Space – Page 196
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Missile conversion
Tim Furniss/LONDON A former Minuteman II missile refurbished by Orbital Sciences (OSC) will be launched from California Spaceport at Vandenberg AFB in late 1999, carrying an experimental satellite. The Joint Air Force/Weber Satellite (Jawsat), developed by students from the US Air Force Academy and Utah's State University. California ...
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Delta III waits on launch pad for maiden flight
Boeing's first Delta III is pictured on Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida, being prepared for its maiden flight scheduled for 3 August, carrying the Hughes HS-601 Galaxy 10 communications satellite. The Delta III, which can place 3,810kg into geostationary transfer orbit, comprises a stretched Delta II first stage ...
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Fresh malfunction of Hughes-built satellites hits PanAmSat
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three more Hughes HS-601-based communications satellites have experienced malfunctions in geostationary orbit, following the loss of the $165 million Galaxy 4 on 19 May, which put out of action 90% of the pagers used in the USA. Like the Galaxy 4, the latest victims, the Galaxy ...
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MMS wins Eutelsat Europesat contract
Eutelsat has awarded Matra Marconi Space (MMS) a contract to build the Europesat 1B communications satellite. The craft will be based on an MMS Eurostar bus and will be placed in a geostationary orbit at 29íE, the second of two orbital positions used by the European satellite communications organisation. ...
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Proton launches
Russia's Khrunichev Space Centre plans to launch 10 Proton boosters from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and to manufacture a further 14 boosters before the end of the year. Launches on behalf of ILS International Launch Services, of which it is a partner, include Astra, Tempo and Panamsat craft. The Russian-French Sesat ...
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Russian engines will power Japan's J-2 booster
Japan's new J-2 small satellite low-Earth orbit (LEO) launcher will be powered by two Russian liquid propellant engines and built by an industry team led by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry and Nissan, which was chosen over a Mitsubishi-led team. The J-2 will replace the solid- propellant J-1, which will be ...
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A late entry
Tim Furniss/LONDON A new European Space Agency (ESA) launcher, the Vega, will fly from Kourou, French Guiana, in 2002. The heads of the space agencies of ESA's 14 member states gave the initial go-ahead at a meeting in Brussels late last month (see box), with Italy taking the largest ...
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Japan launches its first Mars probe
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan launched its first Mars probe on 4 July. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences' (ISAS) $80 million Planet B spacecraft, renamed Nozomi, was launched into a highly elliptical Earth orbit on the second flight of the agency's 31m-high, M-5 solid propellant booster, from Kagoshima. ...
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Mir faces more uncertainty despite cash pledge
The Russian Government has agreed to release funds allowing the launch of three crews to the Mir space station before its controlled re-entry in July 1999. Russian space chiefs, however, are aware that similar assurances have been made before without the money materialising. The Russian space agency has been ...
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X-33 thermal system test completed
NASA has completed a series of six flights using a Boeing F-15 especially adapted to test thermal protection system materials destined to be used on the X-33 reusable space vehicle. The aircraft reached an altitude of 36,000ft (11,000m) at speeds of up to Mach 1.4 from NASA's Dryden Flight ...
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The complete cycle
Julian Moxon/PARIS In October, the Ariane 503 launcher will release a cone-shaped craft on a re-entry mission, repeating what the USA first did with the Mercury capsule 37 years ago. While this may seem like re-inventing the wheel, the Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator (ARD)mission is designed to show that, ...
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Express lift to Mars
Tim Furniss/LONDON Selecting a possible landing craft later this summer will be the last stage in defining the science payloads for the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express mission, which ESA hopes to launch in June 2003 if it receives the go-ahead in November. The decision to proceed ...
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SOHO disappears from its deep space orbit
The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), has been lost in its deep space orbit after operating since December 1995. The spacecraft went into an emergency sun reacquisition mode on 25 June. This is activated when orientation to the sun is lost ...
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A common cause
Arianespace's chairman says that the company must forge partnerships to maintain its market share Tim Furniss/PARIS Arianespace of France and Antrix, the commercial wing of India's Department of Space, signed an agreement on 11 June to pursue a plan to market jointly the Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar ...
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ESA to develop small satellite launcher
Ministers from the European Space Agency member states have agreed to develop a new small commercial satellite launcher called the Vega. The booster will include the Italian/French-built Ariane 5 solid rocket booster, two Fiat Avio motors and a liquid propellant upper stage. The launcher is aimed at placing payloads ...
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Arianespace loses contract as CD Radio moves into new orbit
Tim Furniss/PARIS European commercial satellite launcher company Arianespace has lost a contract for two spacecraft but gained another, bringing to 40 the number of satellites on its launch orderbook. Although it has won the contract to launch the Hughes-built HS376 model Brasilsat B4 communications satellite aboard an Ariane ...
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HGS 1 reaches GEO after lunar flybys
Hughes Global Services' HGS 1 communications satellite has completed its unique mission to reach geostationary orbit (GEO), via two lunar fly bys, after being stranded in a useless Earth orbit following a launch failure in December 1997. The spacecraft is now available to customers. The former Asiasat 3, launched ...
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Russia pleads poverty to delay de-orbiting the Mir space station
Russia is continuing to play a cat-and-mouse game with NASA over the International Space Station (ISS) and national Mir space station programmes. Being pressed by NASA to de-orbit the Mir as soon as possible to pave the way for the ISS, Russia is claiming that lack of funds will ...
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RDL Space wins US licence to build first commercial radar satellite
RDL Space of California has won a licence from the US Government to build, launch and operate the first commercial 1m-resolution synthetic-aperture radar satellite, the Radar 1, which will provide images to the military. Other firms, including Space Imaging-Eosat, are preparing to operate high resolution multispectral satellites for the ...
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All systems go?
In-orbit assembly of the International Space Station is to start this autumn Tim Furniss/LONDON Launch of the first components of the International Space Station (ISS) is due to start on 20 November, but sceptical observers are not holding their breath. The Russian element, which saved the ISS from the US ...