Interesting and informative: the Breeze-M upper stage. Russian upper stage "breeze-m"

Of all the orbital parameters, here we will be interested in three parameters: the height of the periapsis (for the Earth - perigee), the height of the apocenter (for the Earth - apogee) and inclination:

The height of the apocenter is the height of the highest point of the orbit, denoted as Ha.
The height of the periapsis is the height of the lowest point of the orbit, denoted as Hp.
Orbital inclination is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane passing through the Earth's equator (in our case, orbits around the Earth), denoted as i.

A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit with a periapsis and apoapsis altitude of 35,786 km above sea level and an inclination of 0 degrees. Accordingly, our task is divided into the following stages: enter low Earth orbit, raise the apocenter to 35,700 km, change the inclination to 0 degrees, raise the periapsis to 35,700 km. It is more profitable to change the inclination of the orbit at the apocenter, because there less speed satellite, and the lower the speed, the lower delta-V must be applied to change it. One of the tricks of orbital mechanics is that sometimes it is more profitable to raise the apocenter much higher than desired, change the inclination there, and later lower the apocenter to the desired one. The costs of raising and lowering the apocenter above the desired + change in inclination may be less than the change in inclination at the height of the desired apocenter.

Flight plan

In the Briz-M scenario, it is necessary to launch Sirius-4, a Swedish communications satellite launched in 2007. Over the past years, it has already been renamed, now it is “Astra-4A”. The plan for its removal was as follows:

It is clear that when we enter orbit manually, we lose the accuracy of the machines that perform ballistics calculations, so our flight parameters will have quite large errors, but this is not scary.

Stage 1. Entering the reference orbit

Stage 1 takes time from the launch of the program to entry into a circular orbit with an altitude of approximately 170 km and an inclination of 51 degrees (a painful legacy of the latitude of Baikonur, when launched from the equator it would be immediately 0 degrees).
Scenario Proton LV / Proton M / Proton M - Breeze M (Sirius 4)

From loading the simulator to separating the upper stage from the third stage, you can admire the views - everything is done automatically. Unless you need to switch the camera focus to the rocket from the view from the ground (press F2 to the values on the left-top absolute direction or global frame).
During the breeding process, I recommend switching to the “inside” view. F1, prepare for what awaits us:

By the way, in Orbiter you can pause by Ctrl-P, this may be useful to you.
A few explanations about the values of indicators that are important to us:

After the separation of the third stage, we find ourselves in an open orbit with the threat of falling into the area Pacific Ocean if we act slowly or incorrectly. In order to avoid such a sad fate, we should enter the reference orbit, for which we should:

Stop block rotation by pressing a button Num 5. T.N. KillRot mode (stop rotation). After fixing the position, the mode automatically turns off.
Switch back view to forward view with the button C.
Switch the windshield indicator to orbital mode (Orbit Earth on top) by pressing the button H.
Keys Num 2(turn up) Number 8(turn down) Num 1(turn left), Number 3(turn right), Number 4(roll to the left), Number 6(roll to the right) and Num 5(stop rotation) rotate the block in the direction of movement with a pitch angle of approximately 22 degrees and fix the position.
Start the engine starting procedure (first Num +, then, without letting go, Ctrl).

If you do everything correctly, the picture will look something like this:

After turning on the engine:

Create a rotation that will fix the pitch angle (a couple of presses of Num 8 and the angle will not change noticeably).
While the engine is running, maintain the pitch angle in the range of 25-30 degrees.
When the periapsis and apocenter values are in the region of 160-170 km, turn off the engine with the button Num*.

If everything went well, it will be something like:

The most nerve part It’s over, we’re in orbit, there’s nowhere to fall.

Stage 2. Entry into intermediate orbit

Due to the low thrust-to-weight ratio, the apocenter has to be raised to 35,700 km in two stages. The first stage is entering an intermediate orbit with an apocenter of ~5000 km. The specificity of the problem is that you need to accelerate so that the apocenter does not end up away from the equator, i.e. you need to accelerate symmetrically relative to the equator. The projection of the output scheme onto a map of the Earth will help us with this:

Picture for the recently launched Turksat 4A, but it doesn’t matter.
Preparing to enter an intermediate orbit:

Switch the left multifunction display to map mode ( Left Shift F1, Left Shift M).
R, slow down 10 times T) wait until flying over South America.
Orient the block in a prograde (nose in the direction of movement) position. You can press the button [ , so that this is done automatically, but here it is not very effective, it is better to do it manually.
Give the block a downward rotation to maintain a prograde position

It should look something like:

In the region of latitude 27 degrees, you need to turn on the engine, and, maintaining a prograde position, fly until you reach the apocenter of 5000 km. You can enable 10x acceleration. Upon reaching the apocenter of 5000 km, turn off the engine.

