All Space articles – Page 193
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Crucial Ariane 503 launch date is set
Tim Furniss/LONDON The critical third European Space Agency-funded development flight of the Ariane 5 launcher is scheduled to take place from Kourou, French Guiana, on 20 October. The 503 mission must succeed if the new launcher is to be handed over to Arianespace for commercial work (Flight International, ...
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Atlantis returns to Kennedy after upgrade programme
Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis has arrived back at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, after its 10-month upgrade at Boeing in Palmdale, California. The main features of the upgrade include the $9 million Multifunction Electrical Display Subsystem "glass cockpit" and a global positioning satellite-based navigation system. The Atlantis, which ...
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Phantom satellite
Tim Furniss/LONDON US intelligence officials admit they were caught unawares when North Korea launched a three-stage satellite booster on 31 August. The attempt failed, but it exposed the USA's lack of knowledge about the country's ability to develop a three-stage rocket. The booster was a two-stage Taepo Dong ...
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Ariane boost
Arianespace flight V110/ Ariane 44LP launched the PanAmSat-7 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit on 16 September from Kourou, French Guiana. The PAS-7 was built by Space Systems/Loral. The successful flight is a boost for the launcher industry after a series of failures since 12 August involving Titan 4A, Delta ...
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New Spaceports
A new commercial spaceport has been established in the USA. The Virginia Space Center at Wallops Island, built with the assistance of the state's public and private sector - including a $4.5 million investment by DynCorp - will support launches of Athena, Taurus and Minotaur (converted Minuteman missiles) boosters for ...
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The Spektr of Mir is brought back to life
Mir cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev completed a 3h sortie into the unpressurised Spektr module on 15 September to reconnect cables to the module's solar arrays. The Mir unit was damaged last year in a collision with an unmanned Progress launcher during a docking operation. If the Spektr ...
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Noughts and losses
Tim Furniss/LONDON Over 29 days, beginning on 12 August, about $3 billion-worth of spacecraft and boosters fell in pieces from the sky following three launch failures. A Titan 4A, the first Delta III and a Zenit 2 were lost, together with 14 satellites, 12 of them on the Zenit. ...
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NASA looks at X-38 and VentureStar mixture
NASA and Lockheed Martin are studying the use of the X-38 International Space Station (ISS) crew return vehicle with the proposed VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. The work, which is at a conceptual stage, is aimed at providing an alternative to the Space Shuttle as an ISS transporter. The X-38, a ...
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Surrey Satellite signs for Dnepr mini lauch
Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has signed a contract with the Russian ISC Kosmotras company to launch its new Uosat 12 minisatellite aboard a modified SS-18 missile, renamed the Dnepr. The launch will be from Baikonur in 1999. Kosmotras, a Russian/Ukrainian venture, is converting the SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile into ...
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Rotary revolution
Tim Furniss/LONDON Rotary Rocket Company has raised $17 million from investors and hired Barclays Capital to assist in an additional $20 million private investment in its bid to offer commercial satellite launches. The Redwood Shores, California-based company will offer transportation of payloads weighing 3,200kg to low earth orbit ...
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SSTL wins moon mission contract
UK company Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has won a contract from the European Space Agency to undertake a Lunar Orbiter Mission study. SSTL will work with the Technical University of Berlin and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The SSTL-led Lunar Academic Research Satellite, Lunarsat, is the result ...
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NASA looking at X-38 and VentureStar combination
NASA and Lockheed Martin are studying a concept of using the X-38 International Space Station (ISS) Crew Return Vehicle and the proposed Lockheed Martin VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane to provide an alternative to the Space Shuttle. The X-38, a prototype of which is being prepared for its second automatic atmospheric ...
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Russian activity continues despite crisis
Tim Furniss/LONDON Russian space companies have been promised new funding, landed a multi-million dollar contract and completed another commercial satellite launch, despite the economic crisis that has beset the country. The fate of the nation's involvement in the International Space Station (ISS) remains unclear, however. A Khrunichev-built Russian ...
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Aerojet delivers final DSP sensor
GenCorp Aerojet has delivered the last in a 28-year legacy of infrared sensor products for the US Air Force Defense Support Programme (DSP) early warning satellite programme. The company says at Farnborough that the Sensor 23 delivery to satellite-builder TRW will earn it the final $42 million of the ...
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European missile men square off against Americans
Tim Ripley British Aerospace and Lagardere have re-affirmed their missile alliance after French moves to privatise Aerospatiale appeared to threaten the foundations of Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD). At Farnborough yesterday, MBD chief executive Fabrice Bregier announced that detailed negotiations are now under way to link his company with ...
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Arianespace resumes launch programme
Arianespace returned to space on 25 August after a launch hiatus going back to April, when Ariane V109 44P carried the Matra Marconi Space-built ST-1 communications satellite into geostationary orbit from Kourou, French Guinan. The ST-1 is to be operated by a Taiwan-Singapore consortium. It was the 37th consecutive successful ...
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UK funds navigation work but not Mars bid
Tim Furniss Another new UK space minister visited Farnborough yesterday, praising the virtues of public-private partnerships in space but unable to offer even a few million pounds to kick-start what could be the most prestigious UK space mission for years. Lord Sainsbury, successor to John Battle, whose reign ...
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Spar wins three new contracts for ISS
Spar Aerospace has been awarded three space contracts to support the International Space Station (ISS), as well as Hughes communications satellite projects. An $18.6 million contract from L3 Communications has been secured by the Canadian companyto supply a second Ku-band high-gain antenna for use on the ISS. Additional funding, ...
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Spaceport Florida develops quick reaction launch pad
An old launch pad at Cape Canaveral is being converted for "quick reaction" commercial launches, says Spaceport Florida Authority (SFA) in Hall 2. SFA already operates a converted launch pad, No 46 at Canaveral, which made its debut in January with the launch of the Lunar Prospector aboard an ...
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Alenia leapfrogs Euro space station work
Alenia Spazio's Space Division reports that its first Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is being processed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in preparation for its launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 1999. It was shipped to the KSC on an the Airbus A300-600T Beluga cargo ...