All Space news – Page 220
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PSLV sucess
The third development flight of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-D3) was completed successfully on 21 March at India's Srihorikota launch centre. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says that the four-stage launcher placed the 920kg Indian remote-sensing satellite, the IRS-P3, into near-polar Sun-synchronous orbit 820km above the Earth after ...
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Aerospatiale gears up for manned-spaceflight plans
AEROSPATIALE OF France has begun testing its atmospheric-re-entry demonstrator (ARD) vehicle amid promises from the European Space Agency (ESA) that it intends to remain firmly committed to achieving a manned space-flight capability. The conically shaped, 2.8t ARD is intended for its first test atop the second Ariane ...
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Rockwell may sell out of aerospace and defence
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES REPORTS THAT Rockwell International is, actively seeking a buyer, for its aerospace and defence businesses have been greeted with silence, from the US corporation. Although the bulk of the aerospace business is understood to be for sale, the group's Collins Commercial Avionics ...
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Longer life
Seven more Space Shuttle missions are scheduled to dock with the Russian Mir 1 space station. Tim Furniss/LONDON THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF the ten-year-old Russian Mir 1 space station is to be extended to 2000, with the help of two more Shuttle Mir Missions (SMMs) ...
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Pegasus XL flies at third attempt
Tim Furniss/LONDON ORBITAL SCIENCE'S (OSC) Pegasus XL satellite launcher had its first successful flight on 8 March. It carried the US Air Force's $5 million, 110kg, REX 2 science satellite into a 720 x 700km polar orbit after an air-launch from the company's Lockheed L-1011 mother craft, 39,000ft ...
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T-minus 56 days and counting
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S (ESA) $5 billion Ariane 5 satellite launcher, is scheduled to have its maiden flight on 15 May. The booster is being assembled at Kourou, French Guiana, and will resemble the vehicle mock-up pictured above in 1995. The 30.5m-high Ariane 5 will be used to fly two ...
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MCI builds new joint venture
MCI COMMUNICATIONS and The News Corporation, with Loral Space, have formed a joint venture to launch two $400 million communications satellites in 1997-8. The satellites will provide high-power digital direct-to-home television services from a co-location at 110¡W longitude in geostationary orbit. The first Loral-built satellite will be launched ...
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Hyped down
The re-entry capsule of the Chinese FSW 1 remote-sensing satellite launched in October 1993 re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 March. Any capsule remains, which survived re-entry landed in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The 900kg recoverable capsule was stranded in orbit, when its retro-rocket misfired. (Flight International, 10-16 November 1993). ...
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Robotic workstations
Canada's Spar Aerospace has been awarded a $30 million contract from NASA, through Canadian Commercial, to provide two robotic workstations for the international space station Alpha. These will enable astronauts to operate the Alpha's Spar Aerospace-built mobile servicing system. Source: Flight International
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Space hazard ahead
Man-made space debris is more hazardous to spacecraft operating in Earth orbits below 2,000km than are meteoroids, says a report issued by the US White House National Science and technology Council. Source: Flight International
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Russia goes ahead with Svobodny site
Tim Furniss/LONDON RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree approving a new satellite-launch centre at the former military garrison, Svobodny-18, in the Amur region in the far east of the country, close to the Chinese border (Flight International, 14-20 February). The centre, to be ...
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Rockwell unveils new X-33 SSTO baseline design
ROCKWELL AND Northrop Grumman have revealed a new baseline design for the X-33 advanced-technology single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) half-scale demonstrator launch vehicle. The 30m-long, 22,680kg launcher resembles the company's existing Space Shuttle orbiter, but incorporates the expected state-of-the-art advanced technologies, including a new breed of engines. "Rockwell intends to be ...
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UK to invest in Ariane 5 programme
THE UK IS TO INVEST $4.3 million in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 5 satellite-launcher programme to the year 2000 in a belated bid to capitalise on the potential of the booster in the satellite-launcher market. The booster, which is to have its maiden flight from Kourou, ...
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NASA orders inquiry into loss of Tethered Satellite
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA HAS FORMED an independent panel to review the loss of the Italian Tethered Satellite (TSS 1R) from the Space Shuttle Columbia during the STS75 mission on 26 February. A report into its findings will be made available within 70 days. "Given the ...
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Safe keeping?
Can the safety of the Space Shuttle fleet be maintained by privatising the programme? Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA'S CHOICE of the Rockwell/Lockheed Martin joint venture United Space Alliance to operate the Space Shuttle privately may be logical, but to many observers concerned about safety, the privatisation plan itself ...
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Near far away
NASA's first Discovery programme spacecraft, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), was launched successfully by a Delta 2 booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 17 February. The NEAR will become the first craft to orbit an asteroid, Eros, in 1999 (Flight International, 17-23 January). Source: Flight International
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Proton in doubt after Raduga failure
ILS INTERNATIONAL Launch Services' first commercial Russian Proton launch of the Astra 1F satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 28 March is in doubt after the failure of a similar booster to place a Russian communications satellite into the correct orbit after its 19 February launch. The Raduga ...
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Hyflex spaceplane lost after successful J1 flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON JAPAN'S HYFLEX hypersonic flight-experiment space-plane sank in the Pacific Ocean 20min after the successful maiden flight of the J1 booster on 12 February. The 1,040kg Hyflex splashed down 1,300km (700nm) down-range from the Tanegashima launch centre, but sank after a cable linking the ...
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MDC develops new space-tube seal
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) engineers working on the International Space Station programme have developed a process preventing contaminants escaping into space from tube joints to be used on the Station. It involves coating the mating surface of the tube ends, or fittings, with a thin layer of easily malleable ...
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Tether tries again
Tim Furniss/LONDON IF IT DOES NOT WORK THIS time, NASA will probably ditch the project. The Italian Tethered Satellite System (TSS), it is hoped, will be deployed successfully from the Space Shuttle Columbia/STS75 on 24 February, with the aim of reaching a distance of 20km at the end ...