Music, in my opinion, is very suitable for acceleration in orbit

If everything went well, we will get something like:

Stage 3. Entry into transfer orbit

Very similar to stage 2:

By accelerating time (speed up 10 times R, slow down 10 times T, you can safely speed up to 100x, I don’t recommend 1000x) wait until you fly over South America.
Orient the block in a prograde (nose in the direction of movement) position.
Give the block a downward rotation to maintain a prograde position.
In the region of latitude 27 degrees, you need to turn on the engine, and, maintaining a prograde position, fly until you reach the apocenter of 35,700 km. You can enable 10x acceleration.
When the external fuel tank runs out of fuel, reset it by pressing D. Start the engine again.

Reset of the fuel tank, visible operation of deposition engines

Result. Please note that I was in a hurry to turn off the engine, the apocenter is 34.7 thousand km. This is not scary, for the purity of the experiment we will leave it this way.

Beautiful view

Stage 4. Changing the orbital inclination

If you did everything with minor errors, then the apocenter will be near the equator. Procedure:

Accelerating time to 1000x, wait for the approach to the equator.
Orient the block perpendicular to the flight, upward, when viewed from the outside of the orbit. Suitable for this automatic mode Nml+, which is activated by pressing a button ; (aka and)
Turn on the engine.
If there is fuel left after the inclination zeroing maneuver, you can spend it on raising the periapsis.
After running out of fuel, use the button J separate the satellite, expose its solar panels and antennas Alt-A, Alt-S

Starting position before maneuver

After the maneuver

Stage 5. Independent launch of the satellite to GEO

The satellite has a motor that can be used to raise the periapsis. To do this, in the area of periapsis, we orient the satellite progradely and turn on the engine. The engine is weak, it needs to be repeated several times. If you do everything correctly, the satellite will still have approximately 20% of its fuel left to correct orbital disturbances. In reality, the influence of the Moon and other factors leads to the fact that the orbit of satellites is distorted, and fuel has to be wasted to maintain the required parameters.
If everything worked out for you, the picture will look something like this:

Well, a small illustration of the fact that a GEO satellite is located above one place on the Earth:

Turksat 4A launch diagram, for comparison

About the space simulator Orbiter and at least two hundred people who became interested and downloaded addons for it, led me to the idea of continuing the series of educational and gaming posts. Also, I want to ease the transition from the first post, in which everything is done automatically, without requiring your actions, to independent experiments, so that you don’t end up with a joke about drawing an owl. This post has the following goals:

Tell us about the Breeze family of upper stages
Give an idea of the main parameters of orbital motion: apocenter, periapsis, orbital inclination
Provide an understanding of the basics of orbital mechanics and launches into geostationary orbit (GEO)
Provide a simple guide to mastering manual exit to GSO in the simulator

Introduction

Little is thought about this, but the Briz family of upper stages - Briz-M, Briz-KM - is an example of a device developed after the collapse of the USSR. There were several reasons for this development:

Based on the UR-100 ICBM, a conversion launch vehicle "Rokot" was developed, for which an upper stage (UR) would be useful.
On the Proton, for launching into the geostationary orbit, the DM RB was used, which used the “oxygen-kerosene” pair “non-native” for the Proton, had an autonomous flight time of only 7 hours, and its payload capacity could be increased.

In 1990-1994, test launches took place and, in May-June 2000, flights of both modifications of the Briz took place - Briz-KM for Rokot and Briz-M for Proton. The main difference between them is the presence of additional jettisonable fuel tanks on the Brize-M, which provide a larger characteristic velocity margin (delta-V) and allow the launch of heavier satellites. Here is a photo that illustrates the difference very well:

Design

The blocks of the “Breeze” family are distinguished by a very dense layout:

More detailed drawing

Pay attention to technical solutions:

The engine is located inside the “glass” in the tank
Inside the tanks there are also helium cylinders for pressurization
The fuel and oxidizer tanks have a common wall (thanks to the use of the UDMH/AT pair, this does not represent a technical difficulty), there is no increase in the length of the block due to the intertank compartment
The tanks are load-bearing - there are no power trusses that would require additional weight and increase the length
The drop tanks are actually half of the stage, which, on the one hand, requires excess weight on the walls, on the other hand, it allows you to increase the characteristic speed reserve by dumping empty tanks.

