Russia sent a gadfly: Briz-M

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[b][size=150][color=#0000FF]Russian Breeze M (Briz-M)[/color][/size][/b]

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Exploded Rocket Fragments Could Endanger ISS and Future Missions
by Jason Major on October 25, 2012

<<Traveling through low-Earth orbit just got a little more dangerous; a drifting Russian Breeze M (Briz-M) rocket stage that failed to execute its final burns back on August 6 has recently exploded, sending hundreds of shattered fragments out into orbit.

Russia and the U.S. Defense Department (JFCC-Space) have stated that they are currently tracking 500 pieces of debris from the disintegrated Breeze M, although some sources are saying there are likely much more than that.

Launched successfully via Proton rocket on August 6 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Breeze M upper stage’s engines shut off after only 7 seconds as opposed to the normal 18 minutes, leaving its fuel tanks filled with 10 to 15 tons of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants. Its payloads, the Indonesian Telkom 3 and the Russian Express-MD2 communications satellites, were subsequently launched into the wrong orbits as the Breeze M computer continued functioning.

Although originally expected to remain intact for at least another year, the rocket stage “violently disintegrated” on October 16. Evidence of the explosion was first observed by astronomer Robert McNaught at Australia’s Siding Springs Observatory, who counted 70 fragments visible within the narrow field-of-view telescope he was using for near-Earth asteroid observations.>>

[b][size=150][color=#0000FF]Zeus Breeze M (Brize-M)[/color][/size][/b]

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<<Bellerophon the Monster-Slayer. Traditionally Bellerophon is regarded as a nickname or epithet, since he earlier killed a tyrant (according to some versions, his half brother) named Bellerus. His original name was Hipponous meaning 'horse wisdom', while Bellerophon means 'slayer of Bellerus.' Some accounts even call him Chyrsoar, or 'golden sword.' After slaying the tyrant Bellerus, he literally earned himself a reputation and a name. Being summoned to the palace of King Proetus of Tiryns, Bellerophon was approached by the king's wife, Stheneboea. When she failed to seduce him she tried to bring about his death. Having been scorned she told her husband that Bellerophon had attempted to seduce her. Proetus did not dare kill a man who was a noted hero and a guest in his palace, instead, sent him to his father-in-law, Iobates, King of Lycia, with a sealed message containing his death sentence, saying "Pray remove the bearer from this world; he has tried to violate my wife, your daughter." This is the origin of the literary phrase "Bellerophontic letters," which is used to describe any communication designed to bring harm to the unwitting bearer of the message. Iobates imposed several impossible tasks on Bellerophon, trusting that he would perish in the attempt. The first task required Bellerophon to slay the Chimaera. To accomplish this deed Bellerophon sought the advice of the Argive seer, Polyeidus who told him to tame the winged steed, Pegasus, and then, with the aid of Athena he would defeat the Chimaera. Athena appeared to him in a dream and gave him a magic golden bridle, Chalintis. He quickly left for Mt. Helicon, to the fountain Peirene, sacred to the Muses and Aphrodite where Bellerophon easily bridled and mounted the fabulous winged horse. Armed with the golden sword, Chrysoar, a gift from his father, Poseidon, they flew over the Chimaera and stuffed the beast's jaws with lead. The lead melted in the beast's own flames which it vomited forth and caused it to suffocate. Next Bellerophon and Pegasus triumphed over the savage tribes of the Solymi. When the Amazons invaded Lycia, Bellerophon and Pegasus repelled them as well. Upon his return to Lycia, Bellerophon successfully overcame an ambuscade which Iobates had laid for him. Iobates and Proetus were so impressed with the hero's relentless courage and selflessness that they ceased all hostilities and Proetus gave his daughter, Philonoe, to be Bellerophon's wife, by whom he had three children, Hippolochus, Isandrus and Laodameia. The end of Bellerophon's life was most tragic. Two of his children, Laodameia and Isandrus, were slain, the first by Artemis, and the second by Ares. Finally, perhaps driven by the grief for his slain children, Bellerophon mounted Pegasus one last time. Perhaps to challenge Ares and Artemis, perhaps to claim some perceived birthright or earned heroic merit he intently drove straight toward the throne of Zeus: Mount Olympus. Affronted by such conceit, Zeus formed the gadfly, Brize, and sent it to sting Pegasus under the tail, causing him to rear and sending his rider tumbling to the earth. Pegasus, however, completed the journey to Olympus and was welcomed by all the gods. Some accounts say that Bellerophon perished in the fall, while Homer tells us that Bellerophon was left lame and half blind instead. Odious to all Immortals, Bellerophon wandered the earth, his heart consumed with misery, alone, fleeing the haunts of men.>>

<<Early in the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C57-D travels to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from Earth, to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier. Soon after achieving orbit, the cruiser receives a radio transmission from Dr. Edward Morbius, the expedition's linguist, who warns them to stay away, saying he cannot guarantee their safety and that he needs no assistance. The starship's captain, Commander John J. Adams, insists on landing.

In a still functioning Krell laboratory, Morbius shows Adams and Ostrow a device he calls the "plastic educator," a machine capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacit y; it shows three-dimensional projections of thoughts. The captain of the Bellerophon had tried using the machine and had been killed instantly. When Morbius used the machine the first time he himself barely survived, but found his intellectual capacity had been permanently doubled. This, along with information he obtained from a Krell "library," enabled him to build Robby and the other technological marvels in his house. Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped self-maintaining underground Krell complex, 20 miles on a side and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors.>>