News | 23 Apr 2013 13:40 | Dan Thisdell
How many satellite engineers spend their day shooting at things? Answer - two. And, it must be said, Simon Barraclough and Jaime Reed are having a good time doing it.http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/IN-FOCUS-Astrium-engineers-take-a-shot-at-space-debris-385004/News | 04 Oct 2007 10:04 | Rob Coppinger
4 October: Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the World's first orbiting artificial satellite 12 April: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is...http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/A-50-year-timeline-of-spaceflight-217398/News | 04 Oct 2007 08:05
<P></P> <P>As Sputnik 1 orbited the Earth 50 years ago, it emitted a <A href="http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/sputnik.wav" target=_blank>bleep signal </A>which the BBC's Reg Turnill described as "quite boring actually", although he recalled the reaction at the time as "tremendous and interesting".</P>http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/SPUTNIK-50-Sputnik-1s-bleep-signal-as-it-orbited-Earth-217774/News | 04 Oct 2007 08:00 | Rob Coppinger
<P>Reg Turnill was working for the BBC in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the World's first orbiting artifical satellite. </P> <P>Turnill went on to cover the space race and travelled to the Soviet Union for the press conference following cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight and eventually was based in the US to cover NASA's Moon programme. </P> <P>He got to know the German rocket engineer Werner von Braun, who had developed the Nazi V-2 weapon, and also came to know many of the US astronauts. </P> <P>In an exclusive interview he spoke to Flight's technical reporter Rob Coppinger about his experiences. </P> <P> </P><EMBED src=http://www.jumpcut.com/media/flash/jump.swf?id=3862D7EC702A11DC98DC000423CEF5F6&asset_type=clip&asset_id=3862D7EC702A11DC98DC000423CEF5F6&asset_url=/media/dyn/cf/52fe/61ba51d77386b6f8bc7a5dda36/lq.flv&eb=1 width=408 height=324 type=application/x-shockwave-flash></EMBED> <P><A href="http://http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/VIDEO-SPUTNIK-50-The-BBCs-Reg-Turnill-talks-exclusively-to-flightglobalcom-about-reporting-on-Sputnik-50-years-ago-217761/News | 13 Apr 1999 23:00
<p>A new type of orbit could help avoid signal interference between spacecraft in low, medium and geostationary earth orbits </p> <p>Tim Furniss/LONDON </p> <img src='../Assets/GetAsset.aspx?ItemID=2639' /> <p> </p> <p>A NEW WASHINGTON-based company is urging the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make compulsory the use of "virtual geostationary orbits" (VGSOs). </p> <p>This would avoid anticipated future signal interference between spacecraft operating in low, medium and geostationary earth orbits (LEO, MEO and GEO). The major concern about signal interference involves the high frequency Ku-band, used by most communications satellites, either exclusively or shared with C-band - and sometimes S-band and Ka-band - on the spacecraft. </p> <p>The FCC has said that it is concerned that GEO Ku-band payloads will be affected increasingly by interference not only from new GEO satellites operating in the Ku-band, but also by the new breed of largely Ku-band multimedia sahttp://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Virtual-solution-50115/News | 14 Jan 1998 00:00
<p><img src='../Assets/GetAsset.aspx?ItemID=169' /></p> <p>Tim Furniss/LONDON </p> <p>Thirty-seven years ago, a US Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down for flying over the former Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the Space Age began with the launch of the Sputnik 1 on 4 October, 1957. Now the Cosmodrome is going private and very public. </p> <p>On 17 December, 1997, Russian president Boris Yeltsin said that the launch base, renamed the Baikonur Federal Space Centre and located near the town of Tyuratam - actually 400km (250 miles) from the city of Baikonur, will be operated by the civilian Russian Space Agency (RSA) from February. </p> <p>After the collapse of the Soviet Union and after political and financial wrangling with the new independent state of Kazakhstan, Russia agreed to rent the Baikonur Cosmodrome for $115 million. The Russian military presence will be reduced, but about 750 officers will remain to support the RSA. The officers are from the Militahttp://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Going-private-31466/