All Space articles – Page 229
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First satellite launch by Lockheed Martin
WITH THE NEW Lockheed Martin logo hastily painted on its side, an Atlas 2AS booster blasted off from Cape Canaveral on 22 March, carrying the Intelsat 705 communications satellite into orbit, on the first satellite launch by the newly merged corporation. Other launch companies have not fared so ...
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Second launch pad for India
THE INDIAN Government has approved construction of a second launch pad at the Sriharikota space centre in the south of the country. Spending on the project was approved in the 1995-6 space budget, in which New Delhi also approved three more test flights of the Polar Satellite ...
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ERS 2: the successor
The ERS 2, is built by a consortium led by, Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The 2,516kg spacecraft is based on the design of the Matra Marconi Space Spot commercial remote-sensing satellite. With the exception of the GOME and a visible wavelength band for the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), the instruments are ...
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LLV 2 development
Design work has begun on the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) 2, in an effort to attack the growing commercial market for launches of 1,800kg payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Lockheed's first vehicle, the LLV 1 - which will resemble this engineering model at Vandenberg AFB, California - will be launched ...
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First American flies to board the Mir
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA ASTRONAUT Norman Thagard became the first American to board a Russian space station on 16 March after the docking of the Soyuz TM21 spacecraft in which he and two Russian colleagues were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome two days earlier. Thagard, commander ...
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NASA picks contractors for X-33 and X-34 projects
NASA HAS PICKED Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell International to compete to build the X-33 re-useable launch-vehicle demonstrator, which could eventually lead to a Space Shuttle replacement. It also announced selection of Orbital Sciences to build and fly the smaller companion X-34 booster-demonstrator, beginning late in 1997. The ...
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NASA selects new Discovery missions
NASA HAS SELECTED the Lunar Prospector as the third low-cost Solar System exploration mission in the Administration's Discovery programme. To be launched in June 1997, the $59 million, 1.3m-diameter, hatbox-shaped craft will go into orbit around the Moon. It will be used to map its chemical composition and ...
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Pegasus to launch satellite trio
ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) will begin a new era in satellite data communications later this month with the launch of the first two Orbcomm satellites aboard the Pegasus XL. Also on board will be the first OSC Microlab piggyback science satellite for NASA. The Orbcomms, originally scheduled to have ...
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Kodak in space
Eastman Kodak has joined the Space Imaging company formed by Lockheed to operate a commercial remote-sensing satellite system, starting in 1997. The satellites will generate 1m-resolution digital images for the production of data products for a market which is forecast to be worth $5 billion in 2000. Japan's Mitsubishi has ...
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Endeavour prepared for longest Shuttle flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE SPACE SHUTTLE Endeavour/STS67 is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 01.27 local time on 2 March to attempt a 16-day mission, the longest by the Space Shuttle. Carrying the Astro 2 payload of three ultraviolet astronomy telescopes, ...
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Mir enters tenth year in orbit
THE CORE MODULE of the Russian Mir 1 space station entered its tenth year in orbit on 20 February, three days after the routine docking of a tanker ship, the Progress M26. The Mir, which now consists of a Kvant 1 astrophysics module, and the Kvant 2 and ...
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Heat Rejection
Loral Vought has been awarded a $13.3 million extension-contract to redesign six heat-rejection system radiators for the international space station. The 1,050kg, 3m-long radiators will extend to 25m in orbit and will be capable of releasing 11kW of excess heat using a pumped liquid-ammonia heat-transfer system. ...
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Shaky partnership
Despite the Discovery's triumph, joint US/CIS missions face an uncertain future. Tim Furniss/LONDON As James Weatherbee, commander of the US Space Shuttle Discovery, brought his orbiter close to the Russian Mir 1 space station on 6 February, he told the station's commander Alexander Viktorenko that he ...
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Discovery paves way for Mir space station docking
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE SPACE SHUTTLE STS63/Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on 11 February after an eight-day 6h mission, which included a rendezvous with the Russian Mir 1 space station on 6 February. The rendezvous was a major step towards the planned seven Shuttle ...
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Heat Rejection
Loral Vought has been awarded a $13.3 million extension-contract to redesign six heat rejection system radiators for the international space station. The 1,000kg, 3m-long radiators will extend to 25m in orbit and will be capable of releasing 11kW of excess heat using a pumped liquid ammonia heat transfer system. ...
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NASA spending will be slashed by $5 billion
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NASA WILL UNDERGO a "profound" restructuring, to absorb a $5 billion spending cut by the end of fiscal year 2000. The cut has been demanded in the Clinton Administration's latest budget submission to Congress. Administrator Daniel Goldin says: "Make no mistake. When this ...
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China blames Hughes for ApStar failure
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE LOSS OF THE Long March 2E booster after launch on 26 January (Flight International, 8-14 February) was caused by an explosion aboard the Hughes HS 601 ApStar 2 satellite, a Chinese newspaper has claimed. "The satellite's explosion caused the rocket's explosion, which was ...
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Funded Japanese spacecraft
NASDA GMS 5 Latest in a series of operational geo-stationary orbiting meteorological satellites, to be launched by the H2F3 on 22 February; Hyflex Hypersonic space plane demonstrator, to be launched by the J1F1 in February 1996; ADEOS Advanced Earth-observation satellite to carry multi-spectral scanners, ...
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Launch pressure
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan's third H2 booster will be carrying the nation's pride and, if successful, will raise post-earthquake morale when it is launched from the Tanegashima space centre on 22 February. After the $575 million losses of the Engineering Test Satellite 6 (ETS) in orbit in August 1994 ...
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Launch Pressure
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan's third H2 booster will be carrying the nation's pride and, if successful, will raise post-earthquake morale when it is launched from the Tanegashima space centre on 22 February. After the $575 million losses of the Engineering Test Satellite 6 (ETS) in orbit in August ...