All Space articles – Page 202
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Glenn confirmed
The flight of 77-year-old John Glenn - the USA's first man in orbit in February 1962 - as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle STS95/Discovery in October, has been confirmed by NASA. The STS95 will also feature a reflight of the Spartan free-flying satellite, which was lost, then retrieved, ...
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MMS to build second adaptor for Delta II
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) has won a contract from Boeing to build a second dual-payload-attach fitting (DPAF) for the Delta II satellite launcher. The DPAFs, which will provide the Delta II with dual-launch capability to low-Earth orbit for payloads up to 2,250kg, will be used first for a launch ...
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Space station project moves on as FGB goes to Baikonur
Tim Furniss/LONDON The International Space Station (ISS) project reached an important point on 17 January, with the roll-out and shipment to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan of the Functional Cargo Block (FGB) module. Launch of the system by a Proton booster is due on 30 June. The lift-off will mark ...
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Lunar Orbiter
NASA'S Lunar Prospector has entered its 100km circular polar orbit around the Moon. The Lockheed Martin-built, 295kg Discovery-series craft, which was launched on 6 January, will be used to conduct an intensive one-year survey of the Moon. It will use five instruments. Source: Flight International
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Enhanced Skynet 4 launched
Tim Furniss/CAPE CANAVERAL The UK's Skynet 4D military-communications satellite was lofted into orbit by a three-stage Boeing Delta 2 booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 10 January. The launch was the first of 18 planned by the Delta this year and the first of 11 Matra Marconi Space ...
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Arianespace looks to halve Ariane 5 price
Julian Moxon/PARIS Arianespace is looking for cuts of up to 50% in the purchase price of its new Ariane 5 as part of its planned production order for up to 50 launchers. "We will negotiate the deal based on our cost-reduction objectives," says president, Jean-Marie Luton. The contract would ...
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Mars fever
Tim Furniss/LONDON The first flights to enable assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) to begin are scheduled to start in June, but such is the intense public interest in Mars after the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 that NASA is considering a more Martian-orientated approach to the later stages ...
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First Athena 2 sends Lunar Prospector to Moon
Tim Furniss/CAPE CANAVERAL NASA's Lunar Prospector was launched on its five-day mission to the Moon by the first Lockheed Martin Athena 2 booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 January. The Lunar Prospector, also built by Lockheed Martin, will be used to conduct an intensive one-year survey of the Moon ...
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First Mars soil samples to be collected
NASA's plans for the Mars Surveyor Orbiter 2 and Lander 2 missions, to be launched in 2001, include the collection of the first samples of Martian soil to be brought back to Earth on a later mission. The Orbiter 2 and Lander 2 missions will follow the Mars Surveyor Orbiter ...
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Kelly Space completes Eclipse tow-launcher demonstration
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Kelly Space & Technology (KST) has completed the first large-scale demonstration of its "Eclipse" tow-launch technique at Edwards AFB, California using a US Air Force-supplied Lockheed C-141A and QF-106A. KST is developing a family of low-cost re-usable space launchers which will use the Eclipse technique ...
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Going private
Tim Furniss/LONDON Thirty-seven years ago, a US Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down for flying over the former Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the Space Age began with the launch of the Sputnik 1 on 4 October, 1957. Now the Cosmodrome is going private and very public. ...
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AsiaSat 3 drifts in space after failure of Proton upper stage
Tim Furniss/LONDON The Hughes-built AsiaSat 3 communications satellite was left drifting in a useless orbit after the the failure of the fourth stage of the Russian Proton K booster which launched it from Baikonur on 24 December. It was the first failure suffered by the US/Russian ILS International ...
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Forecasts 98': Space
Tim Furniss/LONDON At long last, assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to start in 1998. Six years later than originally planned, the first component is to be launched in June, marking the beginning the realisation of a programme initiated by USPresident Ronald Reagan in 1984. Reagan could ...
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Mir inspection has to be abandoned
The remote-controlled flight of the Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) Inspector free-flying satellite around the Russian Mir 1 space station on 17 December had to be abandoned on safety grounds after the vehicle suffered a suspected star-sensor failure. The 1m-long, 72kg Inspector was unable to point towards its planned targets of ...
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Spacehab wins new NASA contract
Spacehab of Vienna, Virginia, which leases pressurised Spacehab modules to NASA for missions on the Space Shuttle, has been awarded a $42 million contract from the US space agency to provide modules for three Shuttle missions to support the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). A further $19 ...
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Arianespace makes claim for independence
Tim Furniss/LONDON Arianespace, the European commercial-launcher organisation, says that moves to integrate it further with European aerospace companies could result in a conflict of commercial interest with some potential customers. The company, which is likely to become fully privatised in 1998, says that stronger links with European satellite ...
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ESA will build nodes for space station
The European Space Agency (ESA) has assigned to Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) the management of a project to build two new nodes for the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS). ASI replaces Boeing, which is building the first ISS Node. The Nodes 2 and 3, which connect modules of the ...
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European manned space hopes dashed
European manned space hopes dashed France has effectively killed off the European Space Agency's (ESA) plans to create an independent manned-spaceflight capability. The French Government says that it will pull out of ESA's proposed Ariane 5-launched Crew Transfer Vehicle project to support the International Space Station (ISS), for ...
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Space Shuttle Mir mission is delayed
The launch of the penultimate Space Shuttle Mir mission, the STS89/Endeavour, will now be delayed by about a week from 15 January as the result of a the request from Russia. Two cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station, with US astronaut David Wolf, need to complete three spacewalks and ...
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Fastrac test
The low-cost ($1 million) Fastrac liquid-oxygen/ kerosene-burning, 265kN (60,000lb)-thrust engine which will power the Orbital Sciences X-34 re-usable launch vehicle technology demonstrator air-launched spaceplane has undergone critical-component tests at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, says NASA. The X-34 is to begin a series of 25 flights, reaching Mach 8 ...