All Space news – Page 205
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Minuteman derivatives
The US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch Test Programme Office has awarded Orbital Sciences (OSC) a $206 million contract to develop and launch derivatives of the Minuteman inter-continental ballistic missile for suborbital and orbital missions. OSC will combine residual M55 Minuteman 2 first stages with Minuteman 1 ...
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Space Station costs soar as delays bite
Work on the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998 is expected to cost NASA and Boeing at least $430 million more than the $2.1 billion proposed in the space agency's 1998 budget. The extra cost includes $100 million set aside to compensate for delays caused by possible difficulties with Russian ...
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Ariane 502 launch is put back
Tim Furniss/LONDON The lift-off of the second Ariane 5 has been put back from the end of September, possibly to November, but the 100th Ariane launch was completed from the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, in French Guiana on 24 September, The Ariane 502 development flight from ...
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MISTI 2 misses Mir as resident crew take refuge in the Soyuz TM
The 168kg US Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration satellite, the MISTI 2, came within 1,000m of colliding with the Russian Mir 1 space station on 15 September. It was the closest known unplanned encounter between a manned spacecraft and another, unrelated, satellite in orbit. US ...
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NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches orbit
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft entered orbit around the Red Planet on 11 September, marking the second success for the US space agency after the mission of the Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner Rover on the planet's surface, starting on 4 July (Flight International, 20-26 August). The Lockheed Martin-built ...
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Prospector delay
The launch of NASA's Lunar Prospector orbiter aboard a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV) 2 has been delayed from 24 September until 23 November, to allow additional time to complete testing on the booster. It will be the LMLV2 maiden flight and the first launch from the Spaceport Florida's commercial ...
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Eurockot aims for 1998 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) has received $35 million funding from the Dresdener Bank to begin reconfiguring a launch pad and developing support equipment at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome for the first commercial launch of the Rockot booster in late 1998, carrying three data-messaging satellites. Dasa and ...
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On the horizon
How the European Space Agency plans more science with less money Tim Furniss/LONDON As the European Space Agency (ESA) prepares to see its penultimate large-scale, high-budget, planetary mission, the Huygens, take off with NASA's Cassini en route for Saturn on about 13 October (Flight International, 7-13 ...
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China previews Iridium launch
China Great Wall Industry, which is to launch 11 Long March LM2C boosters in 1998, carrying 22 US Motorola Iridium communications satellites, conducted a unique demonstration flight from Taiyuan on 1 September. An LM2C, equipped with the Iridium Smart Dispenser satellite-deployment upper stage, placed into low-Earth orbit two ...
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Damage to Huygens probe delays Saturn launches
The launch of the $3 billion NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter and its European Space Agency Huygens Titan moon probe has been delayed from 6 October. The Huygens probe has been damaged on the launch pad and the spacecraft have been removed from the Titan 4 launcher and returned ...
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Space Station service module stays on schedule
The International Space Station (ISS) project remains on schedule, despite the three-months-late shipment of the Russian Service Module (SM) from manufacturer Khrunichev to Energia in November, caused by the late delivery of components from subcontractors. To make up for the delay, Khrunichev will take over from Energia the ...
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USAF awards contracts
The US Air Force has awarded contracts for competitive development of sensors for the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Hughes Aircraft received $37 million and ITT Aerospace/ Communication was awarded $36 million to develop and design the Cross Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and Visible/Infrared Imager ...
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Boeing rolls out model of Space Maneuver Vehicle
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing and the US Air Force's Phillips Laboratory have rolled out a 90%-scale test version of the Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) at the former Rockwell site in Seal Beach, California. The SMV is now being prepared for flight tests in November at Holloman AFB, New ...
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Second Boeing Delta launches ACE
NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) on 26 August, using a Delta 2 rocket. On 21 August, the first Delta 2 launch by Boeing since its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas placed five craft into orbit. The first of the two Delta 7960 two-stage models was launched from ...
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EOS array arrives at Lockheed Martin
TRW has delivered to Lockheed Martin the solar array for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth spacecraft, the Earth Observing System, EOS AM-1 is planned for launch in June 1998. The 5,400kg craft will carry five synergistic instruments to study the Earth's clouds, water vapour, aerosol particles, trace gases and other ...
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ISS connector
The first of two pressurised mating adaptors (PMAs) for the International Space Station (ISS) have arrived at the NASA Kennedy Space Center. The Boeing PMA is a cone-shaped connector which will eventually serve as a passageway between the ISS' Node 1 and the Russian Functional Cargo Block. The PMA and ...
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Cassini stays on schedule
The NASA Cassini spacecraft and its European Space Agency Huygens piggyback probe are now back on schedule for a launch to Saturn from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 October. The Titan-Centaur launch had been threatened by a propellant leak in the Centaur upper stage. The Cassini will become the first ...
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NASA loses contact with Lewis after four days
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has lost contact with its Lewis remote-sensing and technology satellite, only four days after a successful launch into initial orbit on 23 August. The craft could have just weeks of life left unless contact is regained. An unplanned thruster firing sent the spacecraft ...
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The right attitude
Tim Furniss/BRISTOL If a communications satellite's antennas are not pointing towards the Earth, or a space telescope's lenses are not aimed at the stars, they become not only useless, but an expensive waste of time and effort. Spacecraft only point accurately if their attitude and orbit control systems ...
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CTV test
The European Space Agency has conducted the first automatically guided descent and landing of a parafoil test vehicle to support the Crew Transfer Vehicle programme for the International Space Station. The vehicle, carrying a 1,700kg payload and a global-positioning system, was dropped from an aircraft at 1,800m altitude. ...