All Space news – Page 185
-
News
Russia confident of service module launch
Tim Furniss The much-delayed launch of the Russian Zvezda service module, which has been holding up the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), will take place in November. The Russian Space Agency (RSA) said at the show that the module has been delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome ...
-
News
Boeing bullish as record year shapes up
Mike Martin "Boeing is back," declared Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group yesterday. "We have overcome recent production difficulties and are well on the way to meeting our commitment to deliver a record 620 commercial airplanes by the end of this year. That is more than ...
-
News
Eurockot wins launch contract from Motorola
The Russian-German Eurockot company has been awarded a contract from Motorola to launch two Iridium mobile communications satellites this December. The launch will be the first by the commercial organisation, which operates converted Russian SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Eurockot also holds contracts for two launches of three E-SAT ...
-
News
Russia introduces new generation of rocket boosters
Tim Furniss Russia's Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Centre has introduced a new family of launchers which could compete in the commercial market by 2001. The largest of the five proposed Angara launchers has a maximum performance to low Earth orbit of 28t, with a capability of ...
-
News
Three Brazilian satellites due to be launched this year
The Brazilian Space Agency says three national satellites will be launched in September and one of the craft will be carried on the country's first satellite launcher. Two satellites, called SACI 1 and CBERS, will be launched by a Chinese Long March 2C booster, while SACI 2 will fly ...
-
News
Sea Launch set for first commercial mission
The Boeing-led Sea Launch venture is scheduled to make its first commercial launch in August. The satellite selected for the mission is the Hughes Space and Communications DirecTV 1-R spacecraft. The satellite will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) by the Zenit 3SL booster, launched from the Odyssey ...
-
News
Thiokol links with Russia to sell booster
Thiokol Propulsion, the Cordant Technologies business unit, is featuring a Russian-Ukrainian military missile on its stand in Hall 5. Thiokol is offering the former SS-18 missile, called Denpr, for commercial launches to low Earth orbit (LEO) as part of a marketing link with Kosmotras. This joint stock company ...
-
News
Satellite launch proves a big morale booster
A Delta II booster lifted Boeing's morale on Thursday when a successful launch from Cape Canaveral placed four Globalstar satellites into orbit. It was the first launch since the failed Delta III mission in May. The Delta II is lined up for four more missions in 53 days ...
-
News
Launch failures put pressure on Boeing team to succeed
Boeing's Expendable Launch Systems (ELS) people come to Paris with a mission - to persuade potential commercial satellite customers, governments and space watchers to keep calm. This uncharacteristic message follows a spate of launch failures from US rockets in general, and to Boeing's embarrassment, the Delta III programme in particular. ...
-
News
Americans urged to build bridges within industry
Bill Clinton's personal representative, NASA administrator Dan Goldin, officially opened the USA National Pavilion yesterday with an up-beat keynote speech. He drew on a sporting analogy to describe the way in which the US aerospace industry has coped over the past few years in a landscape characterised by down-sizing and ...
-
News
Russia abandons Mir after NASA pressure
The Russian Space Agency says it will have to decommission the Mir space station in February 2000 and take it out of orbit due to the "need to contribute to the International Space Station [ISS] and the failure of efforts to find alternative private funding". Mir, which has been ...
-
News
Chandra cleared for launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON The STS93 Space Shuttle mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray telescope has been cleared to fly on 22 July. The much-delayed Columbia launch has been put on hold because of concerns about its Boeing inertial upper stage (IUS) after a similar stage failed during a US Air ...
-
News
Israel supports launcher plan
The Israeli Ministry of Defence is supporting efforts to develop a satellite launcher based on a design of Dov Raviv, who was responsible for the development of the Arrow missile. The Israeli Government is not contributing funding to the programme, so Raviv is seeking private investment to start the ...
-
News
Mir August mission likely to be scrapped
The Russian Energia company, which manages Soyuz and Mir missions, looks likely to cancel the Mir mission planned for August, because of funding difficulties. The move comes as Russian President Boris Yeltsin has instructed his space officials to concentrate on the International Space Station (ISS) rather than the Mir. ...
-
News
Lunar impact
NASA is considering targeting its Lunar Prospector at a specific site on the moon before it makes a natural descent, so that it can investigate the existence of water ice. The controlled crash into the Mawson crater at the moon's south pole in July/August will be observed by telescopes, focusing ...
-
News
Taiwan investors get go-ahead to board K-1 reusable vehicle
Andrzej Jeziorski /SINGAPORE The Taiwanese Ministry of Finance has given several Taiwanese banks the green light to invest in the Kistler Aerospace K-1 reusable launch vehicle. The ministry is understood to support the plan primarily because of commitments made by Kistler to offer parts supply contracts to Taiwanese ...
-
News
VentureStar fails to attract private interest
Lockheed Martin has failed to attract private investment for its proposed VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) re-usable launch vehicle. The company says it will need government funding or loan guarantees to allow development. Without this, the project will not go forward, says Peter Teets, Lockheed Martin president and chief executive, who ...
-
News
India launches commercial satellites
Tim Furniss/LONDON India entered the commercial satellite launch market on 26 May, when a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was fired from Sriharikota. It carried an Indian 1,050kg (2,300lb) Oceansat 1 monitoring satellite and two sub-satellite payloads from South Korea and Germany into a 727km (450 mile) polar earth ...
-
News
H-2A second stage engine set to power Japan's MT-SAT
Andrzej Jeziorski/PARIS Rocket System (RSC) of Japan will confirm the performance of the second-stage engine of its modified H-2A launch vehicle in an H-2 flight scheduled for the third quarter of this year. According to RSC executive vice-president Hiroshi Imamura, the LE-5B engine is being installed into the ...
-
News
Pegasus places satellites in orbit
An Orbital Sciences (OSC) Pegasus booster was air-launched over the Pacific on 18 May, placing Terriers and Mublcom satellites into low earth orbit. The OSC-built 48kg Mublcom is a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/US Army Communications Electronics Command spacecraft designed to demonstrate to combat forces and civil users ...