Arianespace and Telespazio used the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget to announce the launch contract of the Göktürk-1 satellite which is being built for the Turkish government.  The launch contract was signed with Telespazio, which is building the satellite under a delivery-to-orbit contract. 

Telespazio is the prime contractor for the Göktürk-1 high-resolution observation system, while Thales Alenia Space is providing the space segment. Weighing 1100 kg at launch, the Göktürk-1 satellite will be launched by Arianespace's Vega light launcher into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 700 km. It will be launched from the Guiana Space Center, French Guiana, in 2015.

The Göktürk-1 system will provide very-high-quality panchromatic and multispectral products for a wide range of applications, including cadastral surveys, management of natural resources, environmental monitoring and homeland surveillance.

At the Paris Air Show, it was revealed that the European launch provider, Arianespace,  is requesting from the European Space Agency (ESA) financing for a new volumetric fairing extension for its Ariane 5 rocket so that new bulkier, if not heavier, design satellites can be carried.  The cost of this extension is reported to be circa €30 million.  If approved, and ESA Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordaine expects it to be as he described the funding needed as a "fairly small amount of money", then this modification will be flying in 2015. 

 

Plans to update the upper stage of the Ariane 5 to the Midlife Evolution (ME) standard with its reusable Vinci cryogenic engine will be completed in 2017.  This will bring the maximium payload of the Ariane 5 to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) to 12 tons.

 

Further into the future, the configuration of the Ariane 6 expendable rocket is expected to be finalised shortly.  The launch vehicle will use solid first and second stages, with a Vinci engines cryogenic upper stage.  Lowering the cost of operation of the rocket, is the principal driver in its design.  The target price per launch is €75 million ($100 million).

 

Comment by David Todd:  A move for a longer payload accommodation can mean two things: longer (bulkier) satellites, or, alternatively, more satellites.  That is, Arianespace, may be considering moving from dual launches to triple launches with three satellites (ableit not all of the larger size) being carried on a single launch vehicle.  This could dramatically improve flight economics for the Ariane 5.  Arianespace would, of course, would have to find a suitable adapter arrangement to allow this loading but it could be done.

 

Dan Thisdell contributed to this story, reporting from the Paris Air Show

Legendary Apollo 11 astronaut who flew with Neil Armstrong to walk on the surface of the Moon  in July 1969, made an almost equally as important visit when he joined the team at Flightglobal's chalet at the Paris Air Show. While Space is usually a tad subdued at this mainly aviation event, it is good to see Buzz flying the flag for manned space exploration.  Buzz appears to be strongly convinced that the Moon should just be a stepping stone to the exploration of other planets rather than a principal destination for NASA.

Video of his interview is on our space page http://www.flightglobal.com/news/space/

On 18 June, the launch provider Sea Launch and the satellite operator Eutelsat announced an agreement fo ar Sea Launch operated Zenit 3-SL to launch the EUTELSAT 3B spacecraft from the ocean-based Odyssey launch platform in April 2014.

Currently under construction by Astrium, an EADS company, EUTELSAT 3B is based upon the Eurostar-3000 platform. Operating in C, Ku and Ka-bands, the satellite has been designed to serve video, data, Internet and telecom customers across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South America. It will operate from Eutelsat's orbital slot located at 3 degrees East longitude in geostationary Earth orbit and have a separated launch mass of more than six metric tonnes. The financial terms of hte contract were not released.

 

While its main role is vegetation mapping, the European Space Agency's Proba-V spacecraft is also being used to carry an aircraft tracking payload.  While primary radars can give direct positioning of aircraft by their radar returns, and transponders can give "squawk" identifying information, the latest improvement Automatic Dependent Broadcast - Surveillance (ADS-B) system. 

This now gives details of an aircraft's altititude, speed and direction as well as identifying information.  ADS-B receivers however have limitations.  For example aircraft flying over remote regions and oceans can be out of range of such receivers.  One way around this is to position receivers on spacecraft.  To test this theory, ESA's Proba-V has been carrying one of these payloads. The German Aerospace Agency, DLR, has now released images showing how aircraft can be tracked by the payload test being run by DLR and SES TechCom.

