All Space news – Page 204
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Asteroid prospector
SpaceDev proposes to launch the first private interplanetary spacecraft Tim Furniss/LONDON There is a fortune to be made from mining asteroids, believes SpaceDev of Colorado, a private corporation engaged in the commercialisation of space - and it plans to make it. It is proposing ...
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Orbital surgery
NASA is sponsoring a new US national computation centre at Stanford University, California, which will focus on the use of three-dimensional virtual reality in coping with medical emergencies in space. NASA's Ames Research Center will provide $500,000 a year for five years. Source: Flight International
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China's Long March 3B launches the ApStar 2R
Tim Furniss/LONDON China Great Wall Industry (CGWIC) again launched a Long March 3B booster on 17 October, marking the second successful launch in less than two months and helping to restore confidence after the failure of the first LM3B in February 1996. The booster carried Hong ...
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Panel trouble hits Global Surveyor
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter may be restricted in its $250 million mapping mission of the red planet by a problem on one of the spacecraft's twin solar panels, which were to be used to control the orbit. The MGS was demonstrating the ...
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Russian cash
Money allocated to the Russian space programme in 1998 is "so inadequate" that it could discontinue space activities. The cash is "not enough" to honour Russia's commitment to the International Space Station claims Vladimir Gusev, chairman of the Russian parliamentary industry and transport committee. The allocations are 60% less than ...
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Step forward
Kistler Aerospace's fully re-usable K-1 launch vehicle will be flight tested from Nevada, USA, or Woomera, South Australia, as early as July 1998. This is the first step towards offering a 4,500kg satellite-delivery service to low- and medium-Earth orbit (LEO/MEO), costing $17 million a time (Flight International, 23-29 October, 1996). ...
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Cassini takes off on mission to Saturn
The NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was despatched successfully en route to the planet Saturn 42min after launch by a Titan 4B/Centaur from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 15 October. The spacecraft, which had been surrounded in controversy because it uses a nuclear powerplant, will reach Saturn in July 2004 ...
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India uses thrusters to raise IRS 1D
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has raised the perigee of the orbit of the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, IRS 1D, to about 700km, using the spacecraft's thrusters. The satellite was placed in a 300km perigee after the partial failure of the fourth stage of its Polar Satellite ...
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Germans despatch inspector to examine Mir components
A German camera-equipped spacecraft called the Inspektor, has been delivered to the Russian Mir 1 space station aboard the Progress M36 tanker. It will fly, remotely controlled by a cosmonaut inside the Mir, to conduct close inspection of various components using a camera. The 70kg Inspektor, ...
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SST wins contract to support NASA project
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SST) is the only non-US company to have been awarded initial contracts to provide rapidly developed satellite core-systems to support NASA's science programme. In total, seven companies have secured contracts The US firms involved are Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences, Spectrum Astro, ...
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ISS Modules
NASA has informally included Spacehab single and double modules on Space Shuttle International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, the STS95 and 96, in October and December 1998, respectively. Source: Flight International
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Contract Awards
Boeing is to build a launcher-manufacturing plant at Decatur, Alabama, which will be used either to assemble Delta 4 boosters, should the company win the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract in 1998, or to complement manufacturing of the Delta 3 fleet. Alabama-based H&H Consolidated has been awarded ...
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Mir restoration work continues after Atlantis returns to Earth
Work to restore the Russian Mir space station to full working order continued after the departure of the seventh Space Shuttle Atlantis mission, which delivered cargo and equipment, including a new computer. The Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 6 October following a ten-day mission, ...
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Atlas 2AS prepared for launch
The first version of the ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2 fleet is being prepared at the refurbished SLC-3E pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. The Atlas 2AS, designated AC-141, will undergo extensive testing to validate all ground systems, leading to the launch in June 1998 of NASA's Earth Observation System, ...
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ISS modules
NASA has informally included Spacehab single and double modules on Space Shuttle International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, the STS95 and STS96 in October and December 1998, raising the company's hopes that it will be used widely on Shuttle ISS missions after the end of the Shuttle Mir Mission programme ...
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USAF considers DC-X and X-33 for military-spaceplane testing
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have received US Air Force contracts to begin developing technologies and concepts for a military spaceplane. The Integrated Technology Testbed programme is aimed at demonstrating military-spaceplane operational concepts early next century. Boeing's demonstrator concept uses a re-usable rapid-response launch vehicle, derived from ...
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Private pioneers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Sixteen organisations in Argentina, the UK and the USA are competing for a $10 million prize to be won by becoming the first to finance privately and build a spacecraft which can carry three people on a suborbital flight to an altitude of 100km. The prize ...
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Error mars India's space hopes
Tim Furniss/LONDON India launched its first fully operational satellite on an indigenous booster on 29 September, but a leak in the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) caused a 113kt (210km/h) velocity underperformance, which resulted in the craft being placed into the wrong orbit. ...
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Boeing expects to cut ISS
Ramon Lopez/FLORIDA Boeing estimates that it can generate $25 million in annual cost savings through consolidation of International Space Station (ISS) activities. The efficiencies are made possible by Boeing's acquisitions of McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell International's space unit, which were major subcontractors, says John McLuckey, president ...
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OSC plans Orblink launch for 2002
Orbital Sciences (OSC) plans to launch seven Orblink communications satellites into medium-Earth orbit in 2002 to provide global broadband services, including electronic mail, Internet access and imagery transmission. The company has applied to the US Federal Communications Commission to operate the $900 million Orblink constellation from 9,000km circular ...