The dense layout saves geometric dimensions and weight, but it also has its drawbacks. For example, an engine that emits heat when running is located very close to tanks and pipes. And the combination of a higher (by 1-2 degrees, within the specification) temperature of the fuel with a higher thermal intensity of the engine during operation (also within the specification) led to boiling of the oxidizer, disruption of the cooling of the turbocharger turbine by the liquid oxidizer and disruption of its operation, which caused RB accident during launch of the Yamal-402 satellite in December 2012.
The RB engines use a combination of three types of engines: the main S5.98 (14D30) with a thrust of 2 tons, four correction engines (actually these are deposition engines, ullage motors), which are turned on before starting the main engine to deposit fuel on the bottom of the tanks, and twelve orientation engines with a thrust of 1.3 kg. The main engine has very high parameters (pressure in the combustion chamber ~100 atm, specific impulse 328.6 s) despite the open design. His “fathers” stood at the Martian stations “Phobos” and his “grandfathers” stood at lunar landing stations such as “Luna-16”. The propulsion engine can be reliably turned on up to eight times, and the active life of the unit is no less than a day.
The weight of a fully charged unit is up to 22.5 tons, payload reaches 6 tons. But the total mass of the block after separation from the third stage of the launch vehicle is slightly less than 26 tons. When inserted into a geotransfer orbit, the RB is under-refueled, and a fully filled tank for direct insertion into GEO carried a maximum of 3.7 tons of payload. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the block is equal to ~0.76. This is a drawback of the Breeze RB, but a small one. The fact is that after separation, the RB+ PN are in an open orbit, which requires an impulse for additional insertion, and the low thrust of the engine leads to gravitational losses. Gravitational losses are approximately 1-2%, which is quite small. Also, long periods of engine operation increase reliability requirements. On the other hand, the main engine has a guaranteed operating life of up to 3200 seconds (almost an hour!).

A little about reliability

The Breeze RB family is in very active use:

4 flights of "Breeze-M" on "Proton-K"
72 flights of Briz-M on Proton-M
16 flights of Briz-KM on Rokot

A total of 92 flights as of February 16, 2014. Of these, 5 accidents occurred (I chalked up a partial success with Yamal-402 as an accident) due to the fault of the Briz-M unit and 2 due to the fault of the Briz-KM, which gives us a reliability of 92%. Let's look at the causes of accidents in more detail:

February 28, 2006, ArabSat 4A - premature engine shutdown due to a foreign particle entering the hydraulic turbine nozzle (,), a single manufacturing defect.
March 15, 2008, AMC-14 - premature engine shutdown, destruction of a high-temperature gas pipeline (), it required modification.
August 18, 2011, Express-AM4. The time interval for turning the gyro-stabilized platform is unreasonably “narrowed”, incorrect orientation (), programmer error.
6 August 2012, Telkom 3, Express MD2. Engine shutdown due to clogging of the boost line (), a manufacturing defect.
December 9, 2012, Yamal-402. Engine shutdown due to failure of the pump, a combination of unfavorable temperature factors ()
October 8, 2005, “Briz-KM”, Cryosat, non-separation of the second stage and the upper stage, abnormal operation of the software (), programmer error.
February 1, 2011, “Briz-KM”, Geo-IK2, abnormal engine impulse, presumably due to a failure of the control system; due to the lack of telemetry, the exact cause cannot be determined.

If we analyze the causes of accidents, then only two are associated with design problems and design errors - burnout of the gas pipeline and failure of the heating pump cooling. All other accidents, the cause of which is reliably known, are associated with problems with the quality of production and preparation for launch. This is not surprising - the space industry requires very high quality work, and a mistake even by an ordinary employee can lead to an accident. The Breeze itself is not an unsuccessful design, however, it is worth noting the lack of a safety margin due to the fact that in order to ensure maximum performance of the RB materials, they work close to the limit of their physical strength.

