All Space articles – Page 219
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Ashes to ashes
Small capsules containing the cremated remains of space pioneers are due to be ejected into orbit as part of the mission of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launcher, which will launch Spain's Minisat in September. The remains, including those of space physicist Gerard O'Neill, Todd Hawley, the founder of the ...
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Data from the Galileo reveal Io's iron heart
NASA's GALILEO Orbiter has provided data which indicate that Jupiter's moon, Io, has an iron core like that of the Earth. No other iron-cored body has yet been found in the Solar System. The Galileo was flown past Io at a distance of 900km shortly after entering orbit ...
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Moon Discovery spacecraft on schedule
THE LOCKHEED MARTIN-BUILT Lunar Prospector Orbiter is on schedule for its launch in October 1997 on the third of NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" Solar System missions in the Discovery programme (Flight International, 17-23 January, PP37-38). Lockheed Martin says that spacecraft components are under construction, science instruments are almost ready, and ...
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Pegasus launches MSTI 3 for USAF
THE FINAL standard model of the three-stage, air-launched Pegasus booster carried the US Air Force's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration satellite, MSTI 3, into orbit on 17 May. It was the sixth successful launch of the Orbital Sciences (OSC) booster since April 1990. The Pegasus was released from an ...
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Air purification
The air-purification system for the Alpha International Space Station has passed a 30-day evaluation test at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. In a simulation creating conditions during manning by four crew, engineers injected carbon dioxide and water and removed oxygen for a 175m3 (6,200ft3) test module. ...
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Air purification
The air-purification system for the Alpha International Space Station has passed a 30-day evaluation test at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. During a simulation of conditions during manning by four crew, engineers injected carbon dioxide and water and removed oxygen for a 175m3 (6,200ft3) test module. ...
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Solar wind identified as satellite-failure culprit
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE UK'S DEFENCE Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) has produced "...conclusive evidence that many satellites are at risk from electrostatic discharges while in orbit". The threats result from the "surprising" interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetic fields as they occur ...
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FCC says yes to LoralSat system
THE US FEDERAL Communications Commission has given Loral Space and Communications the go-ahead to develop and launch two LoralSat high-powered satellites to provide a full range of digital voice, data and television services to commercial and private users in the USA, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. ...
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NASA will use OSC Pegasus booster for Trace craft satellite
NASA HAS EXERCISED an option to use an Orbital Sciences (OSC) Pegasus XL booster under the Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS) contract to launch the Transitional Region and Coronal Explorer (Trace) satellite in 1997. The deal is worth $12 million. This is the fifth launch to be ...
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New entrant
Tim Furniss/LONDON A NEW ENTRANT in the commercial-launcher market will have its debut on 25 May with the lift-off of Europe's Ariane 5. The first flight will carry four Cluster science satellites, on the first of two European Space Agency-funded demonstration flights. When it enters service ...
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Priroda docking completes the Mir 1 space station
THE CONSTRUCTION of the Russian Mir 1 space station was completed on 26 April when the Priroda Earth-observation module was docked to the orbital space base after launch aboard a Proton SL-13 on 23 April. The 19,700kg Priroda - originally scheduled to have been launched in 1990 ...
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Orbital
US Space and information-systems company Orbital Sciences, of Dulles, Virginia, has appointed Jeffrey Pirone acting chief financial officer, following the resignation of Carlton Crenshaw, executive vice-president and chief financial officer. Pirone, now vice-president and controller, will hold the position until the post is filled permanently. Source: ...
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The X-Prize
US President Bill Clinton has been urged by Congressional space-supporters - led by Republican Richard Gephardt - to encourage the work of the X-Prize Foundation. The Foundation has been established to find private benefactors to fund a $10 million award to the first private team to build a re-useable spacecraft ...
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Ariane Launch
Ariane flight V85, using a 42P model of the booster series, was launched on 21 April, from Kourou, French Guiana, placing the 2,855kg MSAT-1 satellite into orbit. From its position at 106.5°W in geostationary orbit, the Hughes HS-601 space craft, equipped with two light-weight 5.1 x 5.7m oval springback antennae, ...
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Hole in the budget layer
NASA's efforts to demonstrate the USA's commitment to the worldwide effort to monitor the Earth's environment are under threat. Tim Furniss/GREENBELT, MARYLAND SINCE 1992, NASA'S EARTH Observing System (EOS) programme has had its $16 billion budget to the year 2000 cut by 50%. A further ...
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The first EOS missions
SCIENTISTS HAVE identified seven primary research areas, specifically for the EOS programme, to understand the Earth's climate more fully and the effect the human race has had on it: the role of clouds, radiation, water vapour and rain; the productivity of the oceans, their circulation ...
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Rockwell regains Navstar initiative
Tim Furniss/LONDON ROCKWELL International has won back work to build US Air Force Navstar global-positioning- system (GPS) satellites. The California-based company has now won 73 of the 93 Navstar contracts let by USAF. Up to 33 Navstar Block 2F spacecraft will be built by Rockwell ...
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Loral wins more PanAmSats
SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL has been selected to build two additional satellites for PanAmSat. The PanAmSats (PAS) 7 and 8 will be launched into geostationary-transfer orbit en route to positions in geostationary orbit over the Indian and Pacific oceans by an Ariane and an ILS International Launch Services Proton in 1997-8. ...
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The X-prize
The X-Prize Foundation, has been established to find private benefactors, to provide $10 million funding to award to the first private team, to build a re-useable space craft to carry three people on a sub-orbital space-flight, "...doing for space what the Orteig Prize, "won by Lindbergh" did for aviation", say ...
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Alliance takes over Shuttle
THE LOCKHEED Martin/ Rockwell United Space Alliance has assumed responsibility for the Shuttle Processing Contract (SPC) and the Space Operations Contract (SOC), in the first step towards becoming NASA's prime contractor for launch processing and operations for the Space Shuttle fleet (Flight International, 28 February-5 March). The SPC ...