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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 0020.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT SATELLITES Alcatel and Loral pick up new satellite contracts Alcatel Space and Space Systems/Loral (SSL) have won contracts to build three more commmunications satellites. The larger of the deals will see SS/L build two high-power SS/L 1300 spacecraft, bus- based communications satellites for the US-based XTAR and Spain's Hidesat. XTAR is a Hidesat/Loral joint venture. The XTAR EUR satellite will be launched in 2003, offering the services of 12 wideband X-band transponders from a position in geostationary orbit (GEO) over the Indian Ocean. Hidesat's SpainSat will offer services from 12 X-band and one Ku-band transponder from a GEO orbit at 30°W in 2004. Hidesat and XTAR EUR will lease transponders to the Spanish defence ministry, and defence customers in the USA and allied countries. Meanwhile, Alcatel Space has been awarded a $118 mil lion contract to build a new communications satellite for APT Satellite, Hong Kong. Dubbed Apstar VB, the Alcatel Spacebus 4000 model space craft will be launched in 2004, probably by a Chinese Long March booster which has fea tured in previous APT launches. The craft will be equipped with 38 Ku-band and 12 C-band transponders. Apstar VB is a substitute satellite for the Apstar VA which is being built by SS/L but grounded due to export licence issues. ApStar V is mani fested for a 2003 launch aboard a Long March 3B - it is due to replace the VB Apstar 1 A, which reaches the end of its predicted lifetime in 2006. In a further satellite develop ment, the Alcatel Space-built Arabsat 3A communications satellite launched in February 1999 has hit problems in orbit, with the loss of some of its 20 transponders after a power- switching panel failure. LAUNCHERS TIM FURNISS / LONDON ILS venture and Sea Launch chosen for new Intelsat 10s Eurostar 3000 buses scheduled for launch on Proton and Zenit 3SL boosters in 2003 International Launch Services (ILS) and Boeing-led company Sea Launch have been selected to launch the first two of a new gener ation of Intelsat 10 series satellites to be built by Astrium . The Eurostar 3000 buses will be launched in 2003 on Proton and Zenit 3SL boosters. The launch contracts are thought to be worth around $60 million each. One of the satellites will carry 36 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders, and the other 45 C-band and 16 Ku- band transponders. Both operate with 8kW (1 lhp) of payload power. Launch of the Intelsat 10 will require Sea Launch's Zenit 3SL booster to be uprated to achieve a 14% performance increase. Initially, this will be done by using lighter components and increasing second-stage thrust on the rocket. However, Sea Launch and Ukraine's Yushnoye company, the Zenit builder, is looking at a much larger upgrade (Flight International, 11-17 December). A standard ILS Proton M with a Breeze upper stage will be used to launch the other Intelsat 10 series craft. Meanwhile, the ILS consortium, which involves Energia, Khruni- chev and Lockheed Martin, has confirmed further details of the 12 commercial launch contracts signed in 2001, worth $1 billion. The schedule calls for five launches on the Russian-built Proton and seven on the Lockheed Martin Atlas models. Proton will carry two SES Americom, one SES satellite, Astra IK, EchoStar's satellite num ber 8 and an unidentified fifth craft, possibly from Intelsat. Four of the seven Atlas launches will be on the new Atlas V, due to make its maiden flight, carrying Eutelsat's Hot Bird 6, in May. Further flights will carry an Inmarsat 4 and two Lockheed Martin-built craft, including Telesat's Nimiq 2. Asiasat 4 and Echostar 7 will fly on Atlas Ills, while Superbird 6 flies on an Atlas HAS. ILS, which made six Atlas and Proton launches in 2001 after a record 14 launches the year before, has a commercial launch backlog worth S3 billion. Eurockot, meanwhile, has won another contract, to launch a pig gyback satellite, this time for the Czech Republic. The 66kg (1451b) Mimoso mini-satellite will provide data on the density of the upper atmosphere. Unrelated to the Sea Launch activities, a Zenit 2 booster was launched successfully from Baikonur on 10 December, carrying a Meteor 3M Earth observation satellite, plus three small research sub-satellites, including Pakistan's much-delayed 70kg Badr B. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION Escape vehicle tests remote landing The eighth glide and landing test flight of the NASA X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) prototype was completed at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California last month. The vehicle, designed as the forerunner of a lifeboat for the International Space Station (ISS) crew, was dropped by a Boeing B- 52 from a height of 58,000ft (13,725m) to achieve the highest, fastest and longest of the eight test flights conducted to date. The CRV reached transonic speeds of about 435kts (805km/h) during a 4.83km (2.6nm) free glide lasting about 60s before the deployment of a parafoil wing. The 12min glide to a landing at a speed of 64km/s was controlled remotely by an astronaut using proposed cockpit displays and con trols and software designed for an actual flight from the ISS. The International Space Station seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour Computer software controlling the parafoil was also tested. A hybrid synthetic vision system in a simulated cockpit combined live pictures from the X-38 and computer-generated 3D topogra phy of the landing site. The syn thetic vision software, called Landform, runs on inexpensive laptops and will be used by astro nauts piloting the windowless, operational CRV. • Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Centre on 17 December at the end of its 11 day 19h STS 108 mission to the ISS. Endeavour returned the three man ISS crew after a 129 day stay. The Shuttle delivered Expedition Crew 4 who will stay on the ISS until May. 18 1-7 JANUARY 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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