All Space articles – Page 220
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MMS wins sixth Eurostar contract in six months
Tim Furniss/LONDON MATRA MARCONI SPACE (MMS) has been awarded a contract to build the Hot Bird 5 direct-broadcast communications satellite for Eutelsat, the European telecommunications-satellite operator. A launcher for the 1998 lift-off has not yet been selected. The company built the Hot Bird 1 (launched in ...
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Hughes pushes satellite-navigation service
HUGHES Telecommunications and Space (HTS) is to continue to pursue development of civil satellite-based augmentation to the global-positioning system (GPS), despite a rebuff from Inmarsat with its decision not to invest in navigation payloads for its new-generation ICO global communications satellites. Although Inmarsat, has declared its lack ...
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Russian roulette
Cash-starved Russia could be ousted from the Alpha International Space Station project. Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA ASTRONAUT SHANNON Lucid is now aboard the Russian space station Mir 1, having been delivered on the third Shuttle Mir Mission (SMM). Fellow astronaut Bill Shepherd, due to fly with two ...
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Russia enters commercial age with launch of Proton SL-12
Tim Furniss/LONDON RUSSIA OFFICIALLY entered the commercial geostationary-orbit-satellite launcher business on 8 April, when a Proton SL-12 model was launched successfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the Astra 1F satellite for Luxembourg's Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES). The launch was managed by ILS ...
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Dornier trains Orfeus-Spas II crew
DORNIER SATELLITE Systems has been training the crew of November's STS80 Space Shuttle mission to handle Germany's retrievable Astro-Spas (Shuttle Pallet Satellite) with the Orfeus (Orbital Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer) telescope. The 14-day mission, to be known as the Orfeus-Spas II, will be the second deployment ...
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Third success is achieved for Shuttle-Mir programme
THE SPACE Shuttle STS76/Atlantis landed at Edwards AFB, California, on 31 March after the successful third Shuttle Mir Mission (SMM). The Atlantis, launched on 22 March, docked with the Russian Mir 1 space station, delivering US astronaut Shannon Lucid to the station to undertake a 143-day flight ...
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Alpha will host anti-matter experiment
NASA AND THE US Department of Energy (DoE) have agreed to fly an anti-matter experiment on the Alpha International Space Station. The experiment will be developed by a team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The DoE-sponsored state-of-the-art Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) physics experiment will look for ...
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Asia Pacific space booms with three satellite orders
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE ASIA PACIFIC region's space-communications business has taken a big stride with the award of $440 million-worth of contracts to build three satellites. Singapore and Taiwan have awarded a $240 million deal to Matra Marconi Space (MMS) to build the ST-1 communications satellite ...
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Holding out
Israel Military Industries is looking for partners in adesperate effort to restore its fortunes. Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV ISRAEL MILITARY Industries' new president and chief executive Shlomo Milo is looking at new ways to slim the business after an often painful rationalisation programme failed to return the company ...
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Japan sets lower space goals but stays in Alpha
Tim Furniss/LONDON JAPAN IS TO SCALE back its space programme, setting more realistic short-term goals, with less emphasis on long-term national manned-space-flight aspirations and more on unmanned satellites and planetary exploration. The Government has endorsed a study, Fundamental Policy of Japan's Space Activities, which confirms ...
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Rockwell may sell out of aerospace and defence
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES REPORTS THAT Rockwell International is, actively seeking a buyer, for its aerospace and defence businesses have been greeted with silence, from the US corporation. Although the bulk of the aerospace business is understood to be for sale, the group's Collins Commercial Avionics ...
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Aerospatiale gears up for manned-spaceflight plans
AEROSPATIALE OF France has begun testing its atmospheric-re-entry demonstrator (ARD) vehicle amid promises from the European Space Agency (ESA) that it intends to remain firmly committed to achieving a manned space-flight capability. The conically shaped, 2.8t ARD is intended for its first test atop the second Ariane ...
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PSLV sucess
The third development flight of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-D3) was completed successfully on 21 March at India's Srihorikota launch centre. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says that the four-stage launcher placed the 920kg Indian remote-sensing satellite, the IRS-P3, into near-polar Sun-synchronous orbit 820km above the Earth after ...
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T-minus 56 days and counting
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S (ESA) $5 billion Ariane 5 satellite launcher, is scheduled to have its maiden flight on 15 May. The booster is being assembled at Kourou, French Guiana, and will resemble the vehicle mock-up pictured above in 1995. The 30.5m-high Ariane 5 will be used to fly two ...
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Pegasus XL flies at third attempt
Tim Furniss/LONDON ORBITAL SCIENCE'S (OSC) Pegasus XL satellite launcher had its first successful flight on 8 March. It carried the US Air Force's $5 million, 110kg, REX 2 science satellite into a 720 x 700km polar orbit after an air-launch from the company's Lockheed L-1011 mother craft, 39,000ft ...
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MCI builds new joint venture
MCI COMMUNICATIONS and The News Corporation, with Loral Space, have formed a joint venture to launch two $400 million communications satellites in 1997-8. The satellites will provide high-power digital direct-to-home television services from a co-location at 110¡W longitude in geostationary orbit. The first Loral-built satellite will be launched ...
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Hyped down
The re-entry capsule of the Chinese FSW 1 remote-sensing satellite launched in October 1993 re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 March. Any capsule remains, which survived re-entry landed in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The 900kg recoverable capsule was stranded in orbit, when its retro-rocket misfired. (Flight International, 10-16 November 1993). ...
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Longer life
Seven more Space Shuttle missions are scheduled to dock with the Russian Mir 1 space station. Tim Furniss/LONDON THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF the ten-year-old Russian Mir 1 space station is to be extended to 2000, with the help of two more Shuttle Mir Missions (SMMs) ...
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Robotic workstations
Canada's Spar Aerospace has been awarded a $30 million contract from NASA, through Canadian Commercial, to provide two robotic workstations for the international space station Alpha. These will enable astronauts to operate the Alpha's Spar Aerospace-built mobile servicing system. Source: Flight International
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Rockwell unveils new X-33 SSTO baseline design
ROCKWELL AND Northrop Grumman have revealed a new baseline design for the X-33 advanced-technology single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) half-scale demonstrator launch vehicle. The 30m-long, 22,680kg launcher resembles the company's existing Space Shuttle orbiter, but incorporates the expected state-of-the-art advanced technologies, including a new breed of engines. "Rockwell intends to be ...