All Space news – Page 189
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Mars fleet
NASA has awarded the San Diego-based SpaceDev privately operated commercial space exploration company a research contract to study the possible use of a fleet of small spacecraft in Mars orbit. The craft could provide communications and navigation services for future unmanned Mars spacecraft. The SpaceDev craft would use a common ...
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China may use Mir for docking
Tim Furniss/LONDON China Aerospace is considering using Russia's Mir space station as a docking base for its planned first manned spacecraft. Two Chinese astronauts, flying on an uprated Long March 2E booster, will be aboard the spacecraft - based on Russian Soyuz technology - for a launch, possibly at ...
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Israel plans to spy with Eros civilian satellites
Israel is to use three civilian satellites to improve its spy satellite capability. Under a deal signed in late January the Israeli Ministry of Defence will use earth remote observation satellites to be launched by a company known as West Indian Space - a Cayman Islands-registered concern jointly owned by ...
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Extra costs
The European Space Agency, which is investing more than $500 million to build the Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for the International Space Station, will have to pay Russia $25 million for modifications to the Service Module to allow it to accommodate the ATV, plus an extra $3 million "docking fee" ...
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More space for Mir
Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov has signed a decree allowing the Mir space station to remain in orbit for a further three years. The station was to have been de-orbited in June, to allow the cash-starved Russians to concentrate on their obligations to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA will ...
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World views
Tim Furniss/LONDON Orbital Sciences' (OSC) Orbimage division has acquired the worldwide sales and distribution rights for radar imagery to be returned by Canada's 1,650kg (3,600lb) Radarsat 2 satellite. The satellite, under construction by OSC's recently acquired MacDonald Dettwiler, will be launched in 2001 and is expected to be ...
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Electrical problems spark Shuttle observatory delay
NASA has delayed its first Space Shuttle launch in 1999 by at least five weeks from 8 April, after discovering potential electrical problems with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The observatory is to be deployed by Space Shuttle STS93 Columbia, the launch of which has already been postponed from last ...
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Lockheed Martin hit by new X-33 delays
Tim Furniss/LONDON The first flight of the $1.2 billion Lockheed Martin X-33 spaceplane technology demonstrator has been delayed again. The latest setback, caused by a hydrogen tank problem, pushes the maiden flight back seven months, to July 2000 at the earliest. The programme - which was started in ...
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Sticky business
Tim Furniss/LONDON Dust from the comet Wild 2 will be collected and returned to earth by the fourth mission in NASA's Discovery programme which kicks off with a Delta II launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 6 February. It will be the first time that samples from a ...
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USA threatens to stop Russian launches
Russia has reacted defiantly to a threat by the USA to restrict Russian commercial launches of US-built satellites. The Clinton Administration has warned Moscow to crack down on exports supporting Iran's military capability or four commercial satellite launches planned this year will be cancelled. The move would mean the loss ...
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ESA takes flexible approach
Julian Moxon/PARIS The European Space Agency (ESA) is embarking on a more flexible system for programme funding designed to speed up the process of directing money to programmes where it is most needed. There will be no major change, however, to the system of "just returns", under which ...
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India's GSLV may get Arianespace work
India could gain commercial satellite launcher business for its planned Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) as a result of the decision to equip its booster with an Ariane-compatible satellite adapter. Under an agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Arianespace last year, the GSLV could launch subcontracted ...
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Japan's Mars probe faces long wait
A propellant shortage will force a delay in Japan's $80 million Nozomi Mars probe reaching its target until towards the end of 2003, four years late. Launched last July, the Nozomi used more propellant than planned during a burn on 21 December to correct a deviation during a gravity-assist ...
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Dynamic explorers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three small NASA spacecraft will explore the earth's dynamic systems early in the new millennium. One of the satellites, called Volcanic Ash Mission (Volcam), will demonstrate the operational and scientific applications of monitoring volcanic clouds and small atmospheric particles, known as aerosols, from a geostationary orbit. Volcanic clouds ...
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NASA's Mars Polar Lander is launched successfully
Boeing launched NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) aboard a Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral on 3 January. Its sister craft, the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), was launched last month. The MCO will enter orbit in September, while the MPL is scheduled to touch down close the Martian south ...
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Orbital Sciences breaks record with $2.5 billion orderbook
Orbital Sciences (OSC) is claiming a record $2.5 billion-worth of new orders in 1998 for space and ground infrastructure systems product lines. Just over half the contracts were for Pegasus, Taurus and suborbital rocket launches and $475 million for sensors, electronics and satellite ground systems. The latest figures bring ...
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Another PanAmSat craft malfunctions
PanAmSat's space woes continue despite the successful launch of the PAS 6B satellite on 22 December. Yet another satellite in its fleet has malfunctioned. Two of the 24 Ku-band antennas on PanAmSat 8, a Space Systems Loral-built FS-1300 spacecraft launched last November, are not aligned properly, restricting coverage over ...
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Long wait in orbit for Russia's Zarya and US Unity
Russia's Zarya control module and the USA's smaller Node 1 Unity are pictured linked together in orbit by the crew of the Space Shuttle STS88 Endeavour, which completed the first International Space Station assembly mission during December. The Russian-built Service Module is scheduled to be added to the Zarya-Unity ...
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So near, so far
Tim Furniss/LONDON The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft has been thwarted in its attempt to make interplanetary history on 10 January by becoming the first craft to enter orbit around an asteroid. The NEAR, the first craft in the NASA Discovery programme to be launched - on ...
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Alcatel and Loral plan joint
Alcatel and Loral Space and Communications are planning to form a new company, EuropeStar. Initially, it will operate two Alcatel-built communications satellites co-located at 45í in geostationary (GEO) orbit. Launches are scheduled to take place in 2000 and 2002, and the satellites will serve Europe, the Middle East, South ...