All Space articles – Page 216
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NASA plans a fifth Discovery mission
NASA has invited proposals for a fifth mission in the Discovery programme aimed at producing "smaller, faster, better, cheaper" spacecraft. The mission will be launched in September 2002 and must cost less than $226 million to build and fly. The planetary-class mission will follow the Near Earth Asteroid ...
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ILS will continue with syntin fuel for Proton
The high-performance Russian hydrocarbon-based propellant, syntin, will continue to be used on the Block D fourth stage of the ILS International Launch Services Proton booster for all currently contracted launches, despite no longer being used on the Soyuz U2 booster, to save costs. The Soyuz U2 will continue ...
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Space knockout
Malfunctions on satellites caused by electrostatic discharges are more common than manufacturers care to admit. Tim Furniss/LONDON THE DATE, 20 JANUARY 1994, does not immediately spring to mind as memorable in space history, but it was a nightmare day for the communications-satellite industry, particularly in Canada. Without warning, ...
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More missions
France will pay Russia to fly two more missions aboard the Mir 1 space station, including a four-month visit in 1999 to gain operational experience for its participation in the European Space Agency's share of the International Space Station. Source: Flight International
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Second decade
Eumetsat has ordered a fleet of spacecraft for polar orbits. Tim Furniss/LONDON EUMETSAT, EUROPE'S weather-satellite organisation, has marked its tenth year of operations by authorising the development of a new $2.3 billion satellite system to send into polar orbits. The satellites will be used to improve weather ...
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Russian U-turn
Russia will discontinue the use of the uprated Soyuz U2 booster for launches of manned Soyuz TM and other craft into low-Earth orbit, and revert to the sole use of the Soyuz U, because of budget difficulties. The Soyuz U2 had more redundant systems and used a more expensive synthetic ...
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High hopes for AFLEX
JAPAN'S SMALL-SCALE AUTOMATIC-LANDING Flight Experiment (AFLEX) has been flight tested at the Woomera rocket range, South Australia, as part of a preparatory programme for the H-II Orbiting Plane-X (HOPE-X) automatic space shuttle, which, it is hoped, will fly in about 2000. The AFLEX, which has a similar configuration to that ...
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ILS launches two satellites on Proton and Atlas boosters
Tim Furniss/LONDON ILS INTERNATIONAL Launch Services has demonstrated its satellite and orbital delivery service by launching, in two days, the Inmarsat 3F2 and GE 1 communications satellites on Proton and Atlas boosters from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and Cape Canaveral in Florida, respectively. The consortium linking Lockheed ...
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Ion drive
NASA's first New Millennium mission, Deep Space 1, will be propelled through interplanetary space by an ion drive engine. Tim Furniss/LONDON AS A PART OF SEVERAL new space-engine initiatives by the US space agency NASA, the prototype of a xenon-ion engine is undergoing a year-long test firing at ...
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Orbital Sciences wins X-34 launch-test vehicle deal
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has formally awarded Orbital Sciences (OSC) the $50 million contract to develop the small X-34 technology demonstrator for the agency's reusable launch vehicle (RLV) programme. The X-34 research will complement the Lockheed Martin's X-33 single-stage-to-orbit RLV sub-orbital demonstration vehicle and the McDonnell ...
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Competitive upgrade
Japan is redesigning its H2 booster to enable it to compete in the launcher market. Tim Furniss/LONDON AN UPRATED VERSION of Japan's H2 satellite launcher will have its first flight in 2000, in a late attempt to make a viable entry into the commercial-launcher market and ...
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'Culture shock' for space travellers
The vehicle to replace the US Space Shuttle will carry people into space without a crew, says Micky Blackwell, president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics Sector. It will be the end of the manned spaceflight as we know it and will be a "culture shock" for ...
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Spaceport funds
The Spaceport Florida Authority company, part of a business promotion for the US state in Hall 2, says that it has received an additional $280,000 funding from NASA for its project to refurbish a military launch pad at Cape Canaveral for commercial use and to develop a customer service centre. ...
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Power conversion
Power conversion specialist Interpoint is expanding its interest in space applications by supplying all conversion for the International Space Station - Alpha, which is scheduled for its initial launch in November 1997. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Interpoint, the company concentrates on aerospace and military power conversion schemes ...
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Forme astronaut sees Mars as the next space frontier
As a pioneer of the US space programme who risked his life on three spaceflights and almost lost it on his fourth - Apollo 13 - former Navy Capt Jim Lovell could be forgiven for feeling a bit let down. Isn't the US space programme a shadow of its ...
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Hughes will build fifth Mexican satellite for 1998 launch
HUGHES SPACE and Communications continues its role as sole builder of Mexico's communications satellites by winning the contract to build the Morelos 3, which will be launched in 1998. The company built the Morelos 1 and 2, launched in 1995, and two Solidaridad craft placed in orbit in 1993 and ...
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Rapid launch
NASA's Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer was launched into a 3,150 x 4,180km, 83¡, orbit by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL booster on 21 August. It was the third successful flight (out of five attempts) of the air-launched XL booster. The original Pegasus booster had eight flights, with six fully successful ...
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Military mapper
The US Department of Defense plans to fly a Space Shuttle mission tomap the Earth in close-up. Tim Furniss/LONDON ACCORDING TO DR MICHAEL Kobrick of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, "-we have a better global map of Venus than we do for the Earth". He has conceived ...
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Starsem deal
The Starsem joint venture to market the Russian Soyuz booster for commercial launches makes its first public outing at the Show. Aerospatiale has joined with Russia's Samara space manufacturing company and the Russian Space Agency to market the booster for launches of payloads weighing up to 5,000kg into low ...
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Sugar and space from amateur rocketeer
Putting Britain back into space - that's the message being broadcast, not from the British National Space Centre (BNSC) pavilion but a small booth on the Lancashire Association of Aerospace Companies. Here at Hall3/E11 stands Britain's hope of making its "first space shot in more than 25 years". ...