All Space articles – Page 217
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Sea Launch joint venture boosted by first payload
THE BOEING-LED Sea Launch joint venture, has been assigned its first satellite payload the Hughes Communications Galaxy 11, which is scheduled to be launched in June 1998. The launch will also carry the first Hughes HS-702 spacecraft bus. Boeing is joined on the $500 million programme by ...
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Fast launch
NASA's Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) satellite is to be air-launched by an Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL booster over the Pacific Ocean on 16 August. The $45 million FAST satellite will be used to investigate how particles are accelerated in space to create auroras. Source: Flight ...
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Chinese Mir hopefuls book in for Russian Star City training
Tim Furniss/LONDON CHINESE PILOTS are to start training as cosmonauts at Russia's Star City, near Kaliningrad, in October, for flights to the Mir 1 space station. Russia has also sold China a space-station life-support system and will supply rocket-engine technology, says Rex Hall, the London-based ...
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Powering ahead
Matra Marconi Space has introduced a new high-power satellite bus, the Eurostar 3000. Tim Furniss/LONDON MATRA MARCONI SPACE (MMS) has introduced a new spacecraft bus, the Eurostar 3000, designed to play a leading role in the rapidly emerging Global Information Infrastructure (GII), delivering broadband multimedia, advanced hand-held ...
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Seeking Titan's secrets
The Huygens probe to Saturn's moon, Titan, could reveal evidence of how terrestrial life began. Julian Moxon/PARIS FIVE MONTHS AFTER the Cassini orbiter arrives at Saturn after a seven-year, 1.5 billion kilometre journey, a small, cone-shaped craft will be despatched to that planet's largest moon, Titan, on ...
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Low cost boost
NASA has selected 15 proposals for contract negotiation in its Low Cost Boost Technology project, to develop innovative, off-the-shelf, launch-system technologies which could reduce the cost of launching payloads into orbit. The proposals include propellant-delivery systems. Source: Flight International
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Stepping up
Russia is transforming parts of the Baikonur Cosmodrome to handle increasing commercial business for the Proton launcher. Tim Furniss/LONDON DESPITE TIGHT BUDGETS, and with a little US help, Russia is bringing the parts of the Baikonur Cosmodrome which it leases from Kazakhstan for $115 million a year up ...
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Rockwell is to market Cyclone
ROCKWELL Space Systems is to provide worldwide marketing, sales and payload integration services for the NPO Yuzhnoye of Ukraine Cyclone launch vehicle. The Cyclone, developed from the SS-9 intercontinental ballistic missile, is capable of lifting an 1,360kg payload into low-, or medium- Earth orbit. The deal is " vital for ...
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Aerospatiale tests ARD spacecraft
AEROSPATIALE HAS completed the first descent and recovery test of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator (ARD) spacecraft in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Sicily. The ARD was dropped from a stratospheric balloon at 82,000ft (25,000m) and, after a free-fall of 33,000ft, its parachutes ...
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Wired up
NASA has exercised an Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL launch option under its Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS) contract, to launch the Wide-Field Infra- Red Explorer (WIRE) in 1998. The SELVS contract is for up to ten launches, one of which has been completed, and five others of which, including ...
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Booster snags mar Mir plans
Tim Furniss/LONDON CONCERNS OVER the Russian Soyuz booster and the US Space Shuttle have marred plans for missions to the Russian Mir 1 space station. Two successive failures of Russian Soyuz launchers are causing anxiety about the planned 14 August launch of the manned Soyuz ...
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Towards the peak
Tim Furniss/LONDON OF THE 1,360 PAYLOADS expected to be launched into Earth orbit before 2004, 65% are commercial communications satellites, according to the Worldwide Mission Model study produced by the Teal Group, the defence and aerospace market-analysis company based in Fairfax, Virginia. These and similar market ...
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International boosters launch five
Tim Furniss/LONDON LAUNCHERS from the USA, China and Europe successfully lofted five satellites into orbit during the first nine days of July. The most significant was a Chinese Long March 3 (LM3) booster launch of the Hughes HS-376 communications satellite, the ApStar 1A, into geostationary-transfer orbit ...
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Small business
IAI's Amos communications satellite is attracting customers from outside Israel. Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV THE SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH of the Amos 1 communications satellite on 16 May has proved to be the trigger for a major effort to turn Israel's space capability into a profitable business. Israel ...
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Lockheed Martin wins X-33 contract with VentureStar
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA HAS selected Lockheed Martin to design, build and test the X-33, a half-scale model of a proposed Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) to replace the Space Shuttle fleet. A full-scale vehicle could be operational by 2005. The fully re-useable Lockheed Martin VentureStar will ...
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Russian navy plans first satellite launch from a submarine
THE RUSSIAN navy will launch its first satellite in October. A former SS-N-23 Skiff submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the Shtil booster, will launch the 70kg Kompas research satellite into a 400km circular, 78° inclination orbit from a Northern Fleet nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in a bid to generate ...
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Soyuz facelift
Russia's space booster, the Soyuz, is receiving new engines and avionics. Tim Furniss/LONDON RUSSIA'S CENTRAL Specialised Design Bureau in Samara has formed a partnership with France's Aerospatiale and the European launcher organisation Arianespace to attempt to market the Russian Soyuz booster for launches into low-Earth ...
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Darwin project
Thailand's United Communications has taken a 50% stake in a plan to build a satellite-launch centre at Gunn Point, north-east of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The company will purchase an interest in Australia's Space Transportation Systems to work on an $8 million feasibility study to build the A$630 ($500 million) ...
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NASA may book CRV on to Ariane 5 flight
NASA HAS expressed interest in booking a slot on the Ariane 5 launcher to carry a simplified version of the crew-rescue vehicle (CRV) demonstrator for the future Alpha International Space Station. The agency has requested a possible slot for 1998. French posts and telecommunications minister Francois Fillon confirms ...
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ILS clinches first launch contracts for Atlas 2AR
Tim Furniss/LONDON SPACE SYSTEMS/Loral has awarded ILS International Launch Services a contract for two firm launches (with one option) of communications satellites aboard the new Atlas 2AR booster. The launches have been booked for 1998 and 1999. This is the first launch contract ILS has ...