All Space news – Page 192
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Endeavour Space Station Shuttle flight faces delay
The Space Shuttle Endeavour STS88 mission to attach the Unity 1 node to the Russian Zarya control module of the International Space Station has been threatened with being delayed from 3 December to later in the month because of potential computer problems. Zarya is due to be launched on a ...
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Mitsubishi becomes Optus C-1 prime
Mitsubishi has become the first Japanese company to win a prime contract to build a communications satellite for an international customer, beating Hughes and France's Alcatel in the final bid. An official announcement is expected soon, confirming the Japanese firm has secured the $312 million contract from Australia's Cable ...
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Russian parliament makes plea for Mir reprieve
The Russian parliament has appealed to President Boris Yeltsin to prevent the premature de-orbiting of the Mir space station next June, until construction of the International Space Station (ISS) has been completed. The termination of the Mir may result in the loss of 100,000 jobs, parliament says. Yuri Baturin, ...
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Astrophysics delay
The Space Shuttle Columbia mission to deploy the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility has been delayed two months from January 1999, to allow more time for payload testing. The delay, and International Space Station snags have jolted the NASA 1999 Shuttle schedule. Source: Flight International
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Aiming for the stars
Tim Furniss/LONDON South Africa's first satellite, the Sunsat, will be launched aboard a Boeing Delta II on 8 January, 1999. The 50kg spacecraft will be placed into a 400-800km polar orbit, and could be a precursor to a fleet providing remote sensing services for natural disaster and environmental monitoring. ...
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Ariane logs another success
Arianespace launched Eutelsat's W2 and the Swedish Sirius 3communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit aboard the Ariane 44L/V111 from Kourou at 22:51 GMT on 5 October. The W2 was built by Alcatel (formerly Aerospatiale's satellite division) and the Sirius by Hughes Space and Communications. The launch came just 19 days ...
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NASA sets November ISS date
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has set 20 November as the date for the International Space Station (ISS) project finally to get airborne. Six years later than planned when the project was initiated in 1984, Russia's Zarya control module will be the first section launched into space aboard a Proton booster. ...
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STEX is launched on third Taurus booster
Orbital Sciences launched its third Taurus booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 3 October, carrying the $90 million National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite. The STEX incorporates 29 new technologies, including a 5km-long Advanced Tether Experiment. The Lockheed Martin-built 6,985kg STEX is designed to explore new ...
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Space rescue
Tim Furniss/LONDON On 26 September, 92 days after being lost in deep space, the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) began sending back images of the sun again. The spacecraft's remarkable rescue owes much of its success to the initial location work completed by the large radio ...
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Phantom satellite
Tim Furniss/LONDON US intelligence officials admit they were caught unawares when North Korea launched a three-stage satellite booster on 31 August. The attempt failed, but it exposed the USA's lack of knowledge about the country's ability to develop a three-stage rocket. The booster was a two-stage Taepo Dong ...
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Atlantis returns to Kennedy after upgrade programme
Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis has arrived back at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, after its 10-month upgrade at Boeing in Palmdale, California. The main features of the upgrade include the $9 million Multifunction Electrical Display Subsystem "glass cockpit" and a global positioning satellite-based navigation system. The Atlantis, which ...
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Crucial Ariane 503 launch date is set
Tim Furniss/LONDON The critical third European Space Agency-funded development flight of the Ariane 5 launcher is scheduled to take place from Kourou, French Guiana, on 20 October. The 503 mission must succeed if the new launcher is to be handed over to Arianespace for commercial work (Flight International, ...
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Ariane boost
Arianespace flight V110/ Ariane 44LP launched the PanAmSat-7 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit on 16 September from Kourou, French Guiana. The PAS-7 was built by Space Systems/Loral. The successful flight is a boost for the launcher industry after a series of failures since 12 August involving Titan 4A, Delta ...
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New Spaceports
A new commercial spaceport has been established in the USA. The Virginia Space Center at Wallops Island, built with the assistance of the state's public and private sector - including a $4.5 million investment by DynCorp - will support launches of Athena, Taurus and Minotaur (converted Minuteman missiles) boosters for ...
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Noughts and losses
Tim Furniss/LONDON Over 29 days, beginning on 12 August, about $3 billion-worth of spacecraft and boosters fell in pieces from the sky following three launch failures. A Titan 4A, the first Delta III and a Zenit 2 were lost, together with 14 satellites, 12 of them on the Zenit. ...
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The Spektr of Mir is brought back to life
Mir cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev completed a 3h sortie into the unpressurised Spektr module on 15 September to reconnect cables to the module's solar arrays. The Mir unit was damaged last year in a collision with an unmanned Progress launcher during a docking operation. If the Spektr ...
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NASA looks at X-38 and VentureStar mixture
NASA and Lockheed Martin are studying the use of the X-38 International Space Station (ISS) crew return vehicle with the proposed VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. The work, which is at a conceptual stage, is aimed at providing an alternative to the Space Shuttle as an ISS transporter. The X-38, a ...
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Surrey Satellite signs for Dnepr mini lauch
Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has signed a contract with the Russian ISC Kosmotras company to launch its new Uosat 12 minisatellite aboard a modified SS-18 missile, renamed the Dnepr. The launch will be from Baikonur in 1999. Kosmotras, a Russian/Ukrainian venture, is converting the SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile into ...
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Rotary revolution
Tim Furniss/LONDON Rotary Rocket Company has raised $17 million from investors and hired Barclays Capital to assist in an additional $20 million private investment in its bid to offer commercial satellite launches. The Redwood Shores, California-based company will offer transportation of payloads weighing 3,200kg to low earth orbit ...