All Space news – Page 213
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Icy irony
NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft, to be launched in October, has been given a "real" mission, thanks to the military. The plan for the Prospector to be used to map the chemical composition of the Moon has been made all the more tantalising by the apparent discovery of an "ice lake" ...
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Engine plant
Construction has begun of a new Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing building next to the Orbiter Processing building at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The engine-processing building is scheduled to be opened in July 1998. Source: Flight International
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TTS unveils new-design simulator
THOMSON TRAINING &Simulation (TTS) has delivered the first of its new-design full-flight simulators to the ATR Training Centre (ATC) in Toulouse, France. The new design was evolved following TTS' acquisition of Rediffusion and includes features from the UK company's Concept 90 simulator. The first new-design machine to enter ...
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Japan plans its first space-docking experiment
Japan will become the third space nation, after the USA and Russia, to conduct a rendezvous and docking in space. The Engineering Test Satellite, ETS7, to be launched with the US/Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite by a national H2 booster in the middle of 1997, will consist ...
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Russian programme in crisis
Russia may have to abandon its manned space programme this year because of a severe shortage of funds, Yuri Koptev, director-general of the Russian Space Agency has warned the Government. It has been planned that the country's Mir 1 space station will be the base for several international ...
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Rising star
Despite annual sales of around $20 million and a rating as one of the fastest-growing space companies in the USA, Spectrum Astro's success had gone relatively unnoticed until NASA awarded it the contract to develop the first craft in the space agency's New Millennium programme. Spectrum Astro, of ...
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Inmarsat launch
An ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2A booster lofted the Lockheed Martin Astro Space/Matra Marconi Space-built Inmarsat 3F3 mobile communications satellite into geostationary-transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 17 December. The new satellite will serve the Pacific Ocean region, complementing the first two satellites over the Indian and Atlantic ...
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Indonesian orders boost Space Systems/Loral
Indonesia's PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, of Jakarta has ordered one M2A satellite from Space Systems/Loral for its Multi Media Satellite System, plus long-lead parts for a second craft, and options for a further five satellites in a deal worth $350 million (Flight International, 2-8 October, 1996). Loral will ...
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Columbia returns with new record
The Space Shuttle Columbia's extended STS80 mission was completed with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 7 December. The mission duration of 17 days 15h was a new Shuttle record. The prime objectives of the mission were completed successfully. These were to deploy and retrieve ...
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Launcher proposals
EUROPE Aerospatiale, SEP and BPD of France and Italy are discussing the development of the Ariane Complementary Launcher (ACL). The company-funded ACL would place 1,000kg into 800km LEO. ITALY Vega. Italy's proposed solid-propellant satellite launcher, formerly the San Marco Scout. It comprises two Zefiro ...
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Screw loose
A loose 6mm screw caused the jamming of the outer-airlock door of the Space Shuttle Columbia during the STS80 mission, leading to cancellation of two space-walks scheduled to practise International Space Station assembly procedures. The screw was found embedded in the door's gearbox. ...
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High resolution
Space Imaging plans to launch its first high-resolution satellite. Tim Furniss/LONDON The race to market high-resolution satellite imagary is on, and the Lockheed Martin-led Space Imaging company, of Thornton, Colorado, aims to win it. With partners Raytheon E-Systems, Mitsubishi and Eastman Kodak, Lockheed Martin is ...
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International Space Station faces service-module crisis
Tim Furniss/LONDON The International Space Station (ISS) Service Module being built by Russia is eight months behind schedule, meaning a delay in the launch of the first ISS crew until early 1999, NASA has confirmed (Flight International, 27 November-3 December). Russian Government funding for the project has ...
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NASA's XAF moves
NASA's Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), designed to be the world's most powerful X-ray observatory, is taking shape, with Eastman Kodak delivering the high-resolution mirror assembly. It has also delivered the optical-bench structure to spacecraft prime contractor TRW. The AXAF project is the third of NASA's Great Observatory series, after ...
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MSG solar panel problem 'will not hinder NASA's Mars goals'
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA says that the partially unfurled solar panel on the Mars Global Surveyor (MSG) spacecraft, launched on 7 November, will "-not significantly impair" the craft's ability to aerobrake into its orbit around the planet or "-affect its performance" during the cruise and science elements of ...
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Moon ice
The US Department of Defense said on 2 December that its Clementine research satellite, which went into orbit around the Moon in 1993, returned data which indicate the likelihood that ice "-makes up part of the Moon's surface layer near the south pole". The Pentagon has speculated that the water ...
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USAF invites industry spaceplane ideas
Industry has been invited to brief the USAir Force on concepts for a military "spaceplane" capable of being operated in the upper atmosphere and in low-Earth orbit. An integrated concept team (ICT) formed by the USAF to evaluate spaceplane concepts invited interested companies to present their ideas on ...
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Near enough?
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has investigated the reliability of the global- positioning system (GPS), and found it wanting. GPS, it says, is not reliable enough, in its current form, to be used as a sole means of navigation. In this, the CAA is at odds with the single most ...
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Change of mission
The Dassault Mirage IVP's role has moved from that of strategic strike to one of strategic reconnaissance. Gert Kromhout/MONT DE MARSAN After more than 30 years, the Dassault-Breguet Mirage IVP of the French air force has lost its nuclear mission, with the disbandment of one of two squadrons ...