All Space articles – Page 207
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Spacewalk in August will be used to restore Mir power
Tim Furniss/FLORIDA Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradev will perform a 6h internal spacewalk in the connecting node/airlock of the Mir space station on 20 August, in an attempt to restore the station's electrical power to 70% of its normal output. Equipment to support the task arrived ...
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Veteran flight
NASA is considering a suggestion that veteran astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962, fly on a Space Shuttle mission to study and compare the effects of spaceflight on a 76-year old. Glenn, a US senator, undergoes regular medical tests by NASA. ...
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Space debris
The Aerospace Corporation has established a centre in California for orbital and re-entry debris studies. The centre will analyse space debris, collision-avoidance systems and the possibilities for deliberate re-entry of some debris into the Earth's atmosphere. Source: Flight International
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Confidence boosters
Tim Furniss / Paris The market for launches of communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is heating up. With US/Russian company ILS International Launch Services claiming a 50% share in the commercial-launcher market alongside Arianespace, its European competitor, there is also confusion over just how big the market ...
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Kelly tow method gets patent
Tim Furniss/LONDON Kelly Space and Technology of San Bernardino, California, has been issued a US patent for its towed-launch technique to be used by the company's Eclipse re-usable spaceplane satellite launch system. The plan is to use a Boeing 747 to tow the Eclipse spaceplane to ...
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Ikonos launch due in December
The Ikonos 1, the first of two remote-sensing satellites being built by Lockheed Martin for Space Imaging EOSAT in Colorado, is scheduled for launch on a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle 2 two-stage booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, in December (Flight International, 18-31 December, 1996). The satellite will be used to ...
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NASA plans mission to investigate Sun's corona
A spacecraft could fly within 2.72 million kilometres (1.7 million miles) of the Sun in July 2007 as part of a series of new interplanetary space missions being studied by NASA. The Solar Probe, protected against high temperatures by a large umbrella-like heatshield, would be used to explore ...
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NASA to build small rover for Japan
NASA will provide a small robotic rover to conduct in-situ measurements of the surface of the asteroid Nereus in September 2003. Nereus is a 1.5km- diameter near-Earth asteroid. The rover will be aboard the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science's Muses C spacecraft, to be launched on ...
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Space Station solar-array model tested
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space has completed the engineering model of the first of eight planned photovoltaic solar arrays for the International Space Station, to be launched on a Space Shuttle in March 1999. The eight-array system will supply 264kW of power. The 33m-long engineering model has been extended and ...
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Allied on Kistler
AlliedSignal Aerospace will supply the vehicle-management system (VMS) for the Kistler K-1 reusable launch vehicle. Each VMS will include computer, power control unit, transponder, antenna and integration platform. The Kistler launch system is intended to place 4,000kg payloads into low-Earth orbit (Flight International, 23-29 October, 1996). Source: Flight ...
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Aerospatiale to build Soyuz dispenser
Starsem, the joint French and Russian company which markets the Soyuz booster for commercial launches, has awarded a contract to Aerospatiale of France to build the payload dispenser designed for launches of satellite constellations. The 400kg "intelligent" dispenser will be used to carry four Loral Globalstar mobile-communications satellites ...
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ADEOS monitoring satellite disappears in Earth orbit
Tim Furniss/LONDON Japan's global environmental-monitoring spacecraft, the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), carrying a suite of NASA instruments, has been lost in Earth orbit. Trouble began in June, when the craft failed to respond to commands, and later a signal was detected indicating that it was ...
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Arianespace keeps up monthly launch rate
Arianespace completed its 26th launch in 26 months on 25 June when an Ariane 44P carried the Intelsat 802 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana. The European commercial launcher company's next launch is due on 7 August, carrying the ...
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First Space Station modules prepared for 1998 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON With the first elements of the International Space Station (ISS) due to be launched in a little under 12 months, the USA and Russia, the two leading members of the international consortium building the Station, have begun to reveal progress the initial modules scheduled to be ...
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Pathfinder is poised for historic landing
NASA's ambitious plans for a series of Mars Surveyor landers and orbiters, leading to a sample return mission in 2005, depend upon a successful touchdown of the Mars Pathfinder at Ares Vallis on 4 July. The landing site is at the outflow at the bottom of a valley ...
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ESA will propose a rescue vehicle for Space Station
Tim Furniss/PARIS A European Space Agency (ESA) Council of Ministers meeting in the middle of 1998 is to decide whether to go ahead with the development of a Crew Transport Vehicle (CTV) capsule or a new proposal of a lifting-body Crew Rescue Vehicle (CRV), for use in the ...
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Progress will go to aid Mir crew
Tim Furniss/LONDON The Progress M35 unmanned cargo craft is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan around 10 July in the first phase of an operation to restore conditions to near-normal aboard the Russian Mir space station. The launch follows the collision on 25 June ...
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Space link
United Space Alliance and Spacehab have agreed jointly to develop commercial markets for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. United operates the Space Shuttle for NASA, while Spacehab operates habitable extension modules in the Shuttle's mid-deck. The firms will focus on expanding the non-government market for life and ...
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Propulsion pioneers
SSTL is also engaged in the development of its own spacecraft-propulsion system. The company has recognised that the lack of an on-board propulsion system has prevented it from exploiting fully the potential of its micro/minisatellite fleet. The company has certainly pioneered the use of small craft to conduct ...
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Spaceport Florida
The Spaceport Florida Authority has been issued a licence by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation to operate a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The organisation, a state agency created to boost commercial space enterprises, will charge $300,000 a launch to use the new pad or the recently ...