All Space news – Page 209
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Saturn 5 engine to power Shuttle fly-back booster?
Boeing engineers are considering the use of the F-1 first stage engine of the giant Saturn 5 booster that launched Apollo to the Moon to power a new fly-back booster for the Space Shutle. The company's Space Systems division - formerly Rockwell Space - has been awarded a ...
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Starsem close to finalising contract with ESA
The Starsem consortium is close to finalising its contract to launch four Cluster science satellites for the European Space Agency. Starsem is a consortium comprising Aerospatiale, Arianespace, the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and the Samara space centre to market the Russian Soyuz booster for commercial launches, mainly into ...
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Ariane wins four launch contracts
Arianespace has won four new launch contracts, maintaining its lead in an increasingly competitive commercial market. The company says it has 42 satellites in its orderbook and claims a 50% market share. Arianespace will launch the Swedish communications satellite Sirius 3 in 1998. This Hughes HS376 ...
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Le Bourget filled to capacity - again!
The "Complet" sign is up on the Paris International Air Show - with more than 1,700 exhibitors from 43 countries, the 42nd edition of this venerable exposition is sold out. Organisers are expecting about 300,000 visitors over the eight days of the show at Le Bourget. ...
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ESA catches the Express to Mars
The European Space Agency (ESA) says it has approved studies of a mission, called the Mars Express, to land a craft on the surface of the planet Mars to analyse its soil for signs of life. The international frenzy over "life on Mars" has meant that the Mars ...
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Orbital will launch hypersonic vehicles
ORBITALSCIENCES IS to produce four modified Pegasus air-launched boosters for NASA's Hyper-X hypersonic test programme. The Hyper-X is a small, unmanned, research vehicle powered by a supersonic-combustion ramjet (scramjet) and designed to reach speeds of up to Mach 10 and altitudes of up to 100,000ft (30,500m) after launch ...
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Act of faith
A full-scale model of Russia's 20t Functional Cargo Block (FGB) module and its Proton launcher will be among the highlights of the space displays at the Paris air show, demonstrating that the International Space Station (ISS) programme is still alive. The real FGB will be the first ISS ...
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Over the Moon as Galileo...
Over the Moon as Galileo spots Jupiter NASA has released a montage of images of Jupiter, the giant Great Red Spot and the planet's four major moons, taken from the orbiter Galileo. From top to bottom, the moons are: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Calisto. Source: Flight International
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Watching space
Putting its money worries aside, Russia will be pushing its space technology at Le Bourget. The Khrunichev Space Centre (5B/4) will feature a scale-model of the first component of the International Space Station (ISS). Called the Functional Control Block (FGB), the 20t module will be launched aboard a Proton booster ...
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Cooperation is the answer
Sir - It is a pity that there is not more co-operation within the aviation industry worldwide. In the case of the "super jumbo", for example, world co-operation could transform the flat bed of the Antonov An-225 into an almost-ready-to-work "super jumbo". Similarly, co-operation on the Russian Energia ...
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NASA aims to cut drag with control-surface research
NASA has begun test flights of an adaptive control-surface experiment which it hopes could lead to drag reductions of up to 3% for commercial aircraft, worth roughly $140 million a year in reduced fuel savings. The tests are taking place on the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar operated by Orbital ...
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Searching for beginnings
If there are other planets in existence similar to Earth in orbit around nearby stars, are any of them habitable, and could one of them serve as a grand exploration target for the human race? These are two of the questions which NASA will be seeking to answer ...
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India proposes 11 launches in five years
Eleven indigenous launches of 16 communications and remote-sensing spacecraft are planned by India up to 2003 as part of its next, $3.48 billion, five-year space plan, says India's space-research organisation (ISRO). Up to five of the spacecraft will be a new series of Insat 3 direct-broadcast communications satellites ...
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NASA astronaut returns after more than 120 days on the Mir
NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger returned to Earth aboard the STS 84/Atlantis on 25 May, after a 132-day spaceflight, mainly aboard the Russian space station Mir. He was replaced by Michael Foale, the fifth NASA astronaut to fly on the Mir (Flight International, 28 May-3 June). The STS84 was ...
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Proton launch is successful
A Russian Proton DM booster operated by ILS International Launch Services carried AT&T's Telstar 5 communications satellite into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 24 May. It was the Ìrst flight of the booster since the failure of the Proton launch of the Mars '96 probe on 17 November, ...
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OSC completes X-34 final design review
The final design of the Orbital Sciences (OSC) X-34, the next technology demonstrator in NASA's Reusable Launch Vehicle programme, has been frozen in preparation for its first flight in 1998. The re-usable, suborbital vehicle will be flown to Mach 8 at an altitude of 80km. It will be ...
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Huygens milestone
Aerospatiale has delivered the Huygens spacecraft to the European Space Agency for launch with the NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter aboard a Titan 4B booster from Cape Canaveral on 6 October. The Huygens craft is due to land on Saturn's moon, Titan, in 2004. Source: Flight International
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Station to be manned in early 1999
NASA has released a new 45-flight assembly schedule for the International Space Station (ISS) under which permanent manned operations of the station are due to start in January 1999 and reach completion in 2003 - nine years later than planned when the programme was inaugurated by US President Ronald Reagan ...
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Teledesic selection is due by year end
Payload specialists, launchers and other major suppliers and components for Teledesic's global "Internet-in-the-sky" concept will be selected by Boeing by the end of the year. Boeing is prime contractor for the Teledesic Network which will involve a constellation of 288 low-Earth-orbit satellites providing affordable access to telecommunications services ...
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MMS wins $600 million LEO deal
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) has been awarded a $600 million contract by Constellation Communications of Reston, Virginia, to be prime contractor for the space segment of a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite system, including delivery in orbit and insurance. The 12-satellite system, operating in 2,000km equatorial orbits, will provide voice, ...