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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0172.PDF
^J Jljr-1 •-** J^ J~" __f J ^.J J J J Station faces date with Destiny THE INTERNATIONAL Space Station (ISS) is due to receive its centrepiece unit, the US Destiny Laboratory Module, this month following its launch on the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS 98 on 19January. Destinywill enable a wide range of scientific experiments to be conducted on the space station. The aluminium module is protected by a space debris shield blanket, and is 8.5m (28ft) long, 4.3 m in diameter and weighs 14,515kg (31,9711b). Destiny will eventually be equipped with 24 fridge-size racks - 13 to support experiments and 11 to maintain the laboratory's environment. Three Destiny systems racks will be aboard at launch and six more will be delivered and installed on another Shuttle mission in March carrying the first Italian- NEWS IN BRIEF • SEA LAUNCH DELAY The Sea Launch company's flight of the Zenit 3 SL boost er from the Odyssey offshore platform in the Pacific Ocean, carrying the first XM Satellite Radio spacecraft has been delayed to 28 February after a launch pad abort on 9 January. • IRAN COMMUNICATIONS Iran plans to establish a com munications satellite system of six Zoreh spacecraft built by French, Russian, Indian and Chinese firms. They will be located at 25°, 34°, 41°, 47°, 59° and61.5°Ein geosta tionary orbit. The contractor for the first Zoreh satellite will be selected this year. • TOURIST CRAFT The Japanese Rocket Society is to work with Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, Sharp and Nissan to develop a $628 million proto type of a reusable space tourist vehicle which will be launched in 2004. built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Additional racks, including an optical window, will be deliv ered on later missions, limiting the scientific use of Destiny until then. Eventually, the 13 science racks will be used to support human research, fluids and combustion, biotech nology, materials sci ences and Earth observation activities. Extensive use of the remote manipulator system robot arm and three spacewalks will be made to install external Destiny connections to die ISS and to relocate die Pressurised Mating Adapter 2 berthing Destiny will allow scientific work on the ISS port. It will be moved from the Node 1 Unit to the forward com mon berthing mechanism on Destiny. Russia's Khrunichev Space Centre, meanwhile, is planning a new fleet of heavy-duty freighters for launches to the ISS to replace the Progress tankers, 15 of which are in the process of being launched to the station until 2003. Khrunichev, with the Energia company and the Russian Space and Aviation Agency, will base the freighter on the back-up of the Zarya control module which became the first ISS element in orbit in October 1998. Refitting the Zarya 2 would enable it to carry a 5,000kg cargo to the ISS, compared with the 2,2 00kg carried by the Progress M. Khrunichev has also designed a larger freighter that would be capa ble of carrying 1 Ot of cargo. • Candidate Discovery missions are selected NASA HAS selected three proposals as candidates for detailed study on the next Discov ery mission. One of the proposals will be selected for development at the end of this year. NASA aims for a launch in 2005-06 within a $299 million budget as part of its low-cost and rapid-development Discovery programme. The three projects, which were selected from 26 proposals submit ted to NASA in August, have each been awarded $450,000 to conduct four-month implementa tion-feasibility studies. The proposals include the $286 million Kepler space telescope, which is intended to monitor 100,000 stars during a four year mission to detect planets between the sizes of the Earth and Jupiter. The Interior Structure and Internal Dynamical Evolution of Jupiter (INSIDE Jupiter) mission will orbit the giant planet to observe and measure its internal processes, at a cost of $296 million. The $2 71 million Dawn mission aims to orbit the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest in the solar system, to probe the early solar system and determine prop erties of the asteroids. Meanwhile, NASA is funding US participation in the France-led Netlander mission. This is sched uled for launch in 2007 to study the internal structure of Mars. NASA will contribute seismology, meteo rology and geodesy experiments at a cost of $35 million. The project involves four small landers which will collect data from the surface of Mars, while an orbiting mother ship will transmit the data to Earth. • NASA Discovery programme spacecraft Stardust was due to make an Earth fly-by on 15 January to provide it with a sling-shot gravity-assist boost towards the comet Wild 2, where it will collect samples of cometary material for return to Eardi. • UFO will be Boeing's 11th for the US Navy BOEING Satellite Systems has been authorised by the US Navy to build an 11th Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) satellite. The deal amends a current $1.9 billion contract under which Boeing has built and launched 10 spacecraft and produced long-lead parts for UFO F-l 1, which will be launched in 2003. UFO F-l 1 will be based on the Boeing 601 spacecraft bus. It will carry the UHF payload for two- way battlefield connectivity and an EHF payload providing enhanced anti-jamming telemetry, com mand, broadcast and fleet inter- connectivity, using advanced signal processing techniques. Earlier UFO craft also carried high capac ity global broadcast technology. • Space Systems/Loral has been awarded a $2 30 million contract to build the Apstar V communica tions satellite for Asiasat Pacific Telecommunications (APT) of Hong Kong. Apstar V will be launched in February 2003 by a Chinese Long March booster. • 22 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 16 - 22 January 2001
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