All Space articles – Page 182
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Zarya ISS module made US crew ill
Crewmembers of Space Shuttle Discovery/STS96, which docked with the International Space Station (ISS) in May, suffered headaches, irritated eyes, nausea and vomiting inside the Russian Zarya control module, possibly caused by the build-up of excess carbon dioxide. The symptoms, which subsided when the crew returned to the Shuttle orbiter ...
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Russian, US booster faults isolated
Tim Furniss/LONDON The failure of the first Proton M booster last month, was caused by a fire in the turbopump of the second stage engine. The fire was started by a stray particle of aluminium, says Russia's Khrunichev. At T+277s, the fire started in the Voronezh-built No 3 ...
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Shuttle dependent
The International Space Station is too dependent on the Space Shuttle, say NASA and prime contractor Boeing Tim Furniss/LONDON Flying more than seven Space Shuttle missions a year could jeopardise safety, says astronaut Brewster Shaw, who heads the Boeing International Space Station programme. This conclusion - supported by NASA - ...
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DARPA plans robotic workhorse
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to demonstrate a robotic spacecraft capable of refuelling, repairing or reconfiguring satellites in orbit. If it is funded, the Advanced Space Transportation and Robotic Orbiter (ASTRO) technology demonstrator would be flown in late 2001. With ...
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Soyuz crew
Russian Talgat Musabayev will command a Soyuz TM-A mission in October next year to the International Space Station with flight engineer Nadezhda Kuzhelnaya. Source: Flight International
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ILS assigned exclusive rights to market Angara launchers
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin and Krunichev have agreed to assign exclusive marketing rights for the Angara family of launchers to their joint venture, International Launch Services (ILS). Krunichev is developing the Angara as a successor to the Proton launcher, marketed commercially by ILS. The first launch is ...
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Columbia returns to Kennedy after initial mission hiccups
Tim Furniss/LONDON The STS93/Columbia Space Shuttle mission ended on 28 July with a night landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The launch on 23 July - thwarted earlier by an erroneous sensor at T-7s and by lightning - continued to be eventful after it was airborne, coming close ...
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NASA Messenger mission will map Mercury
NASA plans to return to Mercury, after an absence of more than 30 years, when its Messenger spacecraft reaches the innermost planet in 2008. The Messenger mission to map Mercury is one of two new projects selected for NASA's "quicker, cheaper" Discovery programme (Flight International, 21-27 July). The other ...
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India urges industry to join launcher venture
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is seeking increased industry participation in its commercial launch vehicle programme. Following the successful first commercial launch of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in May, ISRO wants the country's manufacturing industry to upgrade its role from that of supplying launch vehicle subsystems ...
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Finding a role
Russia's new launcher family is searching for a niche in the market Tim Furniss/LONDON A family of new Russian launchers called Angara could be competing in the commercial market by 2001. The Angaras, designed by Russia's Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Centre, will fly from a modified launch ...
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Columbia flies at third try
NASA successfully launched the Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS93 on 23 July after its second launch attempt on 22 July was called off because of bad weather. The Columbia, with its Chandra X-ray Observatory payload, was originally due for launch on 20 July - the 30th anniversary of the ...
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First taker for SpaceDev asteroid mission
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC SpaceDev has secured the first customer for its planned commercial asteroid rendezvous mission. The company has signed a $200,000 contract with Dojin to carry a package on the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP), to rendezvous with asteroid Nereus in January 2002. Poway, California-based SpaceDev already ...
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USAF chips in for X-37 spaceplane
The US Air Force is to contribute $16 million to the NASA/Boeing X-37 experimental spaceplane programme as a follow-on to the USAF-funded X-40, to demonstrate technologies for future military spacecraft. The X-37 design is scaled up from the X-40, an unpowered vehicle built by Boeing and drop-tested from a helicopter ...
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Solar array joints delivered
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space has delivered to International Space Station prime contractor Boeing the solar array rotary joints and the second of two thermal radiator rotary joints for the station. The 3m (10ft)-diameter solar array joints are "the largest mechanisms ever designed to operate in a space environment", says ...
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Spain joins Argentina for Cesar project
Spain and Argentina are working together on the Cesar satellite, planned for launch in 2003. Cesar, which will be developed by Spain's Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA) and Argentina's space agency CONAE, will transmit 5m (16ft)-resolution images of the earth. A launcher for the 400kg (880lb) spacecraft has ...
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Shuttle could fly until 2030
NASA predicts that its Space Shuttle could still be flying up to 2030 unless the US Government helps to fund new reusable launch vehicle projects. The Space Shuttle programme's four orbiters are a quarter of the way through their lifetimes, says Richard Stephens, vice-president and general manager ...
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SpaceDev and Lockheed Martin probe low-cost services scheme
SpaceDev and Lockheed Martin have joined forces to investigate the development and marketing of low-cost access to orbit for small payloads. The delivery service will be based on the Lockheed Athena booster and SpaceDev's standardised MiniSIL spacecraft buses. Two SpaceDev craft would fly on the Athena, carrying science and ...
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Rosetta goes on as NASA retires
The European Space Agency (ESA) has completed the final design of its Rosetta orbiter and is preparing the spacecraft for a comet landing in 2012. NASA recently cancelled its Champollion comet lander project because of budget cuts. Europe "has seized the opportunity the USA always misses", said ESA director ...
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Proton failure puts question mark over ISS Zvezda launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON The failure of a domestic Russian launch of a four-stage Proton booster on 5 July has grounded International Launch Services (ILS) and casts doubts on a punctual launch of the International Space Station (ISS) Zvezda service module in November. The US-Russian ILS Atlas fleet is already ...
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Starsem gathers new contracts
Globalstar has awarded a contract to Starsem to carry four more satellites on a Soyuz launch in 2001. This follows three launches of four Globalstars each this year. Another three previously contracted Globalstar launches are due later this year. The Aerospatiale-Matra/Arianespace/Samara/Russian SpaceAgency owned Starsem also has contracts for two ...