Payload fairing
A payload fairing is a
The standard payload fairing is typically a cone-cylinder combination, due to aerodynamic considerations, although other specialized fairings are in use. The type of fairing which separates into two halves upon jettisoning is called a clamshell fairing by way of analogy to the
If the payload is attached both to the
In the aerospace industry, a frustum is the fairing between two stages of a
Fairing retrieval and reuse
Payload fairings have usually been either burned up in the atmosphere or destroyed upon impacting the ocean, but
While a conventional payload fairing is typically jettisoned from the launch vehicle and recovered at sea,
Mission failures caused by payload fairings
In some cases, the fairing is planned to separate after cutoff of the upper stage, and in others, the separation is to occur before a cutoff, but after the vehicle has transcended the densest part of the atmosphere. Failure of the fairing to separate in these cases may cause the craft to fail to reach orbit, due to the extra mass.
The
In the 90's issues with payload fairing had caused numerous failures of the Long March 2E launch vehicle.[8]
In 1999, the launch of the
On February 24, 2009,
The same happened to the Naro-1, South Korea's first carrier rocket, launched on August 25, 2009. During the launch, half of the payload's fairing failed to separate, and as a result, the rocket was thrown off course. The satellite did not reach a stable orbit.[12]
On March 4, 2011,
On August 31, 2017,
A Hyperbola-1 rocket failed on August 3, 2021. A day after launching, iSpace revealed that the payload fairing had failed to separate properly, resulting in the single satellite being unable to reach its intended orbit.[18]
On February 10, 2022 Astra 3.3 launch failed. It is suspected that a fairing separation failure is to blame.[19]
Manufacturers
- SpaceX manufactures the fairings used on their launch vehicles.[22]
- Indian launch vehicles' payload fairings are manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd[23]
- Japanese launch vehicles, such as H-IIA and Epsilon use payload fairings made by Kawasaki[24]
Image gallery
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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory being encapsulated into its payload fairing
-
An Atlas 3 carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload in its fairing, ready for launch
-
Falcon 9 second stage and two parts of payload fairing in the upper left; first stage in the lower right
-
Boeing X-37B inside of Atlas V fairing before encapsulation
See also
References
- ^ Arianespace, 2016, Ariane 6 User Manual, page 3-11
- ^ "Atlas V cutaway" (PDF). United Launch Alliance. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-10. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
- ^ A Conceptual Design for the Space Launch capability of the peacekeeper ICBM [1] Archived 2017-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lopatto, Elizabeth (31 March 2017). "SpaceX even landed the nose cone from its historic used Falcon 9 rocket launch". The Verge. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
- ^ Ralph, Eric (2019-06-25). "SpaceX successfully catches first Falcon fairing ever in Mr. Steven's/Ms. Tree's net". TESLARATI. Archived from the original on 2019-06-26. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
- ^ Wall, Mike. "Watch SpaceX boat catch falling payload fairing in giant net (video)" Archived 2020-08-19 at the Wayback Machine, Space.com, August 19, 2020
- ^ "CZ-2E Space Launch Vehicle". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
- ^ Athena Investigation Points to Payload Fairing Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Perez, Martin (5 March 2015). "Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2)". NASA. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ ""NASA Satellite Crashes Before Reaching Orbit"". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2019-07-07. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
- ^ "S. Korean satellite lost shortly after launch: gov't". Yonhap News. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ^ Buck, Joshua (February 19, 2013). "NASA Releases Glory Taurus XL Launch Failure Report Summary Archived 2019-05-02 at the Wayback Machine". NASA. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
- ^ "NASA science satellite lost in Taurus launch failure". SpaceFlight Now. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ "Spaceflight Now - Breaking News - Carbon-sniffing satellite faces one-year delay". spaceflightnow.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
- ^ "Setback for ISRO: Launch of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H unsuccessful". The Economic Times. 2017-08-31. Archived from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
- ^ "ISRO says IRNSS-1H launch unsuccessful, heat shields failed to separate". The Indian Express. 2017-08-31. Archived from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
- ^ Bruce, Leo (2021-08-03). "Chinese commercial rocket Hyperbola-1 fails in Return to Flight attempt". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
- ^ "Astra launch of NASA-sponsored cubesats fails". SpaceNews. 2022-02-10. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
- ISBN 1-85233-722-2, p. 150
- ^ "Atlas V Launch Services User's Guide" (PDF). United Launch Alliance. March 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
- ^ "Fairing". SpaceX. 2013-04-12. Archived from the original on 2019-06-04. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
- ^ Chiku, Naruhiko (October 2018). "Development of Payload Fairings for Launch Vehicle" (PDF). Kawasaki Technical Review No.179.