Let's fly

It's time to move on to practice - go manually into geostationary orbit in Orbiter. For this we will need:
The Orbiter release, if you haven’t downloaded it yet after reading the first post, here’s the link.
Addon “Proton LV” download from here

A little theory

The height of the apocenter is the height of the highest point of the orbit, denoted as Ha.
The height of the periapsis is the height of the lowest point of the orbit, denoted as Hp.
Orbital inclination is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane passing through the Earth's equator (in our case, orbits around the Earth), denoted as i.

A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit with a periapsis and apoapsis altitude of 35,786 km above sea level and an inclination of 0 degrees. Accordingly, our task is divided into the following stages: enter low Earth orbit, raise the apocenter to 35,700 km, change the inclination to 0 degrees, raise the periapsis to 35,700 km. It is more profitable to change the inclination of the orbit at the apocenter, because the speed of the satellite is lower there, and the lower the speed, the less delta-V must be applied to change it. One of the tricks of orbital mechanics is that sometimes it is more profitable to raise the apocenter much higher than desired, change the inclination there, and later lower the apocenter to the desired one. The cost of raising and lowering the apocenter above the desired + change in inclination may be less than the change in inclination at the height of the desired apocenter.

Flight plan

It is clear that when we enter orbit manually, we lose the accuracy of the machines that perform ballistics calculations, so our flight parameters will have quite large errors, but this is not scary.

Stage 1. Entering the reference orbit

From loading the simulator to separating the upper stage from the third stage, you can admire the views - everything is done automatically. Unless you need to switch the camera focus to the rocket from the view from the ground (press F2 to the values on the left-top absolute direction or global frame).
During the breeding process, I recommend switching to the “inside” view. F1, prepare for what awaits us:

By the way, in Orbiter you can pause by Ctrl-P, this may be useful to you.
A few explanations about the values of indicators that are important to us:

After the third stage separates, we find ourselves in an open orbit with the threat of falling into the Pacific Ocean if we act slowly or incorrectly. In order to avoid such a sad fate, we should enter the reference orbit, for which we should:

Stop block rotation by pressing a button Num 5. T.N. KillRot mode (stop rotation). After fixing the position, the mode automatically turns off.
Switch back view to forward view with the button C.
Switch the windshield indicator to orbital mode (Orbit Earth on top) by pressing the button H.
Keys Num 2(turn up) Number 8(turn down) Num 1(turn left), Number 3(turn right), Number 4(roll to the left), Number 6(roll to the right) and Num 5(stop rotation) rotate the block in the direction of movement with a pitch angle of approximately 22 degrees and fix the position.
Start the engine starting procedure (first Num +, then, without letting go, Ctrl).

If you do everything correctly, the picture will look something like this:

After turning on the engine:

Create a rotation that will fix the pitch angle (a couple of presses of Num 8 and the angle will not change noticeably).
While the engine is running, maintain the pitch angle in the range of 25-30 degrees.
When the periapsis and apocenter values are in the region of 160-170 km, turn off the engine with the button Num*.

If everything went well, it will be something like:

The most nervous part is over, we are in orbit, there is nowhere to fall.

Stage 2. Entry into intermediate orbit

Due to the low thrust-to-weight ratio, the apocenter has to be raised to 35,700 km in two stages. The first stage is entering an intermediate orbit with an apocenter of ~5000 km. The specificity of the problem is that it is necessary to accelerate so that the apocenter does not end up away from the equator, i.e. you need to accelerate symmetrically relative to the equator. The projection of the output scheme onto a map of the Earth will help us with this:

Picture for the recently launched Turksat 4A, but it doesn’t matter.
Preparing to enter an intermediate orbit:

Switch the left multifunction display to map mode ( Left Shift F1, Left Shift M).
R, slow down 10 times T) wait until flying over South America.
Orient the block to a position along the orbital velocity vector (with its nose in the direction of movement). You can press the button [ , so that this is done automatically, but here it is not very effective, it is better to do it manually.

It should look something like:

In the region of latitude 27 degrees, you need to turn on the engine, and, maintaining orientation along the orbital velocity vector, fly until you reach the apocenter of 5000 km. You can enable 10x acceleration. Upon reaching the apocenter of 5000 km, turn off the engine.

