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A Soyuz booster will be launched Sunday night from French Guiana with a European-built military reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates, the twin of a UAE surveillance aircraft lost in a rocket failure last year.
The 2,623-pound (1,190-kilogram) Falcon Eye 2 satellite is locked inside the cone of a Soyuz ST-A rocket ready for takeoff at 20:33:28 EST on Sunday (0133: 28 GMT on Monday).
After heading north from the European-operated spaceport in French Guiana, the Soyuz ST-A rocket will aim to place the Airbus-built spacecraft in a 379-mile (611-kilometer) high circular synchronous orbit hovering over Earth’s poles.
The mission, run by French company Arianespace, will mark the 24th flight of a Russian-built Soyuz rocket from French Guiana and the 12th launch of a Soyuz rocket from launch sites around the world this year.
The launch of the UAE’s Falcon Eye 2 satellite comes more than a year after an identical spacecraft called the Falcon Eye 1 was destroyed in a Vega rocket failure in July 2019.
The Falcon Eye 1 mission was insured for 369 million euros, or $ 407 million, including the satellite’s value and launch, according to Space News.
Officials from the UAE government, which owns the billion-dollar Falcon Eye program, decided after last year’s failure to swap the launch of the identical Falcon Eye 2 satellite into Arianespace’s launch program from a Vega rocket to a Soyuz booster.
The light-class Vega rocket is one of three launchers operated by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Center, along with the Russian-made Soyuz medium lift launcher and the heavy lift Ariane 5 rocket.
Airbus Defense and Space built the Falcon Eye satellites and Thales Alenia Space provided the payloads of high-resolution optical imaging for both spacecraft.
The agreement between the UAE and the French industry to build Falcon Eye satellites was brokered with support from the French government, but a US government safety review delayed the final signing of the contract between UAE, Airbus and Thales until 2014. The satellites use some components made in the United States, prompting the Obama administration to temporarily suspend the deal until officials finally approved the export of the US parts for use by the UAE army.
The Falcon Eye 2 satellite will provide high resolution surveillance images to the UAE military. The two Falcon Eye spacecraft were built on the design of the French Pleiades Earth Imaging Satellites launched in 2011 and 2012 and reportedly have a resolution of around 2.3 feet, or 70 centimeters, in their mode. high resolution imaging.
After switching to a Soyuz rocket, the Falcon Eye 2 satellite was due to take off in March. But technical problems with the Soyuz rocket’s Fregat upper stage and delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic have forced officials to reschedule the flight for November.
On Sunday night, the launch sequence of the Soyuz rocket and the Fregat upper stage will last nearly 59 minutes from takeoff until the separation of the Falcon Eye 2 satellite into orbit.
The kerosene-powered Soyuz ST-A rocket will rise from its launch pad with more than 900,000 pounds of thrust, accelerate to the speed of sound, and launch its four liquid-strap boosters approximately two minutes after the mission begins.
The rocket payload fairing will drop to Plus + 3 minutes and 59 seconds, followed by shutdown and separation of the Soyuz center stage at Plus + 4 minutes and 47 seconds.
The third stage RD-0110 engine will burn for about four minutes before deploying the upper stage Fregat at Plus + 8 minutes and 48 seconds, for a couple of shots to first reach a parking orbit around the Earth, then enter a circular 379-mile-high orbit.
The separation of the Falcon Eye 2 satellite is scheduled at Plus + 58 minutes, 45 seconds, or at 21:32 EST (0232 GMT).
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