All Space articles – Page 230
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News
Apstar 2 satellite lost in Long March explosion
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE APSTAR 2 communications satellite was destroyed on 26 January when a Long March 2E rocket exploded 51s after launch from Xichang, China. The spacecraft loss was a record for the local insurance industry - Pacific Insurance of Shanghai had insured Apstar 2 for $160 ...
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Satellites are cause of some problems
Sir - The article "Telstar 4 mystery delays Asiasat 2" (Flight International, 11-17 January, P18) confirms a story which I published in Worldwide Satellite Launches on 10 October 1994. I said: "...US Spacecom has only tracked one object from the launch (1994-058A/23249) which has been nominally assigned to the satellite: ...
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Hughes wins contracts for four communications satellites
Tim Furniss/LONDON HUGHES SPACE and Communications International has maintained its lead in the satellite-manufacturing market with contract awards to build three HS-601 and one HS-376 communications satellites for Luxembourg, Malaysia and Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (ASC). The deals bring orders for the three-axis HS-601 to 38 ...
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Soaring satellites
The satellite market is booming in the Asia-Pacific region. Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Space-related activity in the Asia-Pacific region is growing at a rate unknown elsewhere. From the westernmost-orbital position allocated to an Asian satellite (38¡E), to the dateline at 180¡E, a 60% growth in traditional satellite-communications ...
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China aims for moon
The Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) next five-year space plan includes a series of lunar and planetary spacecraft, starting with a lunar orbiter to be launched in about 2000. The CAS intends to be "a leader in lunar exploration", says professor Jiang Jingshan, the director of the academy's space unit. ...
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Second satellite loss sets back Japanese space programme
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE JAPANESE space programme has been hit by its second major failure in five months, with the loss of the $160 million Experimental Recoverable Space System (Express) microgravity research satellite, after launch from the Kagoshima space centre on 15 January. The second stage of ...
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Fibre-optic contract goes to Sira
SIRA, THE UK space-instrumentation and hardware specialist, has won a contract which could lead to the development of a passive fibre-optic monitoring system capable of allowing ground controllers to view the deployment of spacecraft-based systems. The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Sira a feasibility contract under which ...
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Mir rendezvous
Tim Furniss/LONDON Members of the crew of a routine Space Shuttle Discovery mission have waited a year to be launched but, during that time, their mission has taken on a higher profile, as well as an extra crewman. The wait will have been worthwhile. The Discovery is now ...
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Atlas launches Intelsat 704 comsat
The year's first satellite launch took place from Cape Canaveral on 10 January, when a Martin Marietta Atlas 2AS rocket carried the Space Systems/Loral Intelsat 704 communications satellite (comsat) into an initial orbit en route to geostationary orbit. The international satellite communications organisation, which has 134 countries as ...
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European spies
Europe will make its space-surveillance debut when the Helios satellite is launched in 1995 Tim Furniss/LONDON The French Matra Marconi Space (MMS) Helios 1A satellite, to be launched by an Ariane 4 before the end of April, will provide Europe with the world's fourth military-surveillance capability, ...
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Telstar 4 mystery delays Asiasat 2 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON ASIASAT HAS DELAYED the launch of its Asiasat 2 on a Chinese Long March booster, originally scheduled for this month, until at least the middle of the year while the September 1994 failure of a similar Martin Marietta Astro Space-built satellite, the Telstar 402, is ...
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Change-over from Ariane 4 to Ariane 5 'will take three years'
THE TRANSITION FROM using the Ariane 4 to the new Ariane 5 launcher, due for its maiden flight on 29 November, will take three years, says Arianespace president Charles Bigot. Launches will be split about 50/50 between the two vehicles during the period, and will be allocated by ...
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China's DFH struggles into GEO
CHINA'S FIRST three-axis-stabilised, advanced, indigenous, 24 C-band communications satellite, the DFH 3, has finally reached geostationary orbit (GEO). A navigation malfunction had left it stranded in a lower transfer orbit ever since its launch aboard a Long March 3A on 30 November (Flight International, 7-13 December, 1994). ...
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Military conversions
Small-launcher companies are being encouraged to use former military launch pads in the USA. Tim Furniss/COCOA BEACH With the help of industry and the US Air Force, the states of California and Florida are refurbishing former military launch pads, at Vandenberg AFB and Cape Canaveral ...
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Russia launches Luch data-relay satellite for Mir 1 communication
A new Luch satellite data-relay network (SDRN) spacecraft was launched on a Proton booster from Baikonur on 16 December to provide real-time communications for the Mir 1 space station. From February 1992, the Mir, which also communicates via shipborne tracking stations - has been out of contact with ...
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Poliakov heads for spaceflight record
RUSSIAN COSMONAUT-PHYSICIAN Valeri Poliakov (right) is expected to break the record for the longest manned space-flight, when he reaches 366 days in orbit on 9 January - exceeding the year in orbit spent by the Soyuz TM4 crew, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, in 1987/8. Poliakov, who was launched to ...
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Smoother operations
NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle landing runway has been modified to reduce launch delays Tim Furniss/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Space Shuttle launch delays may be reduced by more than 50% because of extensive modifications to the 4,570m (15,000ft)-long grooved-concrete runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) ...