All Space news – Page 176
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Orbcomm launch
Orbital Sciences launched a Pegasus booster from its Lockheed L-1011 TriStar carrier over the Atlantic on 4 December, placing seven Orbcomm subsidiary satellites into orbit. It was the fourteenth consecutive successful Pegasus launch, with the number of Orbcomm satellites in space reaching 35. Source: Flight International
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Europe to define GalileoSat
The European Space Agency and the European Commission (EC) have signed a contract to launch the €20 million ($20.2 million) GalileoSat definition phase for the proposed Galileo satellite navigation system. By mid-December, the EC was also expected to sign four major contracts with industry on Galileo system definition. The ...
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Matra Marconi wins climate monitor deal
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) has received a €791 million ($798 million) contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat) to build three polar-orbiting Metop satellites. Metop is the first European polar-orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology and climate monitoring. ...
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Sweden wins contract to develop Smart for ESA
The Swedish Space Corporation and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a €33 million ($32.9 million) contract to develop the Small Advanced Research and Technology 1 (Smart 1) science and technology demonstration spacecraft. Smart 1 will be launched to the moon in about 2003. The Smart series of small ...
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Ariane 5 faces critical lift-off
The Ariane 5 launcher will conduct its first operational and commercial flight from Kourou, French Guiana, on 10 December. It will carry the $1 billion X-Ray Multi Mirror (XMM) telescope - Europe's largest-ever science satellite. The first full commercial Arianespace-operated mission - Ariane 504 - will place the 10m ...
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NASA plans the first of Mars mission series
NASA will launch a navigation and communication microsatellite into orbit around Mars in 2003 as the first of a series of micromissions there. NASA plans to launch the 485kg (1,100lb), $50 million, microsatellites, built by Ball Aerospace, with an Aerojet propulsion unit, to form the Mars Network. The network ...
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Close shave
Just 4min before the Galileo's 300km fly-by of one of Jupiter's moons, Io, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers restored power to its cameras. They had been decommissioned by the craft going into "safe mode" as it flew through the intense radiation of the gaseous planet on 25 November. Source: Flight ...
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NASA prepares to launch Earth-observing Terra
The first International Launch Services Atlas booster to fly from Vandenberg AFB, California, is due to lift off on 16 December. The Atlas IIAS will carry NASA's flagship Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite, Terra, into a 705km circular Sun-synchronous polar orbit. Terra, originally called EOS AM, is the first ...
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China conducts further tests in preparation for manned flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON China conducted the first unmanned test of its Shenzhou spacecraft on 20 November. The launch from Jiuquan was also the first to use the Long March 2F (LM2F) booster. China is planning further unmanned test flights of the Shenzhou before launching with a two-man crew on board. The ...
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Cluster II enters testing
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Dornier Satellitensysteme (DSS)has completed the fourth and final satellite for the European Space Agency's (ESA)c300 million ($309 million) Cluster II mission and handed the spacecraft over to Munich-based Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaftfor testing. The satellites are to be orbited in pairs by Russian Soyuz boosters next June and ...
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Hubble service trip delayed for repairs
NASA has delayed the launch of STS103 Discovery on the Hubble Servicing Mission 3A to 9 December. The delay is to allow time for repairs to be made to minor damage on cables between the orbiter and the external tank. During preparations for orbiter Endeavour's mission in January, NASA ...
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NASA awaits Mars attempt
NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) is due to touch down on the Red Planet's south pole on 3 December. NASA is anxious for a successful landing after the failure of the sister ship - the Mars Climate Orbiter - on 23 September. The 1.06m (3ft 6in) tall, 580kg (1,270lb) ...
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Battery lost
The International Space Station's (ISS) Russian Zarya control module is operating on two-thirds of normal battery power after battery number two, one of five, failed to discharge. Battery number one, which failed earlier, is due to be replaced by the STS101 Atlantis crew in March. A second battery change could ...
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Starsem completes sixth Globalstar satellite launch
Starsem launched another four Globalstar mobile communications satellites on a Soyuz Ikar booster from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 22 November. There are 48 Globalstar satellites in space and a final launch of four by a Delta II in January will complete the constellation, with four in-orbit spares available. Replacements will ...
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Proton grounding adds to ISS delay
The International Space Station (ISS) is facing more delays following Russia's decision to keep its Proton booster grounded until at least March, while improvements are made to the second stage powerplant after two failures in four months. The grounding means that the Russian Zvezda service module for the ISS will ...
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SBIRS team
Aerojet has signed a teaming deal to become a member of the TRW-Raytheon project for the Space Based Infrared System Low (SBIRS Low) project. Aerojet will play a key role in the ground segment, systems engineering and space segment. SBIRS Low is the low-Earth orbiting component of the US Air ...
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Final Mir, first ISS crews are named
Two Russian cosmonaut crews have been named for the final mission to the Mir space station to be launched in February 2000. The prime crew is rookie Sergei Zaletin and Alexander Kaleri, a Mir veteran. A two-person back-up crew has been named as Salizham Sharipov - who flew on ...
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Hardware losses top $2 billion
Tim Furniss/LONDON The $300 million-plus failure of Japan's H2 booster and a communications satellite on 15 November has brought to $2 billion the total value of space hardware lost this year. There have been six launch failures and five in-orbit satellite failures, plus satellite in-orbit anomalies. Despite the ...
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Mars upgrades
Mars upgrades The European Space Agency will upgrade two of the instruments that will fly on the Mars Express orbiter in 2003, to help make up for some of the science activities lost by the recent failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter. An infrared channel will be added to ...
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Spy for hire
IAI's EROS satellite will help Israel to catch up in the space market Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV Time sharing is usually associated with hotel rooms in exotic resorts. From early next year, the concept will also be linked with observation satellites for civil and military missions. The first Earth remote ...