All Space news – Page 230
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Military conversions
Small-launcher companies are being encouraged to use former military launch pads in the USA. Tim Furniss/COCOA BEACH With the help of industry and the US Air Force, the states of California and Florida are refurbishing former military launch pads, at Vandenberg AFB and Cape Canaveral ...
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Telstar 4 mystery delays Asiasat 2 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON ASIASAT HAS DELAYED the launch of its Asiasat 2 on a Chinese Long March booster, originally scheduled for this month, until at least the middle of the year while the September 1994 failure of a similar Martin Marietta Astro Space-built satellite, the Telstar 402, is ...
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China's DFH struggles into GEO
CHINA'S FIRST three-axis-stabilised, advanced, indigenous, 24 C-band communications satellite, the DFH 3, has finally reached geostationary orbit (GEO). A navigation malfunction had left it stranded in a lower transfer orbit ever since its launch aboard a Long March 3A on 30 November (Flight International, 7-13 December, 1994). ...
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Change-over from Ariane 4 to Ariane 5 'will take three years'
THE TRANSITION FROM using the Ariane 4 to the new Ariane 5 launcher, due for its maiden flight on 29 November, will take three years, says Arianespace president Charles Bigot. Launches will be split about 50/50 between the two vehicles during the period, and will be allocated by ...
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Smoother operations
NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle landing runway has been modified to reduce launch delays Tim Furniss/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Space Shuttle launch delays may be reduced by more than 50% because of extensive modifications to the 4,570m (15,000ft)-long grooved-concrete runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) ...
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Russia launches Luch data-relay satellite for Mir 1 communication
A new Luch satellite data-relay network (SDRN) spacecraft was launched on a Proton booster from Baikonur on 16 December to provide real-time communications for the Mir 1 space station. From February 1992, the Mir, which also communicates via shipborne tracking stations - has been out of contact with ...
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Poliakov heads for spaceflight record
RUSSIAN COSMONAUT-PHYSICIAN Valeri Poliakov (right) is expected to break the record for the longest manned space-flight, when he reaches 366 days in orbit on 9 January - exceeding the year in orbit spent by the Soyuz TM4 crew, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, in 1987/8. Poliakov, who was launched to ...