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 The Legendary Soyuz Booster
Soyuz has been launched 1736 times through snow,fog,high wind and more. Learn more... Go there now |  Spectacular Video - The Last Space Shuttle Night Launch
View The Video Here! Go there now |  Apollo In Their Own Words
Interspace News celebrates Apollo's 40th Birthday with the words of the key players Go there now | |
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 The Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s third mission in 2010 is ready to enter the final launch preparation phase, during which this heavy-lift vehicle will receive its dual-satellite payload. Scheduled for liftoff from the Spaceport on August 4, this Ariane 5 ECA will carry a pair of Thales Alenia Space-produced spacecraft: NILESAT 201 and RASCOM-QAF1R. Both satellites have been undergoing processing following their June arrival in French Guiana. The upcoming mission is designated V196, signifying the 196th launch of an Ariane family vehicle. The Ariane 5 for this flight was delivered to Arianespace earlier this month by EADS Astrium, which is the heavy-lift vehicle’s industrial prime contractor. Astrium performed the Ariane 5’s build-up in the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building, and then transferred it to the Final Assembly Building, where it was received by Arianespace. Riding as the flight’s upper passenger for the August 4 mission, NILESAT 201 will be deployed first in the launch sequence – to ultimately be positioned at an orbital slot of 7 degrees West longitude. The satellite will deliver digital Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV and radio broadcasting – along with high-speed data transmission services – to North Africa and the Middle East at the service of Egyptian satellite operator Nilesat. Utilizing a Spacebus 4000B2 platform, this relay platform is equipped with 24 Ku-band and 4 Ka-band transponders. NILESAT 201 will weigh nearly 3,200 kg. at launch. NILESAT 201 is to be installed atop the Ariane 5 SYLDA dual-payload dispenser system, positioning it over this mission’s lower passenger, RASCOM-QAF1R. With a launch mass of approximately 3,000 kg., RASCOM-QAF1R will cover the African continent, as well as parts of Europe and the Middle East, from an orbital slot of 2.85 degrees East. It is based on the Spacebus 4000B3 platform, and is equipped with 12 Ku-band and 8 C-band transponders. This spacecraft... |  Moscow - On Sunday, 18 July, in the Ulyanovsk area, the special-purpose train carrying a Proton launch vehicle collided with an oncoming train. No visible damage has been sustained by the rocket. Proton LVs are covered by insurance. The train resumed its journey to the destination. There is sufficient backup capacity and equipment at Baikonur where checkouts will be performed upon arrival. It will then be decided whether or not the launch vehicle is fit for further use. If required, a backup Proton launch vehicle is available, and the incident is not likely to impact the GLONASS spacecraft launch scheduled for September. The launch will take place as planned. |  TBILISI, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko said on Monday that Ukraine is planning to launch "AzerSat," Azerbaijan's first satellite, with its rocket, according to news reaching here from Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. Speaking at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Gryshchenko said that they exchanged views on strengthening cooperation in the field of aviation and spaceflight, focusing on the joint satellite launch project. According to an Azerbaijani expert, "AzerSat" will cost 163 million manat (204 million U.S.dollars). If launched successfully, it will help improve the quality and stability of Azerbaijan's communication and TV transmission. Azerbaijan will also become the transit country between Europe and Asia in TV transmission if the satellite can cover the European area, said the expert. Gryshchenko arrived in Baku on Monday after attending the informal foreign ministers' meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. |  Washington - This July, U.S. Astronaut Shannon Walker activated a fully commercial research facility designed to make access to the International Space Station easy and cost-effective for scientists and educators. Developed by NanoRacks LLC, of Laguna woods, Calif., the research platforms are designed for use within the pressurized space station environment. Each platform provides room for up to 16 customer payloads to plug effortlessly into a standard USB connector, which provides both power and data connectivity. Its plug and play system uses a simple, standardized interface that reduces payload integration cost and schedule for nano-scale research on the orbiting laboratory. NanoRacks is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement awarded from a competitive announcement of opportunity for the use of the National Laboratory on the International Space Station. The funding to build and certify the rack inserts has come exclusively from NanoRacks and their customers. "As the International Space Station National Lab activities are ramping up to enable full use of the station, partnerships such as this one are an important component of an integrated strategy to enable full utilization," said Jason Crusan, NASA's chief technologist for Space Operations. "Lowering the burden to conduct research while demonstrating that hardware can go from concept to on-orbit capability in less than 10 months is also a significant milestone."
