All Space news – Page 228
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Rokot link
Daimler-Benz Space and Russia's Khrunichev have formally established a joint venture to market the three-stage Rokot (the former SS-19 Stiletto missile) as a commercial launcher to be operated from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 1997. The Rokot can place 1,000kg into low-Earth orbit. It was used to place a small satellite ...
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Space spectacular
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing a daily bonanza of images and data for astronomers Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has scheduled another Space Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for 1997. The STS82/Discovery mission, scheduled for launch in February 1997, is the ...
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Ariane launch date set for ESA's second remote-sensing satellite
THE EUROPEAN SPACE Agency's second remote- sensing satellite, the ERS 2, will be launched aboard Ariane flight V72 on 20 April. The Ariane 40 vehicle, with no thrust-augmentation strap-on boosters, will place the spacecraft into a circular, 780km, Sun-synchronous orbit (Flight International, 22-28 March). The launch will open ...
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ESA members bicker over Alpha space-station funds
Julian Moxon/PARIS THE ROW OVER European funding for the proposed Alpha international space station has led to a bout of accusations between individual members of the European Space Agency (ESA). The French space agency, CNES, has lashed out at other European countries which are accusing France ...
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Saab to provide computers for Thai satellite
SAAB ERICSSON SPACE has won a SKr20 million ($2.7 million) order to provide computer systems for use on Thailand's Thaicom 3 telecommunications satellite. The order comes via Aerospatiale, the main supplier to Thailand's Shinawatra Satellite. The French manufacturer is the first European company to penetrate this formerly US-dominated ...
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Pegasus XL lofts first Orbcomm satellites
THE ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) Pegasus XL air-launched booster was used successfully to place the first two of the company's Orbcomm communications satellites into 728km (390nm) circular orbit on 3 April. OSC's Microlab 1 research satellite, a smaller version of Orbcomm's MicroStar standard satellite bus equipped with NASA and ...
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Ariane operations resume with successful launch
ARIANESPACE RESUMED commercial-launch operations on 28 March with the successful launch of the Brasilsat B2 and Hot Bird 1 satellites into geostationary-transfer orbit. The V71/Ariane 44LP launch from Kourou, Guiana, came 117 days after the failure of V70 (Flight International, 29 March-4 April). The Ariane 4 fleet was ...
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ESA continues to support Alpha
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency (ESA) has re-affirmed in a letter to NASA and other programme partners its commitment to the proposed Alpha international space station. A formal decision on European involvement in the Alpha, however, is not expected to be made until the 18-20 October European Ministers' Council ...
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Rockwell/OSC in X-34 tie-up
ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) and Rockwell International have formed a jointly owned company, called American Space Lines (ASL), to develop, operate and market the X-34 small re-usable launch vehicle. The project, being undertaken with NASA, will see the two companies invest $100 million in the project while the space ...
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Second launch pad for India
THE INDIAN Government has approved construction of a second launch pad at the Sriharikota space centre in the south of the country. Spending on the project was approved in the 1995-6 space budget, in which New Delhi also approved three more test flights of the Polar Satellite ...
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First satellite launch by Lockheed Martin
WITH THE NEW Lockheed Martin logo hastily painted on its side, an Atlas 2AS booster blasted off from Cape Canaveral on 22 March, carrying the Intelsat 705 communications satellite into orbit, on the first satellite launch by the newly merged corporation. Other launch companies have not fared so ...
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Russian space disaster revealed
THE FIRST TEST flight of the Soviet Union's giant N1 Moon booster ended in an explosion at T+70s on 21 February, 1969, killing 91 people on the ground near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, it has been revealed on Russian television. Although some details of the flight have been revealed, ...
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First American flies to board the Mir
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA ASTRONAUT Norman Thagard became the first American to board a Russian space station on 16 March after the docking of the Soyuz TM21 spacecraft in which he and two Russian colleagues were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome two days earlier. Thagard, commander ...
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ERS 2: the successor
The ERS 2, is built by a consortium led by, Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The 2,516kg spacecraft is based on the design of the Matra Marconi Space Spot commercial remote-sensing satellite. With the exception of the GOME and a visible wavelength band for the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), the instruments are ...
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LLV 2 development
Design work has begun on the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) 2, in an effort to attack the growing commercial market for launches of 1,800kg payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Lockheed's first vehicle, the LLV 1 - which will resemble this engineering model at Vandenberg AFB, California - will be launched ...
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NASA selects new Discovery missions
NASA HAS SELECTED the Lunar Prospector as the third low-cost Solar System exploration mission in the Administration's Discovery programme. To be launched in June 1997, the $59 million, 1.3m-diameter, hatbox-shaped craft will go into orbit around the Moon. It will be used to map its chemical composition and ...
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Pegasus to launch satellite trio
ORBITAL SCIENCES (OSC) will begin a new era in satellite data communications later this month with the launch of the first two Orbcomm satellites aboard the Pegasus XL. Also on board will be the first OSC Microlab piggyback science satellite for NASA. The Orbcomms, originally scheduled to have ...
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NASA picks contractors for X-33 and X-34 projects
NASA HAS PICKED Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell International to compete to build the X-33 re-useable launch-vehicle demonstrator, which could eventually lead to a Space Shuttle replacement. It also announced selection of Orbital Sciences to build and fly the smaller companion X-34 booster-demonstrator, beginning late in 1997. The ...
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Kodak in space
Eastman Kodak has joined the Space Imaging company formed by Lockheed to operate a commercial remote-sensing satellite system, starting in 1997. The satellites will generate 1m-resolution digital images for the production of data products for a market which is forecast to be worth $5 billion in 2000. Japan's Mitsubishi has ...
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Shaky partnership
Despite the Discovery's triumph, joint US/CIS missions face an uncertain future. Tim Furniss/LONDON As James Weatherbee, commander of the US Space Shuttle Discovery, brought his orbiter close to the Russian Mir 1 space station on 6 February, he told the station's commander Alexander Viktorenko that he ...