Tsiklon 3 Launch Fails to Deliver Six Satellites to Orbit

A Tsiklon 3 unsuccessfully launched six satellites from Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 18:57 UTC (10:57 a.m. PST) December 28, 2000. The rocket was carrying three Gonets-D1 satellites for Rosaviakosmos and three Strela 3 military satellites for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The mission orbit was 1,400 km (756 nmi) inclined at 83 degrees. The satellites were built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki.

The first and second stages of the booster rocket performed normally, and the third stage ignited the first time as scheduled. Early telemetry analysis indicates that an order to shut down the engines was issued by the flight computer at 367 seconds into flight, at an altitude of 190 km (103 nmi), preventing the six satellites from reaching orbital velocity. The satellites reentered on Russian territory 58 km (31 nmi) southeast of Vrangel Island in the East Siberian Sea. The Naval Rescue Centers in Vladivostok and Murmansk said there were no Russian or foreign vessels in the crash area.

The mission was covered by a US$2.5-million insurance policy provided by the Megaruss insurance group.

NPO Yuzhnoye, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, manufactured the rocket that failed, in 1991. Only three Tsiklon 3 boosters remain available.

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