NanoRacks currently has two inserts located in the US Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station, or ExPRESS, Rack 4 in the Japanese Experiment Module on the station. Each of NanoRacks' inserts is approximately 17 x 9 x 20 inches and weighs approximately 12 lbs. "We seek to significantly... |  Hawthorne, CA – July 20, 2010 –SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) applauds the efforts of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee for their unanimous, bipartisan approval of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. This landmark legislation ushers in a new era in human spaceflight by embracing the commercial sector as a full partner and recognizing commercial crew services as the primary means of astronaut transport to the International Space Station (ISS). “We are pleased that the Senate Commerce Committee has recognized that the best and only near-term option for eliminating America’s reliance on the Russian Soyuz for astronaut transportation is the development and use of commercial systems, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft” said Elon Musk, CEO & CTO, SpaceX. “For the about the same amount that is currently being spent on purchasing seats on Russian launch vehicles, we can create thousands of high-tech, high-paying jobs right here at home.” In 2010, NASA will pay the Russian Space Agency $287.4 million for 6 seats on Russian Soyuz flights, which amounts to $47.9 million per seat. By 2013, the price per seat paid to Russia to carry U.S. astronauts will exceed $55 million. Though it provides less funding than the President’s request, the new legislation provides $312 million in FY11 funding for the development of American commercial systems to transport crew to the ISS. SpaceX is one of several companies currently developing commercial crew technology funded by NASA, including Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation, Illinois-based Boeing Company, Colorado-based United Launch Alliance, Washington-based Blue Origin, Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, and Arizona- based Paragon Space Development Corporation. SpaceX successfully launched its... |  Spaceship Two, affectionately christened VSS Enterprise, completed its third test flight last Thursday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Under development by Scaled Composites, LLC, Enterprise is a prototype sub orbital rocket plane currently undergoing an incremental flight test program which will culminate in its certification for use as a passenger carrying spacecraft to be operated by Virgin Galactic Spacelines. Thursday’s 6 hour and 12 minute long mission was the third “captive carry” test flight during which Enterprise remained attached to the Whiteknight Two (WK2) mother ship. WK2, with its unique twin fuselage booms, is a light weight high altitude carrier aircraft developed by Scaled to serve as the launch platform for Spaceship Two. Because it has controls and systems that are nearly identical to those used by Enterprise, WK2 serves as both a test bed for systems development and a flight training device for pilots that will ultimately fly the spaceship. Unlike the previous two test flights conducted on March 22 and May 16, this was the first time that Enterprise flew with a crew on board. During the first two captive flight tests only three crew members, a pilot, copilot and flight engineer flew aboard the WK2 mother ship. For CC-03 (captive carry flight #3), test pilots Peter Siebold and Michael Alsbury were at the controls of Enterprise, and Mark Stucky, Peter Kalogiannis and Brian Maisler were aboard Whiteknight Two. The team conducted additional testing of the spaceship’s systems, evaluations of mated flutter characteristics, and a rehearsal of the procedures to be used during the upcoming “glide flights” from the point of release down to a low approach above the Mojave airport runway. Prior to taking to the air for the mated flight test, Enterprise was subjected to 3 hours of taxi tests last Monday. The ground tests allowed the team to evaluate the performance of the landing gear, brake, steering... |  Satish Dhawan Space Center: The third developmental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) conducted on April 15, 2010 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, primarily for the flight testing of indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS), could not accomplish the mission objectives. Consequently, ISRO had instituted a two-tier process to carry out an in-depth analysis of the flight performance, identify the causes of failure and recommend corrective measures. The Failure Analysis Committee comprising multi-disciplinary experts completed the analysis and its findings were further reviewed by a National Group of Eminent Experts. These reviews have brought out that: - Following a smooth countdown, the lift-off took place at 1627 hrs (IST) as planned. All four liquid strap-on stages (L40), solid core stage (S139), liquid second stage (GS2) functioned normally.
- The vehicle performance was normal up to the burn-out of GS-2, that is, 293 seconds from lift-off. Altitude, velocity, flight path angle and acceleration profile closely followed the pre-flight predictions. All onboard real time decision-based events were as expected and as per pre-flight simulations.
- The navigation, guidance and control systems using indigenous onboard computer Vikram 1601 as well as the advanced telemetry system functioned flawlessly. The composite payload fairing of 4 metre diameter inducted first time in this flight, also performed as expected. Performance of all other systems like engine gimbal control systems and stage auxiliary systems was normal.