Aircraft tracked down Australia by ADS-B aircraft tracking payload on Proba V spacecraft  Courtesy: DLR/SES TechCom

NASA's Office of the Inspector General has criticised NASA's management in a report noting that it has apparently given funding to one of the commercial cargo operators before it has flown the required number of cargo demonstration missions.  Specifically it records that Orbital Sciences Corp has recevied "up to 70 percent of the funds associated with six of its eight CRS missions prior to having flown a demonstration flight, "

The report also notes that a "full demonstration flight required under the COTS Program most recently scheduled for June 2013 has slipped to August or September 2013.

The report notes other firm involved in providing commercial cargo services, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), while suffering from some development delays and shoning some anomalies during its Falcon 9/Dragon demonstration flights, has flown two delivery missions. 

In 2008, NASA awardedSpaceX a contract worth $1.6 billion for 12 Falcon 9 launch/Dragon spacecraft missions and Orbital $1.9 billion for 8 Antares launch/Cygnus spacecraft missions.

. Antares rocket launch:  Courtesy: Orbital Sciences Corporation. 

 

 

 

Ten days after its Ariane 5 ES launch, the Automated Transfer Vehicle ATV 04 (Albert Einstein) docked with the aft port of the International Space Station's Zvezda module at 1407 GMT on 15 June. The craft was carrying  The craff was carrying 2580kg of propellant to boost itself and ISS to a higher orbit and a futher 860kg of fuel to be transferred.  There will also be 570kg of water and 100kg of oxygen and 2,400kg of dry cargo carried.

One more ATV flight to the International Space Station is planned.  ATV 05 (Georges Lemaitre) is due to fly to the International Space Station in 2014.  The ATV spacecraft is being used as the basis for a service module being designed for use by NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

Phil Hylands contributed to this report.

As a  follow up to the Launch Services Alliance agreement (2003) between the European launch provider Arianespace and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Boeing that allowed the Ariane 5 ECA, the H2A rocket and the Delta IV to be a back up to each other, Arianespace and MItsubishi Heavy Industries fhave signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  on 7 June to standardise satellite preparation procedures.  This, it is hoped, will make it easier for clients to move from one rocket to another in the case of a delay. 

Sunday 16 June marks the 50th anniversary of the first time a women flew in space.  For on 16 June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched into orbit as part of the Soviet Union's Vostok 6 mission. As a factory worker from a peasant family, Tereshkova was selected partly due to her parachuting experience (she had made 90 jumps).  Tereskkova's 48-orbit flight lasted over three days. It coincided with Vostok 5 which was already in orbit and Tereshkova managed to make radio contact with Vostok 5's cosmonaut pilot Valery Bykovsky,  

Tereshkova had to deal with some anomalies on her mission incuding the Vostok craft's orbit being raised when it should been lowered on the first day of the flight due to a control programme error.  This was corrected.  Valentina Tereshkova had her ejection seat/parachute landing some several kilometres off course in the Altai region of Siberia due to high winds.

It was not until the early 1980s that women flew into space again.  USA did not launch its first female astronaut, Sally Ride, until 1983.

Reuters reports that the joint Boeing-Lockheed Martin firm, United Launch Alliance (ULA), which builds and markets the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, will be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for anti-trust violations in allegedly using an exclusivity clause to prevent the US-Russian built rocket engine, the RD Amross RD-180, from being used by other rocket firms. 

According to the report, Orbital Sciences Corp would like to use the LOx (lIquid oxygen)/kerosene RD-180 for later versions of its Antares rocket.  The Antares first stage currently uses two Aerojet produced AJ-26-500 engines, which are refurbished Russian-built NK-33 LOx/kerosene rocket engines, 30 of which powered the unsuccessful Soviet-era N-1 moon rocket.  When the N-1 rocket programme was cancelled in the early 1970s after four launch failures, the production line for the NK-33 was stopped.  The remaining supply of unused NK-33 engines was stored until Aerojet recovered them for refurbishment and modernisation to the AJ-26-500 standard.

Comment by David Todd: While the AJ-26-500 is regarded as a very efficient LOx/kerosene engine, both in terms of its specific impulse and thrust-to-weight ratio, it only has about half the thrust of an RD-180. However, it is really the prospect that the supply of AJ-26-500 engines eventually running out, that appears to be the main reason why Orbital Sciences wants to find an alternative engine for its Antares launch vehicle.