European launcher Vega has been delivered to Arianespace, entering in the final preparation phase for the May 2 liftoff from the Guiana Space Centre. “By using the same mission campaign procedures as proven for our workhorse Ariane, Vega has become a true member of Arianespace’s launcher family – joining Ariane 5 and Soyuz in side-by-side operations at the Spaceport,” said [...]
Post Tagged with: “payload”
Flying into Volcanoes for Flight Safety
Source: NASA NASA Earth science researchers last month traveled to Turrialba Volcano, near San Jose, Costa Rica, to fly a Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) — a small electric aircraft equipped with cameras and sensors — into the volcano’s sulfur dioxide plume and over its summit crater, to study Turrialba’s chemical environment. The project is designed to improve the [...]
Spaceport Malaysia Signs MOU with Swiss Space Systems
On March 13, Spaceport Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Swiss Space Systems (S3) to host the Payerne-based company’s reusable small satellite launch system. Flight tests are scheduled to begin in 2017. Spaceport Malaysia has plans to build a dedicated hangar for the S3 Airbus carrier ship that will also serve as a payload assembly facility for S3. The [...]
SLS External Tank Reverts to Hard Alloy
NASA is reverting to hard aluminum-copper alloy Al 2219 for use in the core stage of America’s next heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), reports NASASpaceflight.com. The change is a move away from more recent super lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy Al 2195 that the Agency used in manufacturing the lightest external tank design of the Space Shuttle, also known as the [...]
SBIRS-2 Ready to Launch While SBIRS-1 Suffers Communication Problem
The U.S. Air Force is having problems communicating with Space Based Infrared System GEO-1 (SBIRS GEO-1), the first satellite of the next-generation of missile warning constellation in geostationary orbit. In the meantime, SBIRS GEO-2 is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral on March 19. “We had a very thorough examination of whether we were concerned about launching GEO-2 in [...]
‘Driving’ Satellites: A Complex Undertaking, Not a Cheap Date
By Michael Mackowski I have the privilege of working in the space industry as a power subsystem engineer for Orbital Sciences in Gilbert, Arizona. On February 11, 2013 the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (aka Landsat 8) spacecraft was launched and I was at the NASA Goddard mission operations center monitoring performance of this satellite that Orbital built for NASA and the [...]
Ariane 5 Successfully Delivers 2 Satellites Setting New Record
The first Ariane 5 ECA mission of 2013 successfully delivered the Azerspace/Africasat-1a and Amazonas-3 telecommunication satellites into their planned transfer orbits on February 7. The mission, designated Flight VA212, was the 212th launch of an Ariane vehicle since the European launcher family entered service in December 1979, and the 54th successful launch in a row for the Ariane 5 launcher since December 2002. [...]
S.H.E.E. Brings Space Architecture to Earth: Pan-European Consortium Launches an Innovative Project
A consortium of seven European companies and academic institutions has been awarded a 2 million Euro financial grant from the 7th European Framework Program. Responding to a call for proposals entitled “Space,” the team aims to develop a fully autonomous self-deployable habitat that could be used for further research in space architecture as well as a convenient housing for scientists [...]
Russian Energia Won $11 Million Contract for Unmanned Space Lab
RSC Energia (РКК «Энергия»), the largest Russian space corporation has won a 350 million ruble (about $11 million) contract to design the orbital laboratory Oka-T-MKS. The tender was announced by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in October and it only received one bid from Energia Corporation. RSC Energia manufactures manned and unmanned spacecraft and it is the principal contractor [...]
The Russian Pioneers of Space Safety: Reinventing Rocket Design
This article is the second of a three-part series, featuring an exclusive interview with Victor V. Shalaj and Valery I. Trushlyakov, reporting their research on space safety and sustainability. Read Part 1 here. After working in rocket design for 23 years, one may think it could be difficult to re-invent the profession, but that wasn’t true for Professor Valery Trushlyakov. Trushlyakov [...]