- The initial conditions required for the start of the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) were attained as expected and the CUS start sequence got initiated as planned at 294.06 seconds from lift-off.
- Ignition of the CUS Main Engine and two Steering Engines have been...
|  Satish Dhawan Space Centre - India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15), today (on July 12, 2010) successfully launched CARTOSAT - 2B from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch of PSLV - C15 was the sixteenth consecutive successful flight of PSLV. After a smooth countdown of 51 hrs the vehicle lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at the opening of the launch window at 09.22 hrs (IST). After about 20 minutes of flight time, India`s advanced remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT - 2B along with four auxiliary satellites was successfully injected into its circular orbit of 637 km with an orbital inclination of 98.1o. The preliminary flight data indicates that all major flight events involving stage ignition and burnouts, performance of solid and liquid stages, indigenously developed advanced mission computers and telemetry systems were exactly as predicted. PSLV - C15 in its flight, in addition to CARTOSAT - 2B, carried four auxiliary satellites namely STUDSAT a pico-satellite weighing less than 1 kg, built jointly by students from a consortium of seven engineering colleges form Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, two nano satellites NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from University of Toronto, Canada and ALSAT-2A, a micro-satellite from Algerian Space Agency. About CARTOSAT: CARTOSAT - 2B is the seventeenth... Read More... |  Paris - Arianespace stepped up its 2010 launch pace with tonight’s successful dual-passenger Ariane 5 mission, which lofted payloads for the Middle East and South Korea. Lifting off from the Spaceport’s ELA-3 launch facility in French Guiana, the Ariane 5 ECA placed Arabsat-5A and COMS into geostationary transfer orbits – providing a payload delivery performance of approximately 7,400 kg. “This launch is the 37th consecutive success for our Ariane 5 launcher, and it clearly demonstrates our policy of quality — which is exactly what you — our customers expect, and I thank you for the confidence you have always shown for us,” Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said in comments from the Spaceport’s Jupiter mission control room. He noted that Arianespace maintains a strong backlog of satellites to be orbited, which has been further expanded with additional contracts concluded so far this year. “Since the creation of our company 30 years ago, we have successfully launched 281 satellites,” Le Gall said. “And this will continue, as our order book today has 34 satellites for launch to geostationary orbit, along with six Ariane 5 missions with the Automated Transfer Vehicle, and 17 launches to be performed by Soyuz. And since the beginning of 2010, we already have signed nine new contracts – the latest of which is with the Argentinean operator Arsat, which I am announcing today as a new contract.” After its 6:41 p.m. liftoff from the Spaceport, the vehicle’s cryogenic upper stage was injected with the following provisional orbital parameters: - Perigee: 249.9 km. for a target of 249.7 km.
- Apogee: 35,972 km. for a target of 35,958 km.
- Inclination: 2.00 deg. for a target of 2.00... |  Seoul (Xinhua) -- South Korea's domestically assembled space rocket, which crashed after reaching the altitude of 70 km, might have exploded, Seoul's science minister Ahn Byung- man told reporters. The two-stage satellite-carrier Naro-1, or the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), lifted off from the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, about 485 kilometers south of Seoul, at 5:01 p.m. local time (0801 GMT), but communications with it was lost 137 seconds after the takeoff. The minister offered an apology to the public over botching up the ambitious project, but said the country will continue its efforts to better the technology. South Korean and Russian experts will form a team to look into the cause of the failure. The launch of the 140-ton rocket, made with the help of Russian experts, came a day after a technical problem with firefighting equipment delayed the initially planned blastoff. South Korea has put 502.5 billion won (404.5 million U.S. dollars) into developing the Naro-1. Last year, a technical glitch botched up the first attempt at the rocket launch. A faulty fairing assembly prevented the rocket from putting the satellite into the orbit and the rocket veered off course. With yet another failed attempt, South Korea has to put a brake on its ambition to join the ranks of a handful of other countries which have succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit using a locally assembled rocket. |
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| See all Commercial News in the Commercial Archive Commercial Updates are compiled by Interspace News from various sources and posted on a continual basis. Previous reports are available in the Commercial Archive which are accessible from anywhere on the site by selecting Commercial from the left side menu bar and then Clicking Commercial Archive. If You have any questions, comments, or additions and corrections we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail the author at: Robert@Interspacenews.com |
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