All Space articles – Page 228
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Boeing reaches Space Station milestone
IN A MAJOR PROGRAMME milestone, Boeing Defense and Space Group has completed fabrication of the exterior structure of the first of two US pressurised connecting-node modules for the proposed Alpha international space station. The 2,267kg aluminium nodes are the 4.8m-long, 4.4m-diameter sections to which the Space Shuttle, space-station ...
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Step up
The US Air Force has exercised its third option under its small-launch-vehicle contract with Orbital Sciences, for a Pegasus launch of the STEP 4, space test programme satellite, in 1997. Other options exercised, were for the STEP 3 and fast on-orbit recording of transient events satellites, in 1995 and 1996. ...
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ERS 2 in orbit after Ariane success
The European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS 2 remote-sensing satellite was safely placed into a 770 x 797km, Sun-synchronous polar orbit on 21 April, after launch by an Ariane 40 from Kourou. Following a three-month commissioning phase, the ERS 2 - which has a predicted operational lifetime of 30 ...
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India accelerates GSLV development
Following its re-negotiated deal with Russia for the purchase of seven cryogenic-rocket engines, India is accelerating the development of the national Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and its own cryogenic rocket engine and third stage, the C-12 (Flight International, 19-25 April). Almost half of India's $330 million, 1995/6 space budget ...
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Boeing expects flat year despite victories
A DROP IN deliveries, added to high levels of research-and-development (R&D) funding, hit Boeing's first-quarter net earnings, which fell by 38%, compared with 1994, to $181 million. A total of 59 aircraft were delivered, compared to 82 a year earlier, when deliveries," ...substantially exceeded the nominal production rate ...
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Liquid launch
The Space Shuttle STS 70 mission in June will be a routine Tracking and Data Relay Satellite deployment and experiments flight, with a five-person crew under the command of US Air Force Col. Terrence Henricks. Its first eight minutes of flight, however, will make history. One of the ...
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More US astronauts head for Mir date the Mir space station
FOUR US ASTRONAUTS have been selected by NASA, for further missions aboard Russia's Mir 1 space station, as the agency builds up towards long duration operations, on board the planned international Alpha space station. Shannon Lucid, Jerry Linenger, John Blaha and Scott Parazynski are the astronauts named for ...
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Florida Authority
The US Air Force has formally handed over its launch pad 46 at Cape Canaveral to Spaceport Florida Authority (SFA) for use by commercial-launcher companies, including Orbital Sciences and Lockheed. The USAF awarded SFA a payment of $2.74 million, while additional funding will come from the space industry and the ...
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Magellan's global views of Venus
NASA HAS RELEASED A COMPOSITE of the complete radar imaging of Venus made using the Magellan mapping orbiter between September 1990 and October 1994, when the spacecraft entered the deeper portions of the Venusian atmosphere and was destroyed. Image A features the North Pole, including, the mountain Maxwell Montes, while ...
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Komplex presses on with Start
RUSSIAN LAUNCHER Company STC Komplex will press ahead with plans to offer international commercial launches, despite the failure of its Start satellite launcher on March 28, claims director Yuri Solomonov. Solomonov claims that the booster is still operational despite the failure of the inaugural launch, which resulted in ...
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Rokot link
Daimler-Benz Space and Russia's Khrunichev have formally established a joint venture to market the three-stage Rokot (the former SS-19 Stiletto missile) as a commercial launcher to be operated from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 1997. The Rokot can place 1,000kg into low-Earth orbit. It was used to place a small satellite ...
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ESA members bicker over Alpha space-station funds
Julian Moxon/PARIS THE ROW OVER European funding for the proposed Alpha international space station has led to a bout of accusations between individual members of the European Space Agency (ESA). The French space agency, CNES, has lashed out at other European countries which are accusing France ...
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Ariane launch date set for ESA's second remote-sensing satellite
THE EUROPEAN SPACE Agency's second remote- sensing satellite, the ERS 2, will be launched aboard Ariane flight V72 on 20 April. The Ariane 40 vehicle, with no thrust-augmentation strap-on boosters, will place the spacecraft into a circular, 780km, Sun-synchronous orbit (Flight International, 22-28 March). The launch will open ...
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Saab to provide computers for Thai satellite
SAAB ERICSSON SPACE has won a SKr20 million ($2.7 million) order to provide computer systems for use on Thailand's Thaicom 3 telecommunications satellite. The order comes via Aerospatiale, the main supplier to Thailand's Shinawatra Satellite. The French manufacturer is the first European company to penetrate this formerly US-dominated ...
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Space spectacular
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing a daily bonanza of images and data for astronomers Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has scheduled another Space Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for 1997. The STS82/Discovery mission, scheduled for launch in February 1997, is the ...
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Pegasus XL lofts first Orbcomm satellites
THE ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) Pegasus XL air-launched booster was used successfully to place the first two of the company's Orbcomm communications satellites into 728km (390nm) circular orbit on 3 April. OSC's Microlab 1 research satellite, a smaller version of Orbcomm's MicroStar standard satellite bus equipped with NASA and ...
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Rockwell/OSC in X-34 tie-up
ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) and Rockwell International have formed a jointly owned company, called American Space Lines (ASL), to develop, operate and market the X-34 small re-usable launch vehicle. The project, being undertaken with NASA, will see the two companies invest $100 million in the project while the space ...
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ESA continues to support Alpha
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency (ESA) has re-affirmed in a letter to NASA and other programme partners its commitment to the proposed Alpha international space station. A formal decision on European involvement in the Alpha, however, is not expected to be made until the 18-20 October European Ministers' Council ...
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Ariane operations resume with successful launch
ARIANESPACE RESUMED commercial-launch operations on 28 March with the successful launch of the Brasilsat B2 and Hot Bird 1 satellites into geostationary-transfer orbit. The V71/Ariane 44LP launch from Kourou, Guiana, came 117 days after the failure of V70 (Flight International, 29 March-4 April). The Ariane 4 fleet was ...
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Russian space disaster revealed
THE FIRST TEST flight of the Soviet Union's giant N1 Moon booster ended in an explosion at T+70s on 21 February, 1969, killing 91 people on the ground near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, it has been revealed on Russian television. Although some details of the flight have been revealed, ...