Bris

This article describes the Russian missile parts. For further meanings, see Bris (disambiguation) .

Models of a Bris-M (left) and a Bris-KM (right)

Bris ( Russian Бриз for breeze ) is the name of a series of upper levels used in several Russian launch vehicles. It was developed by GKNPZ Khrunichev .

Bris-K / KM

Bris-K is an advanced level for the Rockot . This first flew as the third stage of the Rockot on November 20, 1990. From May 26, 2000 it was replaced by the further development Bris-KM . On October 8, 2005, the stage's control system failed, causing the rocket carrying the European science satellite CryoSat to fall back to Earth.

Bris-M

Bris-M ( also Briz-M / Breeze-M ) is an upper level for the Proton as the successor to Blok-D . In the future it will also be used in the Angara . The cost of a Breeze M are about 18 million US dollars .

This fourth stage is based on the Bris-KM with the S5.98M engine , but contains an additional detachable toroidal fuel tank and a different control system from a different manufacturer. It was first introduced on July 5, 1999 as part of a Proton K. However, this represents only a transition to the Proton M, which was flown for the first time on April 7, 2001 and which also uses Bris-M.

The Bris-M can bring a satellite weighing up to 6150 kg into a geostationary transfer orbit, with a residual speed of 1500 m / s to the geosynchronous orbit . The engine can be restarted a maximum of eight times and allows precise placement of the satellite in earth orbit. It is also possible to put several satellites into different orbits of the earth at once.

On February 28, 2006, a Proton M launcher was scheduled to launch the Arabsat 4A satellite into orbit. However, this failed due to a malfunction of the Bris-M upper level. While Arabsat 4A was brought into the earth's atmosphere by a braking maneuver on March 24, 2006, where it burned up as planned, the Bris-M upper stage initially remained in a strongly elliptical orbit. Apparently as a result of an ignition of the remaining fuel in the tanks, Briz-M exploded on February 19, 2007 at an altitude of between 8,000 and 9,000 kilometers. The US Space Surveillance Network captured more than 1,100 debris in the week following the disaster. According to experts from the European Space Control Center ESOC in Darmstadt, this was the most serious release of space debris since the beginning of space travel.

When DirecTV 10 started , a modified variant of the Bris-M was used. Instead of six small ones, this only has two large pressure tanks. In addition, the avionics were moved inside (better protection), the structure of the outer tanks changed and the engines improved.

Technical specifications

	Bris-M	Bris KM
Full mass	21,170 kg	6,565 kg
Empty mass	2,370 kg	1,600 kg
fuel	N 2 O 4 / UDMH
thrust	19.62 kN	20 kN
length	2.61 m	2.9 m
diameter	4.1 m	2.5 m

swell

1. ↑ Proton KM-4 Briz M in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed December 10, 2009.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Breeze M. International Launch Services, accessed on September 14, 2012 (English). 
3. ^ Breeze M upper stage. Khrunichev, accessed December 11, 2009 . 
4. ↑ Uwe Reichert: Environmental disaster in orbit. Stars and Space, March 2, 2007, accessed December 10, 2009 .