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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 1807.PDF
Alcatel wins Europe's biggest science satellite contract TIM FURNISS/LONDON ALCATEL SPACE has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to design, build, test and launch Herschel and Planck science satellites together aboard an Ariane 5E-SVboosterin February 2007. The $332 million deal is the largest ever awarded in the field of European space science. Details of the contract are sketchy and an official announce ment is due at next month's Paris air show, but it is known that Astrium and Alenia Aerospazio will be named as major subcontractors. Herschel, formerly known as the Far Infrared/Submillimetre Space Telescope, is the last Cornerstone mission in ESA's Horizon 2000 programme, while Planck, former ly Cobras/Samba, is Horizon 2000's medium-sized mission. The experiment module of the Planck satellite will be built by Alcatel, which is also to be respon sible for integration and testing of the satellites. Astrium will build the Herschel cryostat and Alenia the service modules of both craft. The 9m (30ft) long Herschel will be equipped with a 3. 5m diam eter cryogenically-cooled tele scope to study the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies. The 3,300kg(7,2701b)craft,setto oper ate for three years, will concentrate on shorter wavelengths using spec trometers and photometers. It will have 10 times the sensitivity of ESAs Infrared Space Observatory, which was launched in 199 5. The 1,500kg Planck will study cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the cre ation of the universe in what is thought to have been a "big bang". It will use a 1.5m diameter tele scope with 50 times the sensitivity of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer, launched in 1989. Planck has a design life of 18 months. The Ariane 5E-SV, equipped with a 17m-long payload shroud, will place the spacecraft at the L2 Langrangian point of the Earth- Sun system, 1.5 million km (0.9 million miles) from Earth in the opposite direction to the sun. The 5E-SV will be introduced in 2 002. It incorporates a new uprated Vulcain 2 first stage engine. • NEWS IN BRIEF • PROPELLANT EXTENSION The French space agency CNES has awarded contracts totalling$35milliontoSNPE- Fiat Avio company Regulus, to extend the Guiana Propellant Plant at Kourou to support an increase in the launch rate of Ariane 5 boost ers to eight per year in 2003. • MARS RECONNAISSANCE NASA has released an announcement of opportuni ty to select a principal investigator for its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to be launched in August 2005. • PIGGYBACK PAYLOADS Two Malaysian microsatellite piggyback payloads will ride on either of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle. EE No 13 14 15 16 17 dUn*i;|1HJ!WW:M^MII!W!li.+!J:JIWi!,JI Date 7 Apr 7 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 28 Apr Spacecraft Type Launcher Ekran Comsat Proton M Odyssey Mars Delta IK GSAT1 Comsat GSLV Endeavour ISS STS 100 SoyuzTM32 ISS ferry Soyuz Last Satellite Launch Log: Flight International, 1&16 April 2001 Country Russia USA -•, India USA W Russia i Launch site Baikonur Canaveral Srihajikota KSC Baikonur ILS Proton launches PanAmSat 10 comsat An ILS International Launch Services-operated Russian Proton KTBlock DM booster was launched from Launch Complex 81 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 15 May carry ing theV3,780kg (8,3301b) PanAmSat PAS 10 communica tions satellite^which was placed into geostationary transfer orbit 6h 33min later. The launch was the first by ILS this year and the 2 Oth Proton launch by the inter national company since it was established in 1995. The Boeing Satellite Systems 601 HP space craft is the 17th built for Panamsat. The 9.6kW (13shp) PAS 10 is equipped with 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders and will be located at 68.5° in geostationary orbit. X-37 design work moves ahead BOEING HAS completed two-thirds of the design work on the X-37 Space Manoeuvre Vehicle (SMV). Assembly of the first vehi cle is due later this year. Aerodynamic and aeroheating wind tunnel testing is 93 % com plete. Arcjet testing of the X-37's thermal protection system has con firmed predictions, while the approach and landing avionics and software are being validated by the X-40A 85% subscale model. The first unpowered drop test of a fully-fledged X-37 from a B-52 is set for next year, while an initial orbital test flight is due in 2004, either on a Space Shuttle or on an expendable launch vehicle. Aerojet has been awarded a $10.4 million contract from the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate to develop a non-toxic kerosene/ hydrogen peroxide Advanced Reusable Rocket Engine to power an operational version of the Space Manoeuvre Vehicle (SMV). The contract could be worth $29 mil lion over the next four years. The first X-37 SMV will be powered by a Boeing Rocketdyne AR2/3 engine using similar propellants. • France and India sign satellite deal '""pHE INDIAN Space Research J. Organisation (ISRO) and the French space agency (CNES) have signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint design of an atmospheric research satellite mission called Megha Tropiques. The satellite, based on the CNES Proteus spacecraft bus, will be launched in 2005 to help mea sure the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere and climate dynamics. It will be equipped with Madras, a multi-frequency scanning radio meter developed jointly by CNES and ISRO; a CNES Saphir multi channel microwave instrument; and Scarab, also from CNES, a unit which will measure the Earth's radiation budget. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 22 - 28 May 2001 27
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