All Space articles – Page 205
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ISS Modules
NASA has informally included Spacehab single and double modules on Space Shuttle International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, the STS95 and 96, in October and December 1998, respectively. Source: Flight International
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Contract Awards
Boeing is to build a launcher-manufacturing plant at Decatur, Alabama, which will be used either to assemble Delta 4 boosters, should the company win the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract in 1998, or to complement manufacturing of the Delta 3 fleet. Alabama-based H&H Consolidated has been awarded ...
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Atlas 2AS prepared for launch
The first version of the ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2 fleet is being prepared at the refurbished SLC-3E pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. The Atlas 2AS, designated AC-141, will undergo extensive testing to validate all ground systems, leading to the launch in June 1998 of NASA's Earth Observation System, ...
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Mir restoration work continues after Atlantis returns to Earth
Work to restore the Russian Mir space station to full working order continued after the departure of the seventh Space Shuttle Atlantis mission, which delivered cargo and equipment, including a new computer. The Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 6 October following a ten-day mission, ...
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ISS modules
NASA has informally included Spacehab single and double modules on Space Shuttle International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, the STS95 and STS96 in October and December 1998, raising the company's hopes that it will be used widely on Shuttle ISS missions after the end of the Shuttle Mir Mission programme ...
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OSC plans Orblink launch for 2002
Orbital Sciences (OSC) plans to launch seven Orblink communications satellites into medium-Earth orbit in 2002 to provide global broadband services, including electronic mail, Internet access and imagery transmission. The company has applied to the US Federal Communications Commission to operate the $900 million Orblink constellation from 9,000km circular ...
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USAF considers DC-X and X-33 for military-spaceplane testing
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have received US Air Force contracts to begin developing technologies and concepts for a military spaceplane. The Integrated Technology Testbed programme is aimed at demonstrating military-spaceplane operational concepts early next century. Boeing's demonstrator concept uses a re-usable rapid-response launch vehicle, derived from ...
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Boeing expects to cut ISS
Ramon Lopez/FLORIDA Boeing estimates that it can generate $25 million in annual cost savings through consolidation of International Space Station (ISS) activities. The efficiencies are made possible by Boeing's acquisitions of McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell International's space unit, which were major subcontractors, says John McLuckey, president ...
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Error mars India's space hopes
Tim Furniss/LONDON India launched its first fully operational satellite on an indigenous booster on 29 September, but a leak in the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) caused a 113kt (210km/h) velocity underperformance, which resulted in the craft being placed into the wrong orbit. ...
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Private pioneers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Sixteen organisations in Argentina, the UK and the USA are competing for a $10 million prize to be won by becoming the first to finance privately and build a spacecraft which can carry three people on a suborbital flight to an altitude of 100km. The prize ...
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Minuteman derivatives
The US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch Test Programme Office has awarded Orbital Sciences (OSC) a $206 million contract to develop and launch derivatives of the Minuteman inter-continental ballistic missile for suborbital and orbital missions. OSC will combine residual M55 Minuteman 2 first stages with Minuteman 1 ...
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Ariane 502 launch is put back
Tim Furniss/LONDON The lift-off of the second Ariane 5 has been put back from the end of September, possibly to November, but the 100th Ariane launch was completed from the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, in French Guiana on 24 September, The Ariane 502 development flight from ...
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Space Station costs soar as delays bite
Work on the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998 is expected to cost NASA and Boeing at least $430 million more than the $2.1 billion proposed in the space agency's 1998 budget. The extra cost includes $100 million set aside to compensate for delays caused by possible difficulties with Russian ...
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Eurockot aims for 1998 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) has received $35 million funding from the Dresdener Bank to begin reconfiguring a launch pad and developing support equipment at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome for the first commercial launch of the Rockot booster in late 1998, carrying three data-messaging satellites. Dasa and ...
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MISTI 2 misses Mir as resident crew take refuge in the Soyuz TM
The 168kg US Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration satellite, the MISTI 2, came within 1,000m of colliding with the Russian Mir 1 space station on 15 September. It was the closest known unplanned encounter between a manned spacecraft and another, unrelated, satellite in orbit. US ...
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Prospector delay
The launch of NASA's Lunar Prospector orbiter aboard a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV) 2 has been delayed from 24 September until 23 November, to allow additional time to complete testing on the booster. It will be the LMLV2 maiden flight and the first launch from the Spaceport Florida's commercial ...
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NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches orbit
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft entered orbit around the Red Planet on 11 September, marking the second success for the US space agency after the mission of the Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner Rover on the planet's surface, starting on 4 July (Flight International, 20-26 August). The Lockheed Martin-built ...
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On the horizon
How the European Space Agency plans more science with less money Tim Furniss/LONDON As the European Space Agency (ESA) prepares to see its penultimate large-scale, high-budget, planetary mission, the Huygens, take off with NASA's Cassini en route for Saturn on about 13 October (Flight International, 7-13 ...
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China previews Iridium launch
China Great Wall Industry, which is to launch 11 Long March LM2C boosters in 1998, carrying 22 US Motorola Iridium communications satellites, conducted a unique demonstration flight from Taiyuan on 1 September. An LM2C, equipped with the Iridium Smart Dispenser satellite-deployment upper stage, placed into low-Earth orbit two ...
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Damage to Huygens probe delays Saturn launches
The launch of the $3 billion NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter and its European Space Agency Huygens Titan moon probe has been delayed from 6 October. The Huygens probe has been damaged on the launch pad and the spacecraft have been removed from the Titan 4 launcher and returned ...