SSI News
Shuttle Endeavour is moved gingerly through the streets of Los Angeles
The Space Shuttle Endeavour was carefully moved through the streets of Los Angeles on the back of a specialist vehicle on its way to its resting place at the California Science Center on 13 October. While many cheered there was sadness for some. Tree lovers were aggrieved that so many trees (spme 400) had to be cut down for this journey to take place.
US National Research Council pours cold water on USAF reusable flyback booster plan
The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jean-Jacques Dordain, recently asserted at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, that the expected flight rate for new launch vehicles would not be high enough to make reusable technology economic to develop and operate in the near term. Now it seems that the US Air Force is coming to the same conclusion. Or rather the US National Research Council is.
Thales Alenia gets Eutelsat 8 West B GEO satellite order
On 11 October it was announced that the construction order for European satellite operator Eutelsat’s communications satellite Eutelsat 8 West B has been awarded to Thales Alenia Space. As noted by its name, the satellite will be position at roughly 8 degrees west and will carry carry 40 Ku-band to meet growing demand for direct-broadcast television across the Middle East and North Africam and 10 C-band transponders for services to Southern Africa and South America.
On a lighter note: A pear-shaped lady would have done better as a supersonic “jumpanaut”
We, at the Flightglobal Hyperbola blog, give our heartfelt congratulations to the very brave 43-year-old Austrian “jumpanaut” Felix Baumgartner who forgot the old RAF adage “never jump out of a serviceable aircraft” (or balloon for that matter) when he broke the sound barrier in a freefall dive made from 128,100 feet on 14 October over Roswell, New Mexico. Baumgartner subsequently made a successful parachute landing after the record breaking “flight” which occured exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager’s first Mach 1 flight in the Bell X-1.
Proton M returns to flight with a successful launch of Intelsat 23
At 0837 GMT on 14 October, a Russian-built Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicle successfully launched the 2,730kg commercial communications satellite Intelsat 23 from the Baikonur launch site near Tyuratam, Kazakhstan. The launch, which was marketed by the International Launch Services company, was a successful return to service for the Proton launch vehicle after a Proton M/Breeze M launch failure in August. That failure which stranded two communication satellites, Telkom 3 and Express MD-2, in an incorrect orbit was attributed by an investigation as being caused by a manufacturing fault in the Breeze-M (Briz-M) upper stage.
China launches Shi Jian 9A & 9B using Long March 2C
China launched two Shi Jian remote sensing satellites, Shi Jian 9A and Shi Jian 9B from the Taiyuan launch site in China using a Long March 2C-SMA launch vehicle. The launch took place at 0325 GMT on the morning of 14 October. Officially annouced as civilian engineering test satellites, the spacecraft were placed into a sun-synchronous near-polar orbit and will be used to test a new electrical propulsion systems. In addition to their testing duties, the craft are believed to carry an imaging capability which may also have a military application.
Soyuz launches Galileo 3 & 4 successfully
At 1815 GMT on 12 October, two Galileo navigation satellites, Galileo 3 and Galileo 4, were successfully launched from the Sinnamary launch site near Kourou, in French Guiana, using the Soyuz ST-B (Fregat MT) launch vehicle. The Soyuz ST-B is a slightly modified Soyuz 2-1b rocket.
SES-9 construction order goes to Boeing
SES announced the procurement of its new satellite SES-9 from Boeing. The new satellite – ordered through SES’ affiliate company SES-SL – will be built by Boeing’s El Segundo Satellite Development Center based on the Boeing 702HP platform. The satellite is designed to operate for 15 years in geosynchronous orbit with a 12.7-kilowatt payload and 57 high-power Ku-band transponders (equivalent to 81 x 36 MHz transponders). The spacecraft will carry a xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS) for all on-orbit maneuvering and a chemical bi-propellant system for initial orbit raising.
On a lighter note: International Astronautical Congress faux pas with a pen
While the finer points of language and culture can get “lost in translation” at such an international conference such as International Astronautical Congress, the European Space Agency (ESA) might just have ruined its chances of ever successfully marketing Ariane 6 in USA. For it transpires that one of the all solid first stage configurations which could be chosen for the launch vehicle is called the non-politically correct sounding “Faggot” which just might upset the US gay community there.
Stranded Orbcomm OG2-1 satellite re-enters atmosphere – questions remain about why it was stranded
The Orbcomm OG2-1 communications satellite which was stranded in a lower than planned orbit after the partial failure of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on 8 October 2012 invoving an first stage shutdown of one of the nine Merlin 1c engines, has now re-entered the atmosphere on 10 October at around 0619 GMT. The satellite was thought to have been insured to a value of circa $10 million and did not have enough fuel to recover the satellite to its planned operational orbit.
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