As the Breeze M upper stage of our Proton M rocket continues its climb into space with the EchoStar XIV satellite, we have received confirmation that the 2nd burn of the upper stage occurred and shut down as scheduled. The next events are scheduled for about 2 hours from now. The Breeze M upper stage will ignite for a 3rd time and burn for approximately 10 minutes; after that the additional propellant tank will be jettisoned, and the 4th burn will start and complete. All this will happen in a span of almost 20 minutes while the vehicle is again out of range of a ground station. We should reacquire the vehicle shortly after the 4th burn ends.

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We have had a successful mission with the Proton M Breeze M rocket, carrying the EchoStar XIV satellite built by Space Systems/Loral. We have had confirmation that the satellite separated from the vehicle on schedule at 23:37 p.m. EST, or 03:37 GMT, 9 hours and 10 minutes after liftoff. Everything occurred as planned with ignition, shutdown and separation of the Proton’s first three stages. Then the Breeze M upper stage with the satellite continued the mission, igniting five times, and then releasing the satellite into transfer orbit.

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We have received confirmation of completion of the first burn. The vehicle is now scheduled to be out of range for about an hour, after which we will hear confirmation of the second burn

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We have confirmed that the Breeze M upper stage has successfully completed its 3rd & 4th burns, as well as jettisoning its additional propellant tank. The vehicle is now in a 5-hour coast period, during which we will have nothing to report. The 5th burn is scheduled to start around 11:20 p.m. EST, or 03:20 GMT. Separation of the EchoStar XIV spacecraft is scheduled to follow the 5th burn completion by about 12 minutes.

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After a couple of days of fueling it’s time to start the mating process. It takes several different teams to get through the next set of critical activities. So we started with a group meeting to ensure we were all on the same page. The team work paid off because the SC has been mated to the adapter, lifted onto the Breeze M and prepared for the encapsulation in the payload fairing (PLF). One of the teams is the RUAG specialists who install the clampband, which holds the SC to the adapter. After the SC/adapter unit is mated to the upper stage, the whole assembly is tilted over horizontally. We all held our breath during the tilting because the EchoStar XIV SC is the heaviest to travel on Proton to date at over 14,000 pounds!

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This has been a very busy week for all of us. One of the more “technical” operations that we perform during the campaign is the signing of the payload fairing by the entire launch team. Each of the team members takes a turn climbing up the ladder, putting their personal touches on the fairing logos and then climbing back down the ladder to safety. The biggest decisions are what to write and whom to dedicate the launch to: parents, children and loved ones are named. It’s a great photo opportunity for the team and the last thing we do prior to mating the AU to the launch vehicle. It’s now time for the SS/L team to say good bye to the satellite and hand it over to the capable hands of our partners from Khrunichev.

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