Music, in my opinion, is very suitable for acceleration in orbit

If everything went well, we will get something like:

Stage 3. Entry into transfer orbit

Very similar to stage 2:

By accelerating time (speed up 10 times R, slow down 10 times T, you can safely speed up to 100x, I don’t recommend 1000x) wait until you fly over South America.
Orient the block to a position along the orbital velocity vector (with its nose in the direction of movement).
Give the block downward rotation to maintain orientation along the orbital velocity vector.
In the region of latitude 27 degrees, you need to turn on the engine, and, maintaining stabilization along the orbital velocity vector, fly until you reach the apocenter of 35,700 km. You can enable 10x acceleration.
When the external fuel tank runs out of fuel, reset it by pressing D. Start the engine again.

Reset of the fuel tank, visible operation of deposition engines

Result. Please note that I was in a hurry to turn off the engine, the apocenter is 34.7 thousand km. This is not scary, for the purity of the experiment we will leave it this way.

Beautiful view

Stage 4. Changing the orbital inclination

If you did everything with minor errors, then the apocenter will be near the equator. Procedure:

Accelerating time to 1000x, wait for the approach to the equator.
Orient the block perpendicular to the flight, upward, when viewed from the outside of the orbit. The Nml+ automatic mode is suitable for this, which is activated by pressing a button ; (aka and)
Turn on the engine.
If there is fuel left after the inclination zeroing maneuver, you can spend it on raising the periapsis.
After running out of fuel, use the button J separate the satellite, expose its solar panels and antennas Alt-A, Alt-S

Starting position before maneuver

After the maneuver

Stage 5. Independent launch of the satellite to GEO

The satellite has a motor that can be used to raise the periapsis. To do this, in the area of the apocenter, we orient the satellite along the orbital velocity vector and turn on the engine. The engine is weak, it needs to be repeated several times. If you do everything correctly, the satellite will still have approximately 20% of its fuel left to correct orbital disturbances. In reality, the influence of the Moon and other factors leads to the fact that the orbit of satellites is distorted, and fuel has to be wasted to maintain the required parameters.
If everything worked out for you, the picture will look something like this:

Well, a small illustration of the fact that a GEO satellite is located above one place on the Earth:

Turksat 4A launch diagram, for comparison

UPD: after consulting with , I replaced the ugly homemade tracing paper from Orbiter’s Prograde/Retrograde with the real-life term “for/against the orbital velocity vector”
UPD2: I was contacted by a specialist in adaptation of payloads for Briza-M of the State Research and Production Space Center named after. Khrunichev, added a couple of comments to the article:

In reality, not 28 tons are launched into the suborbital trajectory (beginning of stage 1), but slightly less than 26, because the upper stage is not fully refueled.
Gravity losses are only 1-2%

Tags:

astronautics
Orbiter
breeze

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The good reaction to the Orbiter space simulator and at least two hundred people who became interested and downloaded add-ons for it led me to the idea of continuing a series of educational and gaming articles. Also, I want to ease the transition from the first article, in which everything is done automatically, without requiring your actions, to independent experiments, so that you don’t end up with a joke about drawing an owl. This article has the following objectives:

Tell us about the Breeze family of upper stages
Give an idea of the main parameters of orbital motion: apocenter, periapsis, orbital inclination
Provide an understanding of the basics of orbital mechanics and launches into geostationary orbit (GEO)
Provide a simple guide to mastering manual exit to GSO in the simulator

Introduction

Based on the UR-100 ICBM, a conversion launch vehicle "Rokot" was developed, for which an upper stage (UR) would be useful.
On the Proton, for launching into the geostationary orbit, the DM RB was used, which used the “oxygen-kerosene” pair “non-native” for the Proton, had an autonomous flight time of only 7 hours, and its payload capacity could be increased.

Design

The blocks of the “Breeze” family are distinguished by a very dense layout:

More detailed drawing

Pay attention to technical solutions:

The engine is located inside the “glass” in the tank
Inside the tanks there are also helium cylinders for pressurization
The fuel and oxidizer tanks have a common wall (thanks to the use of the UDMH/AT pair, this does not represent a technical difficulty), there is no increase in the length of the block due to the intertank compartment
The tanks are load-bearing - there are no power trusses that would require additional weight and increase the length
The jettisonable tanks are actually half of the stage, which, on the one hand, requires extra weight on the walls, and on the other hand, makes it possible to increase the characteristic speed margin by jettisoning empty tanks.

