FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1933.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT CONTRACT TIM FURNISS / LONDON Boeing reprieved for GPS flights Pentagon makes exception to ban on US manufacturer's space units to allow Delta Ms to continue satellite launches The US Department of Defense has awarded Boeing a $56.7 million contract extension to continue Delta II launches of GPS 2R global positioning system satellites. The award required an exception to the DoD's ban on doing business with three Boeing space units as punish ment for misappropriating Lockheed Martin documents dur ing the US Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) competition. The delayed launch of the third Boeing Delta IV booster under the EELV programme took place on 30 August from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The standard Delta IV Medium, with no solid rocket boosters, carried the final Lockheed Martin-built USAF Defense Space Communications Satellite (DSCS) series aaft into geostationary trans fer orbit. DSCS III B6 will join 13 other DSCS satellites in orbit. B6 should have been launched in 1986-7, but its Space Shuttle deployment mission was cancelled after the Challenger accident. B6 was preceded into space by other DSCS III satellites, some aboard Shuttles. The DSCS aaft will be succeeded by Wideband Gapfiller Satellites, three of which are being built by Boeing, with the first to be launched on a Delta IV in 2005. These will be suc ceeded by the Advanced Wideband Satellite system in 2009. • A US Air Force Titan IVB Centaur booster is to be launched from Cape Canaveral on 8 September on the delayed flight of a Lockheed Martin- built Mentor advanced Orion signals-intelligence satellite. BUDGET ISS support role stretches Russia Russia's Progress M48 unmanned tanker docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on 31 August, carrying 2.5t of supplies. Before the latest resupply vessel arrived at the ISS, the Progress M47 tanker had undocked from the Zvezda module docking port and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 28 August. Progress M48 is the third cargo craft launched to the ISS this year, and Russia's space sector is feeling the strain of supporting the station during the grounding of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. "It is becoming a costly business," says Yuri Semenov, head of Russian space craft manufacturer Energia. There are legal hiccups in the agreement on funding support from the USA, says Semenov, who is "trying to convey this problem" to the Russian and US presidents. Yuri Koptev, head of Russian aerospace agency Rosaviakosmos, says the new budget allocation of Rb3 billion ($98 million) for the country's participation in the ISS Progress M48 carried 2.5t of supplies to the ISS last month will support 11 crew rotation flights aboard Soyuz TMA ferries and the necessary number of Progress M tanker flights to supply 80t of pro- pellant to maintain the station. None of the money will fund new modules and if further funds are not forthcoming, Koptev says, Russia's participation in the ISS will be lim ited to aew and cargo transport. • Stanislav Kulikov, dirertor of Russia's Lavotchkin Science and Production Association, has been sacked after a series of military and civil satellite failures. An OKO geo stationary orbiting early warning satellite launched in April malfunc tioned within three months; an OKO craft launched in April 1998 also lasted only three months; the first Arkon-class optical reconnais sance satellite, launched in June 1997 operated for just four months after suspected damage to the craft during the roll-out of its Proton K booster at Baikonur; and in November 1997, a Kupon commu nications satellite experienced prob lems soon after reaching orbit and stopped operating six months later. PROGRAMME Brazil vows to continue VLS satellite launches Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva says the country's space programme will continue despite its third VLS satellite launcher exploding on the pad at Alcantara on 22 August, killing 21 people. He has vowed that the indigenously developed VLS, which also failed on its first two launches, will make a successful flight before 2006. Damage to the Alcantara launch complex is estimated at $33 million, compared with the country's $12 million annual space budget. Brazil has invited up to 10 specialists from Russian aerospace agency Ros aviakosmos to assist in the investi gation of the explosion, thought to have been caused by the ignition of one of the four solid-rocket boosters (FlightInternational, 2-8 September). DEMONSTRATION Ariane ECA may be back in business Arianespace may have found a customer willing to fly on the demonstration flight of the redesigned Ariane 5 ECA, scheduled to take place in March next year. The uprated ECA failed on its maiden flight in December 2002. Airclaims reports that the Xtar- Eur satellite, originally manifested for a Boeing-led Sea Launch flight, will be switched to Arianespace to be carried aboard the ECA at a presumably attractive price. Xtar-Eur and a second craft, SpainSat, are to be operated by the US defence satellite commu nications company Xtar and Hidesat/Loral, respectively. The satellites, being built by Space Systems/Loral, will provide leased capacity to the US Department of Defense, Spain's ministry of defence and other related agencies. Meanwhile, the delayed Ariane 5G flight 162, carrying eBird and Insat communications satellites and the European Space Agency's Smart 1 moon orbiter, is now scheduled for late September. The launch was delayed after the Indian Space Research Organisation requested more time to retest some components on the communications payload of Insat 3E. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9-15 SEPTEMBER 2003 35
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
