SSI News
Shenzhou 9 undocks safely
The Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou 9 has undocked from the Tiangong 1 mini-space station/laboratory. With its two man and one woman crew aboard, and hatches closed, the spacecraft made a manual undocking at 0122 GMT on 28 June.
MDA buys Space Systems/Loral but will commercial market still be there?
The purchase of US spacecraft manufacturer Space Systems/Loral from Loral by the Canadian space firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) for $875 million has given MDA a major foothold in commercial spacecraft manufacturing. For MDA while was only a little smaller than Space Systems/Loral in overall revenues ($761 million (US) compared to $1.1 milllion), it remains a relative minnow compared to Space Systems/Loral in commercial satellite manufacturing. MDA is stronger in space robotics making the robot arm and Dextre repair robot for the International Space Station and Radarsat satellites for the Canadian Space Agency.
Comment: Space X Merlin 1D is not quite the “most efficient” rocket engine ever
On the successful firing of its Merlin 1D engine, Space Exploration Technologies, with more than a note of self congratulation, states that the “enhanced design makes the Merlin 1D the most efficient booster engine ever built” further noting that it has “a vacuum thrust-to-weight ratio exceeding 150”,
China’s Shenzhou 9 manned spacecraft undocks and redocks with Tiangong 1 to prove manual option
With all three crew aboard, at around 0318 GMT on 24 June, the Chinese manned Shenzhou 9 spacecraft undocked from Tiangong 1 mini-space station and moved approximately 400 metres away from the craft. The Shenzhou 9 craft, piloted by taikonaut Liu Wang, then approached Tiangong 1 to conduct a manual docking. The two craft were successfully manually redocked at 0448 GMT.
Space Tourism Conference: Orbital tourism goes lunar
While Ascend (now part of Flightglobal) made the headlines two years ago by noting that in our analysis the Isle of Man was fifth favourite ‘nation’ to put man back on the Moon, they may yet become the first favourite. For the Isle of Man-based Excalibur Almaz again set forth their proposal for a a lunar flyby expendition for two space tourists at the 3rd Space Tourism Conference.
Vote: coolest-ever spacecraft
Well, coolest-ever fictional spacecraft, anyway. How Stuff Works is running a tournament of head-to-head pairings, and all it needs is your vote - USS Enterprise v Space Battleship, Plant Express v Serenity, Tardis v Heart of Gold, etc. So if you get tired of filling...
Intelsat 19 not out of the woods as it has power loss on damaged array
Media reports quoting Intelsat sources indicate that while Intelsat 19 has deployed its jammed solar array fully, helping the balancing and fuel economy of the satellite, the array was apparently damaged and ilikely to suffer a 50% shortfall in power (25% of the satellite’s power overall).
Debris, interference and SLS pad became main Space Ops talking points
In between some sweet renditions by a girl’s choir, The King of Sweden, His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, opened the biennial AIAA Space Ops conference for those scientists and engineers most closely involved in the operating of spacecraft both manned and unmanned.
Intelsat 19 finally gets its second solar array out
According Intelsat, the jammed south solar array panel on Intelsat 19 (IS-19) was finally deployed on 12 June 2012, following four apogee maneuver firings on 11 June 2012. The firm’s engineers are currently conducting tests to establish the performance, power level, structural integrity and operability of the south array panel. The Ku-band deflector deployment is scheduled for 18 July.
X-37B/OTV 2 mini-shuttle lands at Vandenberg
The small mini-shuttle used by the US Air Force know as the X-37B/OTV 2 (Flight 1) successfully completed its mission as it re-entered and landed at the Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 1248 GMT on 16 June. The mission ends the speculation that the craft might have been used to mount a spying mission on Chinese manned operations including the recent docking of the Tiangong 1, in addition ot its other reconnaissance duties.
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