The dense layout saves geometric dimensions and weight, but it also has its drawbacks. For example, an engine that emits heat when running is located very close to tanks and pipes. And the combination of a higher (by 1-2 degrees, within the specification) temperature of the fuel with a higher thermal intensity of the engine during operation (also within the specification) led to boiling of the oxidizer, disruption of the cooling of the turbocharger turbine by the liquid oxidizer and disruption of its operation, which caused RB accident during launch of the Yamal-402 satellite in December 2012.
The RB engines use a combination of three types of engines: the main S5.98 (14D30) with a thrust of 2 tons, four correction engines (actually these are deposition engines, ullage motors), which are turned on before starting the main engine to deposit fuel on the bottom of the tanks, and twelve orientation engines with a thrust of 1.3 kg. The main engine has very high parameters (pressure in the combustion chamber ~100 atm, specific impulse 328.6 s) despite the open design. His “fathers” stood at the Martian stations “Phobos” and his “grandfathers” stood at lunar landing stations such as “Luna-16”. The propulsion engine can be reliably turned on up to eight times, and the active life of the unit is no less than a day.
The mass of a fully fueled block is up to 22.5 tons; with a payload of ~6 tons, the mass of the block after separation from the third stage of the launch vehicle will be ~28-29 tons. Those. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the block is equal to ~0.07. This is a drawback of the Breeze RB, but not a very big one. The fact is that after separation, the RB+ PN are in an open orbit, which requires an impulse for additional insertion, and the low thrust of the engine leads to gravitational losses. Also, long periods of engine operation increase reliability requirements. On the other hand, the main engine has a guaranteed operating life of up to 3200 seconds (almost an hour!).

A little about reliability

The Breeze RB family is in very active use:

4 flights of "Breeze-M" on "Proton-K"
72nd flight of "Breeze-M" on "Proton-M"
16 flights of Briz-KM on Rokot

February 28, 2006, ArabSat 4A - premature engine shutdown due to a foreign particle entering the hydraulic turbine nozzle (,), a single manufacturing defect.
March 15, 2008, AMC-14 - premature engine shutdown, destruction of a high-temperature gas pipeline (), it required modification.
August 18, 2011, Express-AM4. The time interval for turning the gyro-stabilized platform is unreasonably “narrowed”, incorrect orientation (), programmer error.
6 August 2012, Telkom 3, Express MD2. Engine shutdown due to clogging of the boost line (), a manufacturing defect.
December 9, 2012, Yamal-402. Engine shutdown due to failure of the pump, a combination of unfavorable temperature factors ()
October 8, 2005, “Briz-KM”, Cryosat, non-separation of the second stage and the upper stage, abnormal operation of the software (), programmer error.
February 1, 2011, “Briz-KM”, Geo-IK2, abnormal engine impulse, presumably due to a failure of the control system; due to the lack of telemetry, the exact cause cannot be determined.

If we analyze the causes of accidents, then only two are associated with design problems and design errors - burnout of the gas pipeline and failure of the heating pump cooling. All other accidents, the cause of which is known with certainty, are associated with problems with the quality of production and preparation for launch. This is not surprising - the space industry requires a very high quality of work, and a mistake even by an ordinary employee can lead to an accident. The “Breeze” itself is not an unsuccessful design, however, it is worth noting the lack of safety margin due to the fact that in order to ensure maximum performance of the RB materials, they work close to the limit of their physical strength.

Let's fly

It's time to move on to practice - go manually into geostationary orbit in Orbiter. For this we will need:
The Orbiter release, if you haven’t downloaded it yet after reading the first article, here’s the link.
Addon “Proton LV” download from here

A little theory

The height of the apocenter is the height of the highest point of the orbit, denoted as Ha.
The height of the periapsis is the height of the lowest point of the orbit, denoted as Hp.
Orbital inclination is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane passing through the Earth's equator (in our case, orbits around the Earth), denoted as i.

A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit with a periapsis and apoapsis altitude of 35,786 km above sea level and an inclination of 0 degrees. Accordingly, our task is divided into the following stages: enter low Earth orbit, raise the apocenter to 35,700 km, change the inclination to 0 degrees, raise the periapsis to 35,700 km. It is more profitable to change the inclination of the orbit at the apocenter, because the speed of the satellite is lower there, and the lower the speed, the less delta-V must be applied to change it. One of the tricks of orbital mechanics is that sometimes it is more profitable to raise the apocenter much higher than desired, change the inclination there, and later lower the apocenter to the desired one. The costs of raising and lowering the apocenter above the desired + change in inclination may be less than the change in inclination at the height of the desired apocenter.

