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Space Travel Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Space Travel Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Space Travel Editorial Team produces Space Travel's coverage of human spaceflight and access to space. We report on launch, crewed missions and space tourism, and the propulsion, vehicles and human factors of getting people to space. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Space Travel takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

Legacy Reports

Spaceship Mockup

Edwards CA (SPX) Nov 07, 2007 - NASA's Orion spacecraft now in development is America's first new manned spacecraft since development of the space shuttle 30 years ago. It's the centerpiece of NASA's Constellation program, which aims to take the next generation of human explorers to the moon and beyond. Orion's launch abort system, a rocket on top of the rocket, is designed to ensure the safety of its astronaut crew by pulling the crew module away from it's booster rocket in the event of a booster malfunction, either while on the launch pad or during ascent to orbit.

Nov 7, 2007
Legacy Reports

Korean Astronaut To Ride On Soyuz April Flight With ISS Crew 17

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 07, 2007 - The Russian Space Agency confirmed on Tuesday the composition of the main and back-up crews of the 17th International Space Station (ISS) expedition. The main crew, scheduled to take off on April 8, 2008 on board the Soyuz TMA-12 craft, will comprise Russian cosmonauts Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, and the first South Korean astronaut, Ko San.

Nov 7, 2007
Legacy Reports

ESA To Provide Essential Launch Control Services To EUMETSAT

Paris, France (SPX) Nov 07, 2007 - ESA and EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, agreed today that ESA will provide essential launch control services for the last two Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, MSG-3 and MSG-4. Under the agreement, ESA will provide control services during the critical launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), which involves moving the satellite from its initial position after separation from the launcher to its final orbit position 36,000 kilometres above the Earth.

Nov 7, 2007
Legacy Reports

Skynet 5B Satellite Ready For Launch On 9th November

Stevenage, UK (SPX) Nov 07, 2007 - Astrium is on target for the second Skynet 5 satellite launch this year with Skynet 5B scheduled for launch from Kourou, French Guiana on 9 November 2007 on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Astrium plays a triple role on the Skynet 5 programme responsible for the service provision through its company Paradigm, prime contractor on the launcher Ariane 5 and also as prime contractor for the satellites and associated ground segment.

Nov 7, 2007
Legacy Reports

