All Space articles – Page 208
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ESA's orbiter prepared to put lander on comet
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is expected to enter orbit round the comet Wirtanen at a distance of as little as 1km during a mission in 2012 which is designed to deploy a small lander on the comet. It is hoped that samples of the Wirtanen can be taken ...
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Small is beautiful
Tim Furniss/GUILDFORD When the UK's UoSAT 1 microsatellite was launched in 1984, the project was run by a small team of engineers and graduates in the University of Surrey at Guildford, in the UK. Today that team is Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), a world leader in the ...
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Lockheed Martin finalises $1 billion rocket-engine deal
Lockheed Martin has agreed an exclusive contract to buy 101 Russian RD-108 rocket engines worth $1 billion from RD AMROSS, the joint venture of Russia's NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney. The engines will be used on the Atlas 2AR satellite launcher to be operated by ILS International ...
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Son of Hermes
Europe's love affair with the Hermes spaceplane is not over. Years after the first Hermes was cancelled, the European Space Agency and Aerospatiale have come up with the Son of Hermes. It's not quite the old spaceplane, but it'll do. ESA is working on two manned projects which will ...
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Engine makers have plenty to smile about
If the airframe manufacturers have been announcing successes throughout the week, then the engine makers have been rejoicing too. Rolls-Royce is celebrating its selection as power provider to the Airbus Industrie (AI) A340-600 and -500 with the Trent 500 announced on Monday. Disappointed GE and Pratt & Whitney ...
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Alcatel plans 64 satellite system
Alcatel revealed more details yesterday of its planned 64-satellite low Earth orbit Skybridge Ku-band interactive multimedia access system. Alcatel, US company Oracle and other operators and manufacturers will join forces to operate the multimedia satellite constellation that will be capable of reaching 20 million users in 2000. ...
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Shuttle win
Canada's Wescam has won a contract from NASA to supply three radio frequency camera systems for the Space Shuttle. The cameras will be used by Shuttle astronauts during the construction of the International Space Station. This is a space first for Wescam. Source: Flight Daily News
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Spacewalkers picked
A cadre of 14 Space Shuttle astronauts has begun intensive training in preparation for the spacewalks required for initial in-orbit construction of the International Space Station (ISS). "It is important for us to begin work now to train the crews who will support Space Station assembly flights," says ...
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Space & missiles
Winner: Surrey Satellite Technology Location Guildford, UK Achievement Pioneering of microsatellites to give more nations affordable access to space. Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) was formed in 1985 by Professor Martin Sweeting, a UK pioneer of affordable microsatellite technology at the University of Surrey. His ...
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ESA plans more for less
Budget cuts have forced Europe's "frustrated" scientists to make "drastic" decisions to amend the European Space Agency's (ESA) science programme, the agency's science chief Roger Bonnet said yesterday. Despite the cuts and the cancellation of some long-term plans, the programme still retains some exciting missions and has even ...
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Russia enters new orbit with reconnaissance satellite
A Russian launch this month marked the introduction of a new class of national reconnaissance satellite - but mystery surrounds its purpose. The Cosmos 2344 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, using a four-stage Proton-K on June 6. The mission for the Cosmos 2344 is ...
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Boeing speeds hypersonic weapon push
Boeing North American has completed initial wind-tunnel work on a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet)- powered waverider lifting body. Now the company is pressing the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to support the effort as part of the development of future hypersonic weapons. The call ...
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First X-38 'Lifeboat' arrives at Edwards
The first X-38 atmospheric test vehicle, which will be used to demonstrate the concept of a crew-return "lifeboat" for the International Space Station, arrived at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California on 4 June. The 7.3m-long vehicle resembles the X-24A lifting body, and will be carried ...
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Israel and US booster link targets commercial market
Israel Aircraft Industries has linked up with the USA to develop and launch a version of Israel's Shavit satellite booster for the commercial market. It has joined with Coleman Research, a rocket company in Orlando, Florida, to provide launches from the USA for a range of potential commercial customers, ...
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Tug delivers goods
One of the new space products being introduced by Russia at the Show is a Space Tug from Khrunichev. The automatic Space Tug could deliver 4,940kg of equipment to a space station after launch on a Proton. It is being promoted for work supporting the International Space Station, delivering fuel, ...
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Pegasus set to fly
Pegasus set to fly Orbital Sciences (OSC) says it will build four, one-stage versions of its Pegasus air-launched booster for the NASA Hyper-X project. The second and third stages of the standard satellite launcher - featured in Hall 3 - will be removed and a new ...
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Thiokol to power Spain's first satellite launcher
US company Thiokol will supply the Castor 4B solid rocket motor for the first stage of Spain's first satellite launcher, the Capricornio, the company announced at the show yesterday. Spain's Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA) will be supplied with motors for the first two launches of the ...
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Baker contract
When the joint NASA-ESA Cassini/Huygens mission blasts off on its seven-year journey towards the Saturn moon Titan in October, technology pioneered by British firm Martin Baker will be central to ensuring the probe's safe landing in 2004. The partnership mission will map out several milestones in space - ...
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Spaceport Florida set for first launch
Nasa's Lunar Prospector moon reconnaissance orbiter should be the first spacecraft to be launched from Spaceport Florida's new $8million pad at Cape Canaveral this September, a spokesman said at the Show yesterday. Spaceport Florida is a state agency created to boost commercial space enterprises in the state. ...
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Starsem close to finalising contract with ESA
The Starsem consortium is close to finalising its contract to launch four Cluster science satellites for the European Space Agency. Starsem is a consortium comprising Aerospatiale, Arianespace, the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and the Samara space centre to market the Russian Soyuz booster for commercial launches, mainly into ...