All Space articles – Page 177
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Final Mir, first ISS crews are named
Two Russian cosmonaut crews have been named for the final mission to the Mir space station to be launched in February 2000. The prime crew is rookie Sergei Zaletin and Alexander Kaleri, a Mir veteran. A two-person back-up crew has been named as Salizham Sharipov - who flew on ...
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Hardware losses top $2 billion
Tim Furniss/LONDON The $300 million-plus failure of Japan's H2 booster and a communications satellite on 15 November has brought to $2 billion the total value of space hardware lost this year. There have been six launch failures and five in-orbit satellite failures, plus satellite in-orbit anomalies. Despite the ...
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Cold may cripple Mars Lander's engine
Tim Furniss/LONDON The NASA panel investigating the loss of the $327 million Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) has uncovered a potential problem with the Mars Polar Lander (MPL), which is due to touch down on 3 December. NASA has found that temperatures as low as -20°C could affect the performance of ...
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Comet chaser
Europe's Rosetta mission will be the first to land a craft on a comet Tim Furniss/LONDON The European Space Agency (ESA) will make history in 2012 when its 100kg Rosetta makes the first soft landing of a spacecraft on a comet. The Rosetta mission launch is due in January 2003, ...
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Starsem is cleared for Baikonur
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Franco-Russian venture Starsem has been cleared to launch a Soyuz booster from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, this month. The launch had been jeopardised when the Kazakh Government banned all launches from Baikonur after the 27 October Proton booster failure - the second recently. Starsem president Jean-Yves ...
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Hyper-X test date put back to May
Flight testing of the first hypersonic X-43A air-breathing free-flight vehicle has slipped by around three months to the end of next May. The delay follows the later-than-expected arrival of the experimental craft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California. The 3.6m (12ft)-long X-43A is a key part ...
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Hubble mission aims for December
Space Shuttle mission STS 103/Discovery has been cleared for launch on 6 December, to complete the third service of the Hubble Space Telescope. The spacecraft stack was scheduled to be rolled to launch pad 39B on 13 November. NASA replaced the orbiter's main engine number three in the Vehicle ...
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X-33's first flight may be delayed until 2001
The maiden flight of the Lockheed Martin/NASA X-33 sub-orbital technology demonstrator for future single-stage-to-orbit vehicles is likely to be delayed from next July until early 2001. The hold-up is due to damage to the demonstrator's liquid hydrogen (LH) tanks. The outer wall of one of the X-33's two ...
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Beagle 2 Mars lander gets ESA go ahead
The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the go-ahead for the UK to build the Beagle 2 lander, which is scheduled to ride aboard the space agency's Mars Express orbiter when it launches in June 2003. The UK Beagle team, which is led by the country's Open University and ...
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Ikonos returns quality images from Space
Steve Nichols/DUBAI If you want a bird's eye view of Dubai, try visiting Space Imaging Middle East (E820). The company is showing some of the first high-resolution photographic images of the United Arab Emirates, taken by the recently-launched Ikonos satellite. Ikonos is the world's first commercial high-resolution imaging satellite, circling ...
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SSTL tests electric Resistojet in orbit
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has test-fired the first electric resistojet orbit control thruster to be used in space by a Western European country. It took place aboard the SSTL UoSAT 12 satellite. A resistojet is a form of electric propulsion where a fluid, such as water or ...
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ISS suffers further delays
Tim Furniss/LONDON The International Space Station (ISS) project has been dealt a new blow with the delay of the next Space Shuttle assembly mission, STS101 Atlantis. NASA has moved it from February next year to no earlier than 16 March. This comes after the Russian Proton launch failure ...
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SpaceDev wins spacecraft deal
SpaceDev, the commercial space exploration and development company, has been selected by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley to design, build and operate a micro-spacecraft. The vehicle will conduct a one-year astronomy mission in low earth orbit. The spacecraft, the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma ...
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Fire in Proton second stage caused engine failure
The failure of the Proton booster on 27 October was caused by "fire in the turbopump of the second stage", says the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Engine No 1 on the booster's second stage failed, followed by the shutdown of the other three engines, at 222s into the ...
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Beyond the Shuttle
NASA is looking to 2020 and beyond in its search for new space transport vehicles Tim Furniss/LONDON While it acknowledges that the Space Shuttle may still be flying in 2015, NASA is looking at vehicles to complement or supplement and, eventually, to replace its current reusable space transportation system. It ...
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Spaceport Australia
Efforts to establish commercial launch facilities in Australia may deliver results, but the economics are harsh Peter La Franchi/CANBERRAThree decades ago, the former European Launcher Development Organisation walked away from the Woomera Rocket Range. Now, the re-emergence of Australia as a portal to space depends on the success of four ...
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KOMPSAT arrives
The Republic of Korea's Korean Multipurpose Satellite (KOMPSAT), has arrived at Vandenberg AFB, California, for its launch on an Orbital Sciences Taurus booster later this year. The KOMPSAT, built by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute and TRW, carries space physics experiments. Source: Flight International
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Beagle 2 to face ESA
The UK's Open University-led Beagle 2 Mars lander project goes before the European Space Agency's (ESA) Science Programme Committee on 10 November. It is bidding to take a piggyback ride aboard the ESA Mars Express orbiter in 2003. The 60kg (130lb) Beagle 2 is not yet fully funded but ...
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NASA releases new services request
NASA has released a complicated request for proposals (RFP) for multiple award indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) expendable launch vehicle launch services contracts. The RFP involves heavy, intermediate, medium and medium-light vehicles. Proposals are requested by 7 January. The RFP is open to emerging launchers not available at the ...
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ESA issues warning on space debris
The European Space Agency (ESA) is calling for the introduction of measures to prevent further space debris accumulating in orbit. ESA warns that there is a 1 in 25 chance of the Hubble Space Telescope being seriously damaged by space debris during its 17-year life. There are 8,000 pieces ...