All Space news – Page 195
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Location of SOHO raises rescue hopes
Ground-based telescopes have located the European Space Agency (ESA)/ NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) rotating at 1RPM in its nominal "halo orbit" between the sun and the earth, raising hopes that direct communications can be restored so that the tumbling craft's solar panels can be repointed to the sun. ...
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X-38 faces crucial parafoil testing during September
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES NASA hopes to restart full scale free-flight drop tests of the X-38 crew return vehicle (CRV) as early as October, pending successful tests of a redesigned parafoil system in September. The X-38 is being developed as a "life boat" for crews of the International Space ...
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Scaled Composites takes HALO up to 12,000ft on first flight
Guy Norris/MOJAVE Scaled Composites' Proteus proof of concept, high-altitude, long operation (HALO) aircraft made a successful first flight from the company's Mojave base in California on 26 July. The all-composite, canard configured aircraft is one of the most bizarre to emerge from the Burt Rutan stable. Piloted by ...
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Space lease
Nordic Satellite's 15-Ku band Sirius 3 communications satellite, operating at 28° in geostationary orbit, will be leased for one year by Société Européenne des Satellites, Luxembourg, as a back-up for the Astra 2A, which is due be launched by Arianespace next month. Source: Flight International
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Failure report
NASA's TRW-built Lewis remote-sensing technology demonstration satellite, which failed in orbit on 26 August 1997, two days after launch, did so because of a "combination of a technically flawed attitude control system design and inadequate monitoring of the spacecraft during its early operations phase", says NASA. Source: Flight International
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GAO says ISS may need debris shield
The International Space Station (ISS) may require a $5 billion debris shield and particle tracking network to protect its operation in orbit, says the US Government's General Accounting Office (GAO) - but funding is not included in current ISS cost estimates. Particles of debris as small as 10mm could puncture ...
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Kelly negotiates 'Express' sale
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Kelly Space & Technology (KST) is in negotiation with an unidentified company which wants to purchase two "Express" low-cost reusable launchers. The Express is a member of a family of delta-winged vehicles which KST is developing using the "Eclipse" technique to save huge launch costs. ...
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Shuttle engine plant
NASA has opened a new $6.2 million Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. An extension of the Orbiter Processing Facility, the new unit replaces one that was located in the Vehicle Assembly Building and will be used to help to streamline fleet operations. The ...
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Spacehab buoys up expansion plans with Johnson acquisition
Spacehab, the private company that provides pressurised modules for the Space Shuttle, has almost doubled in size by acquiring a leading company supporting NASA's Shuttle programme. Houston-based Johnson Engineering manages spacewalking training operations at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center, Texas, as well as supporting the ...
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NRO chooses TRW to test communications
The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has awarded TRW a $78 million contract to test high data rate laser communications between geosynchronous orbit and the ground. The Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLite) spacecraft will include a laser communications experiment and a UHF communications mission. The GeoLite will be used ...
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Missile conversion
Tim Furniss/LONDON A former Minuteman II missile refurbished by Orbital Sciences (OSC) will be launched from California Spaceport at Vandenberg AFB in late 1999, carrying an experimental satellite. The Joint Air Force/Weber Satellite (Jawsat), developed by students from the US Air Force Academy and Utah's State University. California ...
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Delta III waits on launch pad for maiden flight
Boeing's first Delta III is pictured on Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida, being prepared for its maiden flight scheduled for 3 August, carrying the Hughes HS-601 Galaxy 10 communications satellite. The Delta III, which can place 3,810kg into geostationary transfer orbit, comprises a stretched Delta II first stage ...
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Fresh malfunction of Hughes-built satellites hits PanAmSat
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three more Hughes HS-601-based communications satellites have experienced malfunctions in geostationary orbit, following the loss of the $165 million Galaxy 4 on 19 May, which put out of action 90% of the pagers used in the USA. Like the Galaxy 4, the latest victims, the Galaxy ...
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MMS wins Eutelsat Europesat contract
Eutelsat has awarded Matra Marconi Space (MMS) a contract to build the Europesat 1B communications satellite. The craft will be based on an MMS Eurostar bus and will be placed in a geostationary orbit at 29íE, the second of two orbital positions used by the European satellite communications organisation. ...
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Proton launches
Russia's Khrunichev Space Centre plans to launch 10 Proton boosters from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and to manufacture a further 14 boosters before the end of the year. Launches on behalf of ILS International Launch Services, of which it is a partner, include Astra, Tempo and Panamsat craft. The Russian-French Sesat ...
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Russian engines will power Japan's J-2 booster
Japan's new J-2 small satellite low-Earth orbit (LEO) launcher will be powered by two Russian liquid propellant engines and built by an industry team led by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry and Nissan, which was chosen over a Mitsubishi-led team. The J-2 will replace the solid- propellant J-1, which will be ...
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A late entry
Tim Furniss/LONDON A new European Space Agency (ESA) launcher, the Vega, will fly from Kourou, French Guiana, in 2002. The heads of the space agencies of ESA's 14 member states gave the initial go-ahead at a meeting in Brussels late last month (see box), with Italy taking the largest ...
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Japan launches its first Mars probe
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan launched its first Mars probe on 4 July. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences' (ISAS) $80 million Planet B spacecraft, renamed Nozomi, was launched into a highly elliptical Earth orbit on the second flight of the agency's 31m-high, M-5 solid propellant booster, from Kagoshima. ...
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Mir faces more uncertainty despite cash pledge
The Russian Government has agreed to release funds allowing the launch of three crews to the Mir space station before its controlled re-entry in July 1999. Russian space chiefs, however, are aware that similar assurances have been made before without the money materialising. The Russian space agency has been ...
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X-33 thermal system test completed
NASA has completed a series of six flights using a Boeing F-15 especially adapted to test thermal protection system materials destined to be used on the X-33 reusable space vehicle. The aircraft reached an altitude of 36,000ft (11,000m) at speeds of up to Mach 1.4 from NASA's Dryden Flight ...