - 12,5 feet wide
Core stage RD-180 main engine produces 3,826.9 kiloNewtons - 860,321.35 pounds of thrust at sea level while the thrust level increases to 933,406.73 pounds in space
Upper Stage Centaur: 13,050 gallon LH2 - 4,150 gallon LOX
Upper Stage Centaur weighs fully fueled 23,073 kilograms - 50,867.3 pounds
Upper Stage Centaur measures 12.68 meters - 41,6 feet tall - 3.05 meters - 10 feet wide
RL-10C-1 engine is optimized for vacuum usage with a big nozzle - engine bell, so it only produces 101.8 kilonewtons - 22,885.55 pounds in space
Centaur has 150 kg (340 lb) of Hydrazine - N2H4 is stored in a pair of bladder tanks
Centaur has Helium - He pressure vessel storage tanks: Unknown so far
Centaur has Nitrogen - N2 pressure vessel storage tanks: Unknown so far
Two AJ-60A SRB’s weighs 93,358 kilo - 205,898 pounds
Two AJ-60A SRB’s produces 3,336.8 kiloNewton - 759,200 lbf of thrust
SRB’s measures 17 meter - 55.75 feet in height and 1.6 meter - 5.17 feet in diameter
Atlas V 401 XEPF 4.2 meter fairings weigh 2,487.0 kilograms - 5,482.9 pounds
Atlas V 401 XEPF Payload Fairing measures 14.0 meter - 46 feet in length
Morelos-3 payload weighs 5 300 kg ~ 11 700 pounds
A: Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit - 3,243 x 22,000 miles (834 x 35,739 km x 18.9 deg)
Flight plan A includes a 58 second deorbit burn. Centaur second stage is scuttled.
B: Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit - 3,243 x 22,000 miles (5,218 x 35,500 km x 17.6 deg)
Flight plan B includes a 58 second perigee raise burn. Centaur is derelict space debris.
Atlas V 421 split in its major parts with a generic satellite. Data details about Atlas V is inserted
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