Flight plan

Stage 1. Entering the reference orbit

Stage 1 takes time from the launch of the program to entry into a circular orbit with an altitude of approximately 170 km and an inclination of 51 degrees (a painful legacy of the latitude of Baikonur, when launched from the equator it would be immediately 0 degrees).
Scenario Proton LV / Proton M / Proton M - Breeze M (Sirius 4)

From loading the simulator to separating the upper stage from the third stage, you can admire the views - everything is done automatically. Unless you need to switch the camera focus to the rocket from the view from the ground (press F2 to the values on the left-top absolute direction or global frame).
During the breeding process, I recommend switching to the “inside” view. F1, prepare for what awaits us:

By the way, in Orbiter you can pause by Ctrl-P, this may be useful to you.
A few explanations about the values of indicators that are important to us:

After the third stage separates, we find ourselves in an open orbit with the threat of falling into the Pacific Ocean if we act slowly or incorrectly. In order to avoid such a sad fate, we should enter the reference orbit, for which we should:

Stop block rotation by pressing a button Num 5. T.N. KillRot mode (stop rotation). After fixing the position, the mode automatically turns off.
Switch back view to forward view with the button C.
Switch the windshield indicator to orbital mode (Orbit Earth on top) by pressing the button H.
Keys Num 2(turn up) Number 8(turn down) Num 1(turn left), Number 3(turn right), Number 4(roll to the left), Number 6(roll to the right) and Num 5(stop rotation) rotate the block in the direction of movement with a pitch angle of approximately 22 degrees and fix the position.
Start the engine starting procedure (first Num +, then, without letting go, Ctrl).

If you do everything correctly, the picture will look something like this:

After turning on the engine:

Create a rotation that will fix the pitch angle (a couple of presses of Num 8 and the angle will not change noticeably).
While the engine is running, maintain the pitch angle in the range of 25-30 degrees.
When the periapsis and apocenter values are in the region of 160-170 km, turn off the engine with the button Num*.

If everything went well, it will be something like:

The most nervous part is over, we are in orbit, there is nowhere to fall.

Stage 2. Entry into intermediate orbit

Switch the left multifunction display to map mode ( Left Shift F1, Left Shift M).
R, slow down 10 times T) wait until flying over South America.
Orient the block in a prograde (nose in the direction of movement) position. You can press the button [ , so that this is done automatically, but here it is not very effective, it is better to do it manually.
Give the block a downward rotation to maintain a prograde position

Music, in my opinion, is very suitable for acceleration in orbit

If everything went well, we will get something like:

Stage 3. Entry into transfer orbit

Very similar to stage 2:

By accelerating time (speed up 10 times R, slow down 10 times T, you can safely speed up to 100x, I don’t recommend 1000x) wait until you fly over South America.
Orient the block in a prograde (nose in the direction of movement) position.
Give the block a downward rotation to maintain a prograde position.
In the region of latitude 27 degrees, you need to turn on the engine, and, maintaining a prograde position, fly until you reach the apocenter of 35,700 km. You can enable 10x acceleration.
When the external fuel tank runs out of fuel, reset it by pressing D. Start the engine again.

Stage 4. Changing the orbital inclination

If you did everything with minor errors, then the apocenter will be near the equator. Procedure:

Accelerating time to 1000x, wait for the approach to the equator.
Orient the block perpendicular to the flight, upward, when viewed from the outside of the orbit. The Nml+ automatic mode is suitable for this, which is activated by pressing a button ; (aka and)
Turn on the engine.
If there is fuel left after the inclination zeroing maneuver, you can spend it on raising the periapsis.
After running out of fuel, use the button J separate the satellite, expose its solar panels and antennas Alt-A, Alt-S

Starting position before maneuver

After the maneuver

Stage 5. Independent launch of the satellite to GEO

The Briz family of upper stages - Briz-M, Briz-KM - is an example of a device developed after the collapse of the USSR. There were several reasons for this development:

Based on the UR-100 ICBM, a conversion launch vehicle "Rokot" was developed, for which an upper stage (UR) would be useful.
On the Proton, for launching into the geostationary orbit, the DM RB was used, which used the “oxygen-kerosene” pair “non-native” for the Proton, had an autonomous flight time of only 7 hours, and its payload capacity could be increased.

