All Space news – Page 229
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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 ...
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Endeavour prepared for longest Shuttle flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE SPACE SHUTTLE Endeavour/STS67 is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 01.27 local time on 2 March to attempt a 16-day mission, the longest by the Space Shuttle. Carrying the Astro 2 payload of three ultraviolet astronomy telescopes, ...
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Mir enters tenth year in orbit
THE CORE MODULE of the Russian Mir 1 space station entered its tenth year in orbit on 20 February, three days after the routine docking of a tanker ship, the Progress M26. The Mir, which now consists of a Kvant 1 astrophysics module, and the Kvant 2 and ...
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Heat Rejection
Loral Vought has been awarded a $13.3 million extension-contract to redesign six heat rejection system radiators for the international space station. The 1,000kg, 3m-long radiators will extend to 25m in orbit and will be capable of releasing 11kW of excess heat using a pumped liquid ammonia heat transfer system. ...
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Discovery paves way for Mir space station docking
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE SPACE SHUTTLE STS63/Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on 11 February after an eight-day 6h mission, which included a rendezvous with the Russian Mir 1 space station on 6 February. The rendezvous was a major step towards the planned seven Shuttle ...
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China blames Hughes for ApStar failure
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE LOSS OF THE Long March 2E booster after launch on 26 January (Flight International, 8-14 February) was caused by an explosion aboard the Hughes HS 601 ApStar 2 satellite, a Chinese newspaper has claimed. "The satellite's explosion caused the rocket's explosion, which was ...
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NASA spending will be slashed by $5 billion
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NASA WILL UNDERGO a "profound" restructuring, to absorb a $5 billion spending cut by the end of fiscal year 2000. The cut has been demanded in the Clinton Administration's latest budget submission to Congress. Administrator Daniel Goldin says: "Make no mistake. When this ...
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Launch pressure
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan's third H2 booster will be carrying the nation's pride and, if successful, will raise post-earthquake morale when it is launched from the Tanegashima space centre on 22 February. After the $575 million losses of the Engineering Test Satellite 6 (ETS) in orbit in August 1994 ...
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Launch Pressure
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan's third H2 booster will be carrying the nation's pride and, if successful, will raise post-earthquake morale when it is launched from the Tanegashima space centre on 22 February. After the $575 million losses of the Engineering Test Satellite 6 (ETS) in orbit in August ...
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Funded Japanese spacecraft
NASDA GMS 5 Latest in a series of operational geo-stationary orbiting meteorological satellites, to be launched by the H2F3 on 22 February; Hyflex Hypersonic space plane demonstrator, to be launched by the J1F1 in February 1996; ADEOS Advanced Earth-observation satellite to carry multi-spectral scanners, ...
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Soaring satellites
The satellite market is booming in the Asia-Pacific region. Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Space-related activity in the Asia-Pacific region is growing at a rate unknown elsewhere. From the westernmost-orbital position allocated to an Asian satellite (38¡E), to the dateline at 180¡E, a 60% growth in traditional satellite-communications ...
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Hughes wins contracts for four communications satellites
Tim Furniss/LONDON HUGHES SPACE and Communications International has maintained its lead in the satellite-manufacturing market with contract awards to build three HS-601 and one HS-376 communications satellites for Luxembourg, Malaysia and Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (ASC). The deals bring orders for the three-axis HS-601 to 38 ...
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Apstar 2 satellite lost in Long March explosion
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE APSTAR 2 communications satellite was destroyed on 26 January when a Long March 2E rocket exploded 51s after launch from Xichang, China. The spacecraft loss was a record for the local insurance industry - Pacific Insurance of Shanghai had insured Apstar 2 for $160 ...
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Satellites are cause of some problems
Sir - The article "Telstar 4 mystery delays Asiasat 2" (Flight International, 11-17 January, P18) confirms a story which I published in Worldwide Satellite Launches on 10 October 1994. I said: "...US Spacecom has only tracked one object from the launch (1994-058A/23249) which has been nominally assigned to the satellite: ...
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Fibre-optic contract goes to Sira
SIRA, THE UK space-instrumentation and hardware specialist, has won a contract which could lead to the development of a passive fibre-optic monitoring system capable of allowing ground controllers to view the deployment of spacecraft-based systems. The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Sira a feasibility contract under which ...
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Mir rendezvous
Tim Furniss/LONDON Members of the crew of a routine Space Shuttle Discovery mission have waited a year to be launched but, during that time, their mission has taken on a higher profile, as well as an extra crewman. The wait will have been worthwhile. The Discovery is now ...
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Second satellite loss sets back Japanese space programme
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE JAPANESE space programme has been hit by its second major failure in five months, with the loss of the $160 million Experimental Recoverable Space System (Express) microgravity research satellite, after launch from the Kagoshima space centre on 15 January. The second stage of ...
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China aims for moon
The Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) next five-year space plan includes a series of lunar and planetary spacecraft, starting with a lunar orbiter to be launched in about 2000. The CAS intends to be "a leader in lunar exploration", says professor Jiang Jingshan, the director of the academy's space unit. ...
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European spies
Europe will make its space-surveillance debut when the Helios satellite is launched in 1995 Tim Furniss/LONDON The French Matra Marconi Space (MMS) Helios 1A satellite, to be launched by an Ariane 4 before the end of April, will provide Europe with the world's fourth military-surveillance capability, ...
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Atlas launches Intelsat 704 comsat
The year's first satellite launch took place from Cape Canaveral on 10 January, when a Martin Marietta Atlas 2AS rocket carried the Space Systems/Loral Intelsat 704 communications satellite (comsat) into an initial orbit en route to geostationary orbit. The international satellite communications organisation, which has 134 countries as ...