All Space news – Page 187
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Russian Service Module to roll out this month
The controversial, much delayed, Russian International Space Station (ISS) Service Module will be rolled out by Energia in Moscow on 26 April. Delays to its production have contributed to a two-year hold-up in the ISS programme. Russia says the Service Module will meet its September launch deadline, subject to ...
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Link up
US company Spacehab and Germany's OHB-System have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide jointly commercial life sciences services on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station (ISS). They will establish a biotechnology business and upgrade the Commercial Biological Research Unit, which is planned for the STS107 mission ...
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Second Nilesat order
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) has won an order from Egypt to build a second Nilesat communications satellite, to be launched next year. The contract covers the satellite, insurance and launch delivery into orbit. The craft will be similar to the 101 model built by MMS. The 1,800kg (3,960lb) satellite will ...
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Virtual solution
A new type of orbit could help avoid signal interference between spacecraft in low, medium and geostationary earth orbits Tim Furniss/LONDON A NEW WASHINGTON-based company is urging the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make compulsory the use of "virtual geostationary orbits" (VGSOs). This would avoid anticipated future ...
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Surrey Satellite wins E-SAT contract
Tim Furniss/LONDON Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) is to build the spacecraft buses for six E-SAT low earth orbiting data messaging satellites under a contract with California-based DBS Industries. The contract is part of a $47 million deal, which includes two launches of three E-SAT satellites each by the German-Russian ...
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New launches
Arianespace launched an Ariane 42P booster from Kourou on 2 April, carrying India's Insat 2E communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. It was the 44th successful consecutive flight of an Ariane 4. Arianespace has 38 satellites and one constellation launch on its orderbook and a further 11 flights planned for ...
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Sea Launch set for first commercial launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON The first commercial lift-off from Sea Launch offshore platform Odyssey is scheduled for August following the maiden flight of a Zenit 3SL from the floating launch site. The booster placed a demonstration payload into geostationary-transfer orbit on 28 March. The commercial Zenit 3SL booster will carry a Hughes ...
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Spar shareholders stir rebellion
Canadian aerospace manufacturer Spar is facing a shareholder mutiny following an attempted hostile takeover by IMP Group, also of Canada. At a meeting scheduled for 13 May, investors controlling some 58% of Toronto-based Spar's stock are expected to oust seven of the company's 12-member board, with an eighth director ...
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Mir deadline
Russia has set a deadline of 30 April to secure private funding to continue operations of the Mir space station. If private funding is not secured, the space base will be taken out of orbit in September. Source: Flight International
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On track
NASA has started full-engine hot-fire testing of the low-cost Fastrac rocket engine at its Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, with a 20s full-power test to demonstrate the operation of the complete engine system. Up to 84 engine test firings are planned this year. The 210,000lb-thrust (935kN) Fastrac will ...
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Mergers
The UK's Dowty Group has bought GE Aircraft Engines subsidiary Tri-Manufacturing for $58 million. The Indiana-based aero-engine components fabricator will be incorporated into TI Group member Dowty's Turbine Engine Components (D-TEC) business. HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, the world's largest outsized-freight operator, has been acquired in a management buyout which values its ...
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Dnepr prepared for launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON The first commercial launch of the Dnepr, a former SS-18K ballistic missile, will be made from a silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan between 21 and 25 April. The launcher is operated by ISC Kosmotras, a consortium of 20 Russian and Ukrainian companies. The 37.3m-high ...
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Shuttle flights faced with further delays
The introduction of the STS101 Hubble emergency repair mission 3A in October and the timing of the launch of the Russian International Space Station (ISS) Service Module in September have led to a shifting of ISS Shuttle flights. Although the STS96 is still scheduled for a May logistics flight ...
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Claiming a crisis
Tim Furniss/LONDON One more failure and the space insurance business could go into the red Space industry insurers are nervously tallying up their accounts in the wake of 27 loss claims filed for satellite and launch failures last year. The business faces a crisis after meeting more than $1.7 ...
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On track
NASA has started full-engine, hot-fire testing of the low-cost Fastrac rocket engine at its Marshall spaceflight centre in Huntsville, Alabama, with a 20s full-power test to demonstrate the operation of the complete engine system. Up to 84 engine test firings are planned this year. The 45,000lb-thrust (200kN) Fastrac will be ...
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Globalstar constellation grows
Four more Globalstar worldwide mobile communications satellites are in orbit following their launch aboard the second Starsem Soyuz-Ikar booster from Baikonur on 15 March. Starsem is a consortium involving Samara of Russia, Arianespace and Aerospatiale of France. The flight followed the first Starsem Soyuz launch on 9 February ...
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New satellite series from Hughes
Hughes Space and Communications and DirecTV - a unit of Hughes Electronics - are to launch a new satellite series, the DirecTV 1-R, based on the HS-601 HP direct broadcasting spacecraft bus. The first DirecTV 1-R will be stationed at 101ºW in geostationary orbit, equipped with 16 Ku-band ...
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Spacehab drums up first Space Station research customer
The first customer has been signed up for the Spacehab commercial space research facility aboard the International Space Station. The Colorado School of Mines' Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space will use the Spacehab-funded furnace, known as Space-Drums, to process exotic glasses and ceramic materials in microgravity. ...
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Elusive image
Tim Furniss/LONDON Images of the earth's entire magnetosphere will be obtained for the first time next yearA new NASA spacecraft will next year capture the first image of the earth's entire magnetosphere - the region surrounding the planet in which the behaviour of charged particles is dominated by the world's ...
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Satellite lost after gas escape
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA's Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite was lost on 8 March, four days after launch. The spacecraft entered orbit safely aboard an Orbital Sciences (OSC) Pegasus booster after an air launch on 4 March, but soon went into a 60rpm spin. The $73 million WIRE, ...