All Space news – Page 186
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Starcraft Boosters seeks partners
Starcraft Boosters is looking for industrial partners to develop its StarBooster 200 concept for the early low-risk introduction of a reusable launch vehicle. Starcraft chairman and former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin believes the technology for a single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle is not ready. "I do not believe that a ...
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Remote Agent controls Deep Space 1 New Millennium craft
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has pioneered the use of artificial intelligence as a primary means of controlling a spacecraft. The space agency's New Millennium programme flagship, Deep Space 1, has been placed under the full control of the craft's Remote Agent. The spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral on 24 October ...
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Russian delays 'cost $1.2 billion'
Contingency planning for Russia's participation in the International Space Station (ISS) will add $1.2 billion to the project's cost, says the US General Accounting Office (GAO). Delays in completing the Russian Service Module for the ISS have contributed to a two-year hold-up in the programme. In addition, NASA concedes ...
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Foreign relations
Crew compatibility will be a major influence in the International Space Station Tim Furniss/LONDON US, Russian, Japanese, European and Canadian cosmonauts and astronauts will soon take part in a 240-day simulation of life aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at the Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow. ...
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Euroconsult predicts healthy future for commercial satellites
Industry consultancy Euroconsult predicts healthy growth in demand for commercial satellite launches over the next decade. Speaking at the First World Summit on the Space Transportation Business, in Paris on 10-11 May, Euroconsult's executive vice-president for space and communications, Rachel Villain, predicted that demand will average 132-163 satellite launches ...
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ESA nations commit funding to Galileo system
Julian Moxon/BRUSSELS Europe has launched the Galileo second-generation global satellite-navigation system after receiving strong financial commitments from European Space Agency (ESA) nations at the ESA ministerial meeting in Brussels on 11-12 May. The joint ESA/European Union (EU) Galileo programme has firmed up only recently, as it has become clear ...
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Rotary Rocket holds Virgin funding talks
Andrzej Jeziorski/PARIS California's Rotary Rocket is in talks with UK millionaire and Virgin founder Richard Branson on funding for its Roton re-usable launch vehicle (RLV) programme. Rotary Rocket chief executive Gary Hudson is understood to have met Branson to discuss the programme. The company needs about $150 million ...
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ISS Shuttle mission set for launch
The Space Shuttle Discovery will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 20 May on STS96, to rendezvous and dock with the first two elements on the International Space Station (ISS). A week's delay because of damage to the insulation of the external tank, caused by hailstones, may ...
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Older E-2Cs may be sold
Paul Lewis/BETHPAGE Northrop Grumman and the US Navy are discussing offering older Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft for sale on the international market, while also negotiating to place retired A-6E Intruders with at least one potential operator. The US Navy is starting to phase ...
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Hyper-X test on track for July
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The first hypersonic X-43A test vehicle, designed to demonstrate the use of an airframe-integrated scramjet (supersonic ramjet), is expected to be delivered to NASA in July. The 3.6m (11ft)-long X-43A forms the core of NASA's Hyper-X programme. This is aimed at proving the use of air-breathing ...
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HOPE-X test flights delayed by redesign and budget factors
Andrzej Jeziorski/TOKYO Test Flights of the H-II Orbiting Plane-Experimental (HOPE-X) reusable space vehicle have been postponed from February 2001 until February 2004 because of a redesign and budget restrictions. The HOPE team, led by Japan's National Space Development Agency and National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), is carrying out a ...
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Lockheed Martin reviews operations
Tim Furniss/LONDON Lockheed Martin has formed an independent panel of experts to conduct a comprehensive review of programme management, engineering, manufacturing processes and quality control procedures at its space divisions following a series of recent launch failures. In addition, the US Air Force is conducting a broad area review ...
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NASA sets date for X-34 captive-carry flight tests
NASA and Orbital Sciences plan to begin captive-carry flight tests of the X-34 reusable launch vehicle (RLV) technology demonstrator on 18 June, marking the start of an ambitious programme aimed at achieving the first of 27 powered test flights in January next year. The captive-carry flights, using the Virginia-based ...
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Launch Services wins $24m West Indian contract
Russian commercial launch company Launch Services, which markets launches of the Cosmos 3M and Start 1 boosters, has been awarded a $24 million contract by the West Indian Space company to launch three Israeli-built satellites. The 300kg (660lb), high-resolution remote-sensing Eros satellites will be boosted into orbit by Start ...
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Russia completes ISS Service Module
Tim Furniss/LONDON Russia's International Space Station (ISS) Service Module was rolled out at RSC Energia's factory in Moscow on 26 April for its shipment to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Module is most likely to be launched in November, almost two years behind schedule. Russia says it is aiming for ...
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Japanese hope
Japan is to name its International Space Station laboratory module Kibo (hope). The first component of the Japanese Experiment Module will be carried on the Space Shuttle in 2001. Source: Flight International
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Upper stage failure imperils Chandra X-ray Observatory
Tim Furniss/LONDON The recent failure of the Boeing Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) has put into doubt the planned launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory aboard Space Shuttle STS93/Columbia on 9 July. The IUS, which is due to be used on the Chandra mission, failed to place a Defence Support ...
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Delta launches NASA Landsat 7
A Boeing Delta II carried NASA's Landsat 7 remote-sensing satellite into orbit from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 15 April, a year later than planned. The satellite's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus camera will produce 250 30m-resolution multispectral images a day. The launch had been delayed by electrical problems with the thematic ...
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Dnepr booster lifts Minisatellite
Russia's Kosmotras organisation launched a Dnepr booster - a former SS-18 missile - from a silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 21 April. The booster carried Surrey Satellite Technology's (SSTL) 350kg UoSAT 12 Minisatellite into a 650km, 65¼-inclination orbit. SSTL's first $5.5 million Minisatellite will demonstrate high resolution ...
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USAF writes off cost of stranded DSP19 loss
Tim Furniss/LONDON The US Air Force has written off $682 million following the loss of the Defence Support Programme DSP19 early warning satellite, which was stranded in elliptical orbit on 10 April. The TRW-built satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a low earth orbit (LEO), attached to a ...