Insight | Behind the scenes at Baikonur – part 4

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Behind the scenes at Baikonur – part 4

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In a series of blog posts, Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat VP of Satellites and Launches, takes us on a journey behind the scenes at the International Launch Station in Kazakhstan as the mission teams prepare to launch the third satellite in our Global Xpress network – Inmarsat-5 F3 – into geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above Earth on Friday 28 August at 12:44 BST.

Rolling to the pad

The spacecraft and the launch vehicle are back on the train for their first and last trip together from the integration hall out to the launch pad on the Steppes of Kazakhstan, travelling on the world’s largest industrial railway.

The trip of about 12 kilometres will take 3 hours, with one stop along the way to upload 20 tonnes of propellant fuel for the Breeze M Upper Stage (the fourth, top segment of the rocket).

The loading of the remaining rocket propellant for the first three stages weighs in at a staggering 600 tonnes, and will be completed at the launch pad itself. This is only begun a few hours before the launch and once everyone is satisfied that all systems are go.

For safety reasons unfortunately only staff directly involved with operations are allowed at the launch pad after the rocket vehicle arrives there. It must be a mighty sight indeed to watch the 60 metre tall rocket raised vertically and made ready for take-off with our precious spacecraft on board.

The sound pressure level of large rocket engines has been measured at greater than 200 decibels – one of the loudest man-made sounds on earth. I have always been interested at the reasons for the lack of a massive water deluge system at the Proton launch pads. Their western counter-parts dump a massive amount of water to absorb the roaring noise from the first stage engines.

This is not the case for Proton which only uses a small amount of water to keep fire and heat under control. The lack of a water deluge system is compensated through the vehicle configuration, good acceleration during take-off, and the lower levels of acoustic noise that comes from the propellant fuel engines that are used, compared to a solid engine and rocket structure.

Having worked with the Moscow-based Khrunichev Research and Production Space Centre for a large part of my career, and now witnessing the fifth Inmarsat rocket launch using Proton, I never fail to be impressed at the scale and scope of the engineering and skill on display, the Proton rockets themselves and the ground facilities here at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

System readiness is being tested and all remains on track for our launch on Friday 28 August.

About the author


Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat Vice President Satellites and Launch Vehicles, is responsible for the design, engineering, quality and mission assurance of the Inmarsat-5 constellation, their integration to launch vehicles and deployment in orbit. His past responsibilities have included managing the Alphasat programme, a joint venture between Inmarsat and the European Space Agency. His previous position was Director of the Inmarsat-4 Space Segment. In this role he played a crucial part in the spacecraft and launch vehicle specification, contractor selection, contract negotiations, and in programme management. He was in charge of the deployment in orbit of all three Inmarsat-4 satellites. Franco is involved with the Inmarsat resident teams at the contractor facilities in Los Angeles and Toulouse and has himself been based in both cities for the critical phases of the projects.

Prior to the Inmarsat-4 programme, Franco was Manager, Inmarsat-3 Satellite Systems Engineering, responsible for the engineering of the bus electrical systems and the satellite system integration at the Lockheed Martin satellite manufacturing facilities in Princeton, USA.  Before that he served as Manager, Inmarsat-2 Bus Electrical Systems Engineering at the manufacturer, BAe Systems in Stevenage.  Prior to joining Inmarsat in 1986, Franco held design, development, integration and test responsibilities for space avionics at Laben-Milan and BAe Systems for the Olympus programme.

He holds BSc and MSc degrees in physics from the University La Sapienza in Rome.