FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2000
2000 - 0554.PDF
Ball plans to bid for radar spot on remote-sensing satellite SPACCFLIGHT White House calls for range efficiency COMMERCIAL USERS should have a greater say in running US space launch ranges, concludes a White House-led interagency review of the future management and use of these gov ernment-owned facilities. The review was launched last March in response to issues raised by the growth of US commercial launch activity and the govern ment's increasing reliance on com mercial launch sen-ices. This will increase when the commercially owned and operated Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) enter service in 2002. The report says the USA must improve the efficiency of range operations to support commercial launches and maximise the use of state and spaceport money to maintain and modernise launch bases and ranges. Commercial launch operators and spaceports are now responsible for running satellite and vehicle processing facilities and launch pads leased from the US Air Force. For the EELVs, which become operational in 2002, operators will be responsible for constructing the facilities and pads and the govern ment will buy launches. • NEWS IN BRIEF • ARIANE LAUNCH Arianespace scored another success with the launch of an Ariane 4 booster from Kou- rou, French Guiana, on 18 February, carrying the Hughes Superbird 4, equipped with 23 Ku-band and six Ka-band transponders. • FIRING ABORTED The recent test firing of India's cryogenic engine for the second stage of its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was aborted 15s into a 30s dura tion burn at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri. The engine will be used on later models of the GSLV. Its first flights will have a Russian engine. GUY NORRIS/BOULDER BALL AEROSPACE & Tech nologies is "gearing up" to pro pose a synthetic aperture radar to NASA for a free-flying remote sensing satellite. This follows the success of its antennas on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mis sion (SRTM), which was complet ed on 22 February. "We're starting to form a team at a low level," says Ball Aerospace SRTM programme manager Don Figgins, whose team produced the antennas used in the SRTM to col lect data on over 80% of the Earth's lanclmass for the National Image and Mapping Agency. The US agency plans to use the three- dimensional information to create the most accurate and complete topographic map of the Earth. The free flying lightweight syn thetic aperture radar (LightSAR) proposal will be a revised and improved version of a concept that was passed over for funding last year by NASA in favour of the NASA IS calling for the Mir space station to be de-orbited as planned this summer. The US space administration is concerned that plans for commercialising the Mir is diverting Russian attention and funds from the International Space Station (ISS) and contribut ing to delays of the latter. The space administration is "not pleased with the performance and attitude" of the Russian company RSC Energia, which is behind the scheme to keep the Mir in orbit, says NASA administrator Dan Goldin. Amsterdam-based MirCorp has received authorisation from Energia to lease Mir for space tourism, in-orbit advertising, industrial production and science. MirCorp has the rights for the commercial use of Mir for the rest The images from the SRTM includes this one showing the Tigil river next to the volcanically active Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia US-French PICASO (Pathfinder Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Spaceborne Observations) pro gramme. The new remote sensing of the space station's life. The organisation helped fund the Progress M-1 tanker mission to Mir earlier this month and will part-fund the flight in April of pos sibly three cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz TM craft for a 45-day stay aboard the station. Energia's president Yuri Semenov says his company is exploring "a new path in our efforts to attract commercial funds and business to Mir". Commercial use would cost between $10 million and $20 mil lion, says Jeffrey Manber, MirCorp's president. MirCorp will be a direct link between commer cial users of Mir and the station's operators, with MirCorp taking responsibility for establishing busi ness conditions for the space sta tion's use. platform would fly in a low Earth orbit collecting Earth science data on geology, geophysics and agri culture, and would be capable of limited movement outside its regu lar orbital track. "The difference is that the primary antenna would be larger than the outboard, the elec tronics would be newer with lower volume and reduced power requirements," savs Figgins. "We feel the SRTM will be a springboard to LightSAR and a tew other potential [mostly classi fied L S military spaceborne SAR] projects," he says. Ball designed the original Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) antennas that were used to create maps on two previous Shuttle missions in 1994. To generate the three-dimen sional images with the SRTM mis sion, Ball supplied an additional, smaller, receiving antenna mount ed on a 60m (200ft) telescoping mast. Although the Shuttle crew had difficulty in retractingthe mast and stowing the sensor array, the mission was successful. • MirCorp's shareholders include Energia and venture capital firms, including Gold&Appel. Its chair man, Walt Anderson, is thought to be the main source of the initial MirCorp investment. Another MirCorp investor is telecommuni cations and Internet entrepreneur Chirinjeev Kathuria. Space trips by wealthy individu als are a possibility, but not a focus of the business, says MirCorp. Individuals would have to undergo gruelling cosmonaut training. Under the lease agreement, Russian researchers will be allowed to use part of the Mir at no extra cost. The Russian Government says that it will de-orbit the space station if no funds are forthcoming, but the MirCorp connection is likely to extend the Mir's life to at least 2001. J NASA shocked by commercial Mir plans FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 29 February - 6 March 2000
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
