SSI News
ANALYSIS: Football skews meanings and space revenue analysis
While your correspondent cannot call himself a huge fan of the game, by family tradition, he supports the London football team of Queens Park Rangers (QPR). Nevertheless, it was to his surpise, that, during one of his irregular trips to a very tense relegation avoidance match (against Stoke), that in between all the swearing and booing, the fans appeared to be chanting their support for the NASA’s now retired Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). While it sounded like “Come on UARS!” in fact what they were actually chanting was “Come On You Rs!” (Rs is the nickname for Rangers).
Updated: Which Commercial Crew spacecraft should NASA choose? Answer: One with a toilet
While under financial pressure from the US Senate and US House of Representatives to pick only one winner for commercial crew program’s next Commercial Crew Integrated Capability phase in August (the US Senate and the plans to cap commercial crew spending at circa $500 million during the Fiscal year 2013) NASA remains resolute that it wants to choose more than one crew launch system. Without true competition, NASA warns that crew launch purchase costs will inevitably rise.
AEHF 2 launch delayed
The launch of US Air Forces AEHF 2 communications satellite was postponed on 3 May due to a problem with the helium flow during the purge of the Centaur interstage adapter prior to launch. This was most probably caused by a misconfiguration of a manually operated...
Galileo: second pair to launch 28 September
The European Space Agency is to launch a second pair of Galileo navigation satellites on 28 September before beginning a fast-track launch schedule in 2013 to orbit 18 satellites by the end of 2014 for a functional service, and 26 satellites by the end of 2015 for...
ESA sets Cosmic Vision sights on Jupiter’s icy moons
In its "Cosmic Vision" push to explore the Solar system, Europe has setits sights on Jupiter icy moons, with a mission to launch for Europa, Ganymedeand Callisto in 2022. The so-called JUICE mission - Jupiter Icy moons Explorer - will arriveat Jupiter in 2030 and...
Long March 3B rocket makes dual launch of two Beidou craft
At 2050 on 29 April, a Chinese Long March 3B launched two Beidou spacecrat from Xichang using a new large fairing and a dual satellite adapter. This is the first dual launch of two major payloads for the launch vehicle. The satellites, Beidou 2C-M3 and Beidou 2C-M4 are part of the Chinese equilelent of the US GPS navigation satellite system.
Space Shuttle Enterprise prototype arrives in New York
The Space Shuttle Enterprise has been moved out of Washtington D.C. now that the city has the real thing: the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center received the Space Shuttle Discovery ealier in April, The Enterprise, which was only ever used for gliding tests rather than flying into orbit, was flown from the Udvar-Hazy Centrer into New York while mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) on 27 April, 2012. It is to be shown at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. .
MetOp-B has its Soyuz launch delayed by drop zone concerns
A Starsem-marketed Soyuz 2-1a launch of Europe’s MetOp-B weather satellite has been delayed by several weeks by a dispute involving its drop zones for its rocket stages. .The flight was originally scheduled for 23 May,however the Russian space agency Roscosmos noted that “additional measures” are needed to ensure the drop zone availability for Soyuz’ stages after the vehicle’s liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Soyuz TMA-22 returns three ISS crew to Earth
SoyuzTMA-22 undocked from ISS at 0818 GMT. Made de-orbit burn at 1049 GMT. The Soyuz TMA-22 capsule re-entered and landed safely in Kazakhstan at 1145 GMT carrying a crew of Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin.
Soyuz TMA-22 returns three ISS crew to Earth
SoyuzTMA-22 undocked from ISS at 0818 GMT. Made de-orbit burn at 1049 GMT. The Soyuz TMA-22 capsule re-entered and landed safely in Kazakhstan at 1145 GMT carrying a crew of Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin.
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