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Written by Klaus
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Friday, 09 March 2007 |
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ULA Press Release: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket successfully launched six satellites at 10:10 p.m., EST, for the U.S. Air Force, marking the first use of the Atlas for an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program mission. Known as Space Test Program-1, the mission deployed the six satellites into two different low-Earth orbits. "This was our ninth successful Atlas V launch and first ULA Atlas launch, but more importantly, it was the first EELV Atlas launch for the Air Force," said Michael Gass, ULA President and Chief Executive Officer. "This is a proud moment in our company's history and a significant step forward in providing our nation assured access to space using the most cost-effective means possible." The mission used the new EELV Secondary Payload Adapter – or ESPA – which is designed to integrate multiple smaller satellites on the two EELV-class rockets. The six satellites on this mission were delivered into two distinctly different orbits. |
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Written by Klaus
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
4:15 GMT (11:15 p.m. EST): The last satellite, FalconSat 3, is released and the Atlas 5 mission is concluded after 65 minutes.
4:11 GMT (11:11 p.m. EST): CFESat is seperated.
4:04 GMT (11:04 p.m. EST): STPSat 1 is released from the Centaur.
3:58 GMT (10:58 p.m. EST): Last engine cutoff. After another coast phase, the last three satellites will be seperated from the Centaur upper stage.
3:56 GMT (10:56 p.m. EST): Third RL10 ignition for nearly 2 minutes. That will make it the longest total burn time of the Centaur upper stage ever on an Atlas 5 rocket.
3:45 GMT (10:45 p.m. EST): RL10 engine cutoff. Now there's a further coast phase until third and last engine ignition.
3:43 GMT (10:43 p.m. EST): Second RL10 ignition.
3:32 GMT (10:32 p.m. EST): MidSTAR-1 seperation. The Centaur will now orient for its next burn phase.
3:28 GMT (10:28 p.m. EST): The Orbital Express satellites are seperated and the Centaur is orientied for the MidSTAR-1 seperation.
3:24 GMT (10:24 p.m. EST): RL10 cutoff. The Centaur will now enter a coasting phase and first satellite seperation. |
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Written by Klaus
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
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The two South Koreans, one of whom will fly to the ISS, have begun training near Moscow. 28 year old Yi So-Yeon and 30 year old Ko San, both civilians, were selected out of over 36,000 candidates. Yi So-Yeon said she was very grateful for those who supported female cosmonaut candidates. Their training will last about 12 months with their flight planned for April 2008. The have to study the Soyuz spacecraft as well as the ISS systems including a training session in the United States for the US systems. The South Korean Space Agency paid about $28 million for the seat on the Soyuz ferry exchange flight that will last about one week. South Korea will be the 36th nation to send a human into space. |
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Written by Klaus
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
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From February 28 to March 1, 2007 a conference in Russia reviewed the research done on the International Space Station in the Russian Segment from 2001 – 2006. The conference was attended by some 150 representatives of 25 organisations including the Russian Acadamy of Sciences, different companies as well as educational institutions. In the six years reviewed, the Russian conducted 65 scientific experiments among them 10 already fully completed. The current and future research program includes 317 experiments. Most of these experiments will be started with the launch of the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module in 2009. This module will be based on the core modules of the ISS as well as the Mir space station. The research covers all kinds of scientific disciplines like e.g. space technology and science, geophysical research, medical research, atmospheric sciences as well as not purely scientific space education. Currently the Russian research program is hindered by the relatively small Russian segment that is mainly for control and life support for the ISS. |
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Written by Klaus
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Tuesday, 06 March 2007 |
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 NASA Press Release:
NASA has established a requirements baseline for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, bringing America's next human spacecraft a step closer to construction.
The Orion Project completed its system requirements review in cooperation with its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, March 1. The review marked the first major milestone in the Orion engineering process and provided the foundation for design, development, construction and safe operation of the spacecraft that will carry explorers to Earth orbit, to the moon, and eventually to Mars. The detailed requirements established in this review will serve as the basis for ongoing design analysis work and systems testing.
"This is a significant step in the development of a space transportation system that will expand our horizons to include other worlds," said Skip Hatfield, Orion Project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Orion review followed an overall review of requirements for the Constellation Program that was completed in November. Similar reviews are planned later this spring for ground and mission operations systems that will support Constellation launch systems and space flight operations ground infrastructure. |
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Written by Klaus
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Wednesday, 07 March 2007 |
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Launched in October 2006 onboard an Ariane rocket, the MetOp weather satellite is currently in its operation test phase. It orbits the Earth in about 800 kilometers altitude and will increase weather forecast from three to five days. Additionally to its standard weather forecast instruments, the satellite carries a total of 11 instruments, including the GOME-2 or Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment. This instrument now collected its first data. It will deliver high precision ozone data in order to make detailed global maps of ozone concentration. These maps can help to analyse the effects of the ozone layer on Earth as the data directly delivers values for UV-radiation at ground. These radiation has major effects on the whole biosystem as everyone knows by himself with nasty sunburns. |
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