All news – Page 6589
-
News
UPS to fit freighter fleet with satellite navigation systems
United Parcel Service (UPS) is to equip its 229 freighters with next-generation satellite navigation systems using the global positioning system (GPS)-based wide-area augmentation system (WAAS). The equipment will be made by the US express parcels specialist's subsidiary UPS Aviation Technologies (UPSAT). Development of the GPS/WAAS combination is expected ...
-
News
Indonesia and South Korea in quest for fresh launch sites
Indonesia is considering developing a $1 billion satellite launch centre on the 52km² (20 miles²) Lembe Island, in the province of North Sulawesi, close to the port of Bitung, according to the province's governor. Two more of Indonesia's 17,000 islands - Biak Island in the Bay of Cendrawasih and ...
-
News
Uncertainties hit NASA's Space Shuttle schedule for 2000
Tim Furniss/LONDON This year's first Space Shuttle mission - the 11-day STS99 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission by the orbiter Endeavour (left) - will not be launched before 31 January, according to NASA's preliminary Space Shuttle schedule. This will be followed by STS101 Atlantis on an International Space Station ...
-
News
Pyrotechnic accident delays Rokot launch
The first commercial launch of the German-Russian Eurokot venture's Rokot - the modified SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile with a Breeze M upper stage - is likely to be delayed following an accident at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome last month. A modified Rokot booster, equipped for the first time with a ...
-
News
NASA picks partners for race into space
NASA has selected six contractors for its Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition (Rapid II) programme, intended to reduce the time required to procure satellites for science and technology missions. "Indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity" contracts covering 14 different types of core spacecraft bus have been awarded to Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences, ...
-
News
Orbital wins NASA science contract
NASA has awarded Orbital Sciences a $35 million contract to launch two science satellites in 2002, using its Pegasus air-launched booster. The US/Canadian SCISAT-1 mission to study ozone production in the upper atmosphere will lift off from Vandenberg AFB, California, in the second quarter of 2002. The Orbital-built ...
-
News
Aerospike test
Boeing Rocketdyne's XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine for the X-33 Lockheed Martin reusable single-stage-to-orbit technology demonstrator was fired at full power for the first time last month. The firing, at the NASA Stennie Space Center, Mississippi, lasted 18s. Source: Flight International
-
News
Young will head Mars inquiry
Former Lockheed Martin executive Thomas Young has been appointed by NASA to lead the Mars Program Independent Assessment team. It will review the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), Mars Polar Lander (MPL) and the space agency's approach to robotic exploration. The MCO was lost on 23 September and ...
-
News
Ariane mission rate speeds up
Last month Arianespace launched its third commercial mission in fewer than 20 days. Flight V125's Ariane 44L lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, on 21 December. It carried the world's largest commercial communications satellite - the Hughes Space and Communications Galaxy XI (right), the first of its HS-702 buses, ...
-
News
Alenia wins Canadian observation contract
Alenia Aerospazio has won a C$74 million ($50 million) contract to design and build the satellite bus of Canada's new Radarsat 2 Earth observation satellite. Prime contractor McDonald Dettwiler awarded the deal to Alenia after a contest involving six US and European firms. Alenia will build the craft in 16 ...
-
News
P&WC Il-114 cleared
The CIS Interstate Aviation Committee issued the type certificate on 27 December for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127H-powered version of the Ilyushin Il-114 twin turboprop. The 64-seater variant, dubbed the Il-114-100, started flight tests in January last year. It is produced by the Tashkent-based TAPO Chkalov plant in Uzbekistan, ...
-
News
Clear air ahead for turbulence detector
Honeywell aims to develop a system within three years that will be able to detect clear air turbulence (CAT), for which there are no predictive warning systems available. The company plans to certificate a combined microwave and infrared radar to detect all types of turbulence, including CAT. It has ...
-
News
Urgent GE90 removal starts on worldwide 777-200 fleet
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC General Electric has begun removing the first of 90 GE90 engines from the worldwide Boeing 777-200 fleet after turbine blade separations caused two in-flight shutdowns and one turnback. The problems, all of which afflicted 777-200ERs operated by Saudi Arabian Airlines, were caused by ...
-
News
Crystal clears way for mid-year start
US start-up carrier Crystal Airways aims to begin all business-class services using Boeing 757 and 767 twinjets from the US east coast by the middle of this year. Tim Rivers, president and chief executive of Tampa, Florida-based Crystal, says flights will be launched from Tampa to Baltimore Washington International ...
-
News
China Eastern nears A340-500/600 deal
China Eastern Airlines expects to receive government approval soon to allow it to go ahead with a planned acquisition of Airbus A340-500/600s. According to Flight International's sister on-line service Air Transport Intelligence, industry sources in Hong Kong and Shanghai say the acquisition request is in the final stages of ...
-
News
Canada 3000 aims to fill void left by Canadian takeover
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Canada 3000 Airlines is positioning itself to become the country's second international carrier. It plans a major expansion in scheduled services and fleet size, following the recent takeover of Canadian Airlines by Air Canada. Toronto-based Canada 3000 has unveiled plans to launch services to India, Japan and ...
-
News
KLM uk's no-frills buzz gets off the ground
Buzz, the new low-cost subsidiary of KLM uk, began operations on 4 January with promises of "strong market growth" in the European low-cost sector over the next five years. Based at London Stansted, UK, the carrier competes with the existing UK-based low-cost airlines Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways subsidiary Go. ...
-
News
BWIA introduces rebranded TriStar
Rebranded Caribbean airline BWIA West Indies Airways has introduced its new colour scheme on its long-haul fleet of Lockheed TriStar 500s. The livery change is the first in almost 30 years for the Trinidad and Tobago carrier and is part of an update that involves the acquisition of Boeing 737-800s ...
-
News
Year-end Boeing deals bolster order intake
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON The "big two" airliner builders - Airbus Industrie and Boeing - passed the 800 order mark between them in the closing days of 1999. Both manufacturers also achieved their output targets, delivering a record 914 aircraft between them. Boeing spent last month rapidly gaining ground on ...