All Space articles – Page 227
-
News
Count down to success
The Ariane 5 launcher promises to provide a much-needed boost to the European space industry. Julian Moxon/PARIS When the Ariane 5 launcher finally roars away from the Kourou launch pad in French Guiana in early 1996, European launch capability will receive a badly needed shot ...
-
News
Finishing tape
The docking of a US shuttle with the Russian Mir 1 marks the official end of the "space race". Tim Furniss/LONDON When the US Space Shuttle STS71/Atlantis makes its historic docking with the Russian Mir 1 space station later this month, space exploration will have turned full ...
-
News
Huygens test success
The flight-test of the separation mechanisms and parachutes for the Huygens space probe, scheduled to land on Saturn moon Titan, has been completed by the European Space Agency, Aerospatiale and French space agency CNES. An engineering model of the Huygens, which will be placed piggyback on the NASA ...
-
News
October launch is planned for SOHO
Gilbert Sedbon/TOULOUSE MATRA MARCONI SPACE (MMS) is completing final integration and tests of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in Toulouse, before shipment to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its launch on an Atlas 2AS booster in October. The 1,850kg SOHO will be ...
-
News
The Shuttle/Mir missions
The objectives were: to gain engineering and operational experience in conducting research on an orbital space station; to characterise the environment relative to micro-gravity and life sciences; to better understand past and future investigations; to conduct specific investigations in medical support, life ...
-
News
Orbcomm passes space tests
NORMAL communications, with the Orbcomm 1 and 2 satellites, which were lost after launch on 3 April, have been restored. The first data messages to and from one of the spacecraft and a Panasonic personal communicator have been completed. A software problem, which was preventing the Orbcomm 2 ...
-
News
Columbus in dock
ESA's future as an important influence on the world of space flight could be in jeopardy. Tim Furniss/LONDON The European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus space-station programme is over 11 years old, but no flight hardware has yet been built. The political and bureaucratic wranglings among ...
-
News
Empty Space
Just when we've really got something to talk about, we can't go," says Debbie Rahn of NASA's public affairs office for international affairs, explaining that the US space agency has pulled out of this year's Paris air show, for reasons of economic expediency. The timing is unfortunate because ...
-
News
Russia plans space milestone
THE RUSSIAN SPACE Agency (RSA) has been refused the use of two Molniya boosters by the country's military space forces. The launch vehicles are required to allow the RSA to launch the Prognoz satellites as part of the 14-nation Interball project to study the Earth's magnetosphere. The ...
-
News
A global competition
PanAmSat plans to become the first private operator of a fully global communications satellite system. Tim Furniss/LONDON PanAmSat, of Greenwich, Connecticut, will not let a little problem like a failed Ariane launch and a lost satellite get in the way of its bold plans ...
-
News
Ukraine wins first launch contract
Tim Furniss/LONDON NPO YUZHNOYE OF Ukraine has been awarded a contract from Space Systems/ Loral to launch 36 Globalstar telecommunications satellites into low-Earth orbit aboard three Zenit 2 boosters. The launches will be from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in 1998. The contract is the first dedicated commercial-launch deal ...
-
News
GOES in orbit
An Atlas 1 model was used to launch a $220 million, Space Systems/Loral-built Geostationary Environmental Operational satellite, the GOES 9, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 23 May. For the first time since 1989, the USA has a full complement of GOES spacecraft in space. There are still three more launches ...
-
News
Ready for business
Lockheed Martin is replacing its controversial Series 7000 bus with the new A2100. Tim Furniss/LONDON Most of the proposals for new satellite contracts being made by the Astro Space division of Lockheed Martin in New Windsor, New Jersey, feature the new A2100 spacecraft bus (Flight ...
-
News
New engine to be tested on UK satellite
A NEW ROCKET engine developed and tested by UK companies will be fired in orbit for the first time aboard a satellite in 1997. The 0.4kN (88lb)-thrust engine is the brainchild of Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), at the University of Surrey, in Guildford - the UK's only satellite ...
-
News
McDonnell Douglas to develop Delta 3 satellite launcher
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES McDONNELL Douglas (MDC) is to develop the Delta 3 launcher in a bid to break into the market to launch large communications satellites. The decision comes on the back of a Hughes Space and Communications launch contract, potentially worth $1.5 billion. The contract ...
-
News
X-33: teams define the 'ultimate' launcher
NASA has selected three teams to define concepts for a re-usable launch vehicle to replace the Space Shuttle and to design an X-33 technology-demonstrator for the ultimate RLV, which would be an unmanned, fully re-usable, single-stage-to-orbit launcher capable of carrying a 18,000kg payload. The RLV, is expected to be flown, ...
-
News
X-34 partners
Orbital and Rockwell are developing the X-34 small re-usable launcher in an industry-led/government-assisted partnership with NASA. The companies have formed joint-venture American Space Lines - "an American Arianespace" - to develop, operate and market the air-launched X-34 and will together invest $100 million in the enterprise, with NASA contributing $70 ...
-
News
Arianespace reveals details of launch guarantees
ARIANESPACE HAS provided full details, of its guaranteed Ariane 5 launch service (Flight International, 16-22 November, 1994). "If a satellite is lost during the launch phase - whether the failure is caused by the launcher or the satellite itself - the customer will be granted a free launch ...
-
News
Space platform
The Ofeq 3 satellite is the first in a series of Israeli space platforms being offered to customers worldwide Tim Furniss/London Israel's Ofeq 3 satellite, which was launched into orbit by the country's Shavit booster on 5 April, is the first demonstration of a new, ...
-
News
The X-Files
The programmes may be complementary, but the X-33 and X-34 launchers meet different needs. Graham Warwick/ATLANTA When NASA awarded contracts for the X-33 and X-34 re-usable launch vehicles (RLVs) on the same day in March, it inadvertently created confusion which Rockwell International and Orbital Sciences, ...