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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 0025.PDF
Orbital Sciences breaks record with $2.5 billion orderbook ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) is claiming a record $2.5 bil lion-worth of new orders in 1998 for space and ground infrastructure systems product lines. Just over half the contracts were for Pegasus, Taurus and suborbital rocket launches and $475 million for sensors, electronics and satellite ground systems. The latest figures bring the total value of orders in the last three years to $5.2 billion. Included in the $1.3 billion launch order total was NASA's exercising of an option in its con tract with OSC to fly 2 5 additional missions of the X-34 technology demonstrator spaceplane. The contract is now worth $85 million and covers 27 flights. The first two test flights will be made from White Sands Missile Range, with the remainder taking place from the Kennedy Space Center, all initiated with an air drop from OSC's Lockheed L-101 lcar- rier aircraft. The US space agency has- booked a second launch under its $400 million 16-mission Small Expendable Launch Vehicle con tract with Orbital Sciences for a Pegasus to place the Galaxy Evo lution Explorer (GALEX) into orbit in September 2 001. A Pegasus has already been selected for the launch of the HESSI satellite for NASA. The company has also been selected by the University of Colorado to build a $26 million Solar Stellar Intercomparison Experiment Atmospheric Vari ability Explorer satellite (Solstice/ Save), which is scheduled to be launched on a Pegasus in 2002 on a NASA's Mars Polar Lander is launched successfully BOEING LAUNCHED NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) aboard a Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral on 3 January. Its sister craft, the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), was launched last month. The MCO will enter orbit in September, while the MPL is scheduled to touch down close the Martian south pole in December. The MPL carries a small micro phone provided by the Planetary Society, which will for the first time transmit sounds from a planet's surface. The MCO's lunar scoop will deposit samples into an onboard laboratory which will attempt to detect whether there is water in the soil. Two small microprobes - flying the Deep Space 2 mission in the NASA New Millennium pro gramme - will be deployed from the Mars Polar Lander on its approach to the planet's surface and will penetrate up to lm into the soil during 800km/h impacts at a distance of around 100km from the MPL. These will ascertain whether traces of water can be found under the surface. • NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft has made a 24minrocket burn, placing it on course for ren dezvous and orbital insertion around the asteroid Eros in February 1999. The NEAR made 4,100km fly- by of the asteroid on 2 3 December and multispectral images were taken by the Discovery programme spacecraft and other data were col lected. The NEAR vehicle was sched uled to have entered orbit around Eros this month, but an aborted engine burn on 20 December made the required rendezvous impossible (Flight International, 6-12 January). • five-year mission as part of the US space agency's Earth Observing System (EOS) programme, using much of the imaging technology being developed for OSC's Orbimage 4 high-resolution spacecraft. Orbital Sciences is already building the Acrimsat spacecraft for the EOS. Orbital Sciences has purchased Raytheon's Transportation Man agement Solutions business for $21 million, combining this busi ness with its own Intelligent Transportation Systems division, to form an expanded unit that will be known as the Orbital Sciences Management Systems division. The operation will be the USA's largest supplier of automatic vehi cle location systems, using satellite and terrestrial communications and positioning technologies. • Another PanAmSat craft malfunctions PANAMS AT'S space woes con tinue despite the successful launch of the PAS 6B satellite on 2 2 December. Yet another satellite in its fleet has malfunctioned. Two of the 24 Ku-band antennas on PanAmSat 8, a Space Systems Loral-built FS-1300 spacecraft launched last November, are not aligned properly, restricting cover age over the Asia Pacific region Flight International, 16-22 De cember, 1998). The PanAmSat casualty list so far reads: • Galaxy IV failed in orbit; • PAS 5 and Galaxy 81, battery problems; • PanAmSat 4 and Galaxy VII, control processor malfunctions. These are all Hughes HS-601 buses. One other Loral satellite, the PAS 6, malfunctioned before the incident involving the PAS 8 (Flight International, 16-22 De cember, 1998). • Preston. Where companies wanting to fly will really take off. To get there, talk to CNT on 01925 651144 • 100 acres off • Fully serviced fronting directly onto motorwi • Ideal for manufacturer assembly or distribution (BI,B2,B8) • Can accommodate requirements from 35,000 sq ft upwards* • Two main plots: Plot A-57 as; Plot B-38.50 acres. • Premier aerospace region in the UK. • Hi-tech engineering base. • Highly skilled, highly motivated work-force. !|!Note. Requirements are indicative, depending on individual layout/floorpian and landscaping needs. Locations made for business success FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13 - 19 January 1999 23
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