The developer of the upper stages of the Breeze family is the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunichev”. In 1990-1994, test launches took place and, in May-June 2000, flights of both modifications of the Briz took place - Briz-KM for Rokot and Briz-M for Proton. The main difference between them is the presence of additional jettisonable fuel tanks on the Brize-M, which provide a larger characteristic velocity margin (delta-V) and allow the launch of heavier satellites.

The blocks of the “Breeze” family are distinguished by a very dense layout:

Features of technical solutions:

The engine is located inside the “glass” in the tank
Inside the tanks there are also helium cylinders for pressurization
The fuel and oxidizer tanks have a common wall (thanks to the use of the UDMH/AT pair, this does not represent a technical difficulty), there is no increase in the length of the block due to the intertank compartment
The tanks are load-bearing - there are no power trusses that would require additional weight and increase the length
The jettisonable tanks are actually half of the stage, which, on the one hand, requires extra weight on the walls, and on the other hand, makes it possible to increase the characteristic speed margin by jettisoning empty tanks.

The dense layout saves geometric dimensions and weight, but it also has its drawbacks. The engine, which emits heat when running, is located very close to the tanks and pipes.

The combination of a higher (by 1-2 degrees, within the specification) fuel temperature with a higher thermal intensity of the engine during operation (also within the specification) led to boiling of the oxidizer, disruption of the cooling of the turbocharger turbine by the liquid oxidizer and disruption of its operation, which caused an accident RB during the launch of the Yamal-402 satellite in December 2012.

The RB engines use a combination of three types of engines: the main S5.98 (14D30) with a thrust of 2 tons, four correction engines (actually these are deposition engines, ullage motors), which are turned on before starting the main engine to deposit fuel on the bottom of the tanks, and twelve orientation engines with a thrust of 1.3 kg. The main engine has very high parameters (pressure in the combustion chamber ~100 atm, specific impulse 328.6 s) despite the open design. His “fathers” stood at the Martian stations “Phobos” and his “grandfathers” stood at lunar landing stations such as “Luna-16”. The propulsion engine can be reliably turned on up to eight times, and the active life of the unit is no less than a day.

The mass of a fully charged unit is up to 22.5 tons, the payload reaches 6 tons. But the total mass of the block after separation from the third stage of the launch vehicle is slightly less than 26 tons. When inserted into a geotransfer orbit, the RB is under-refueled, and a fully filled tank for direct insertion into geostationary orbit delivered a maximum of 3.7 tons of payload. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the unit is equal to ~0.76. This is a drawback of the Breeze RB, but a small one. The fact is that after separation, the RB+PN are in an open orbit, which requires an impulse for additional insertion, and the small thrust of the engine leads to gravitational losses. Gravitational losses are approximately 1-2%, which is quite small. Also, long periods of engine operation increase reliability requirements. On the other hand, the main engine has a guaranteed operating life of up to 3200 seconds (almost an hour!).

Performance characteristics of the Briz-KM upper stage

Composition - Monoblock with a conical tank compartment and a propulsion engine located in the tank niche “G”.
Application: as part of the Rokot launch vehicle as a third stage
Main features - Possibility of maneuvering in flight.
Initial mass, t - 6.475
Fuel reserve (AT+UDMH), t - up to 5.055
Type, number and vacuum thrust of engines:
- Liquid rocket engine 14D30 (1 piece), 2.0 tf (maintenance),
- Liquid rocket engine 11D458 (4 pcs.) 40 kgf each (correction engines),
- 17D58E (12 pcs.) 1.36 kgf each (attitude and stabilization engines)

Maximum autonomous flight time, hour. - 7
Year of first flight - May 2000

Tactical and technical characteristics of the Briz-M upper stage

Composition - Upper stage, consisting of a central block based on the Breeze-KM RB and a toroidal-shaped disposable additional fuel tank surrounding it.
Application - as part of the Proton-M launch vehicle, Angara-A3 and Angara-A5 launch vehicles
Main Features
- extremely small dimensions;
- the ability to launch heavy and large spacecraft;
- Possibility of long-term operation in flight