All Space articles – Page 200
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Space lifeboat aims for space test
An unmanned scale model of the X-38 Crew Emergency Return Vehicle "space lifeboat" for the International Space Station will be deployed from the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2000 to conduct an automatic re-entry and landing. The first demonstrator glide test was on 12 March at 23,000ft (7,010m). Tests from ...
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Loral selects Long March booster
Loral Space and Communications signed an agreement with China Great Wall Industry on 16 March for five launches by 2002 of company-built satellites on the Long March 3B. The LM3B, the most powerful booster in China's fleet, with a geostationary transfer orbit capability of 5,000kg, clocked up two successful ...
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Comets raised
Japan's National Space Development Agency has raised the perigee of the orbit of the Comets communications technology satellite stranded by an H2 launch mishap on 21 February, from 248km to 390km. The 1,884km apogee remains unchanged. A further series of firings of the satellite's engine is hoped to place the ...
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Russia faces new threat to ISS share
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA is threatening to drop Russia from the International Space Station (ISS) programme after it was revealed that late arrival of Russian equipment could cause new delays. Joseph Rothenberg, the US space agency's associate administrator for spaceflight, has told Congress that NASA will decide on 15 ...
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Sentimental journey
Tim Furniss/LONDON Watching his fourth sunset of the day, sitting on the deck of the USS Noa recovery ship in the Atlantic Ocean after his splashdown on 20 February, 1962, US Marine Lt Col John Herschel Glenn yearned to return to orbit. On 7 November, 1998, Senator John Glenn, who ...
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Radarsat contract
Orbital Sciences' Vancouver subsidiary MacDonald Dettwiler has won the $225 million contract from the Canadian Space Agency to develop and manage the Radarsat 2 commercial radar imaging satellite system, due to be launched in 2001. Source: Flight International
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Cause of failure
Japan's National Space Development Agency says that the failure of the H2 launcher to place the Comets satellite into the correct orbit on 21 February was likely caused by gas leaking from the combustion chamber of the LE-5 second stage. This caused the engine parts to overheat and damaged the ...
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Shuttle catches up
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA's Space Shuttle is catching up with the space age. Honeywell Space Systems of Arizona has delivered 11 flat panel displays for the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the first of NASA's fleet of four orbiters to undergo a cockpit display upgrade. Honeywell's Multifunction Electronic Display Subsystem (MEDS) has a ...
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Ice find leads to renewed interest in lunar probe
Tim Furniss/LONDON Prospects for an eventual mission to one of the poles of the Moon to obtain ice samples have been boosted because data returned from the Lunar Prospector orbiter show a "high probability" that water ice exists. NASA, however, will be unable to support a fully funded ...
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Scale model of Space Station lifeboat prototype flies
NASA's X-38 unmanned scale model of a seven-person emergency crew return vehicle lifeboat for the International Space Station (ISS) made its first glide flight over the Mojave Desert, California on 12 March. The prototype lifting body was dropped from a B-52 deployed from Edwards AFB, California, at 23,000ft (7,000m ). ...
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Boeing sets date for solar power module
Boeing's solar orbit transfer vehicle (SOTV) is to be launched aboard one of the company's Delta III or Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles in October 2001. The company has received a $48 million contract from the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, to produce the first ...
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Cause for concern
As the third Ariane 5 is prepared for launch, there is anxiety about the programme Tim Furniss/LONDON Such is the state of the Ariane 5 programme that the third test flight of the European launcher in July will create as much tension as the first. The launcher's maiden flight ended ...
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Pegasus sends first Teledesic demonstrator into orbit
Tim Furniss/LONDON Teledesic's T1 experimental technology communications satellite has been launched aboard an Orbital Sciences (OSC) Pegasus XL booster. The air launch, from a Lockheed L1011, took place over the Pacific Ocean on 26 February. Described as the "first commercial Ka-band low Earth orbit satellite", the T1 is a technology ...
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Star partnership
Loral Space and Communications and Alcatel Alsthom are to develop and launch the EuropeStar multiple geostationary telecommunications and broad- casting satellite system. The system will provide telecommunications and other services to users as far afield as Western Europe to South-East Asia. EuropeStar, which will join Loral Skynet's Global Marketing Alliance, ...
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AIA 98 FINALIST:Russian Space Agency and NASA (Space)
Combined work to rescue the damaged Mir space station No review of space achievements in 1997 would be complete without mention of the rescue drama surrounding Russia's Mir space station. Working in the full glare of world publicity, the Russian Space Agency and Mir crew worked to overcome what ...
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AIA 98 FINALIST:NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Space)
On 4 July 1997, NASA had special reason to celebrate as the Mars Pathfinder made a perfect landing on Mars after seven months in space. The mission has not only provided important new scientific evidence about the planet, but also helped capture the imagination of a public already fuelled by ...
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Comets satellite stranded in wrong orbit after shutdown
Tim Furniss/LONDON The $360 million Japanese Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite, Comets, was stranded in low Earth orbit on 21 February when the LE-5 second stage engine of its H-2 launch vehicle shut down prematurely. The second stage was 44s into a planned 192s burn to place ...
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NASA delays ISS launches as it re-jigs schedules
NASA has admitted that the launch of the first components of the International Space Station (ISS) in June and July have been delayed until August and September. The space agency will ask Russia to delay the Proton launch of the Control Module. This had been planned for 30 June ...
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DERA and MMS link for ion propulsion
The UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and Matra Marconi Space (MMS) have formed a strategic alliance to develop and market ion propulsion technology for spacecraft. Ion propulsion - which has already been employed on some international spacecraft for attitude control and orbit station-keeping - employs inert xenon ...
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Fighting for Florida
Tim Furniss/CAPE CANAVERAL Despite hosting 23 of the 86 successful satellite launches made around the world in 1997, the Cape Canaveral launch base and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, are facing a challenging future. The Cape Canaveral base in particular, and supporting local industries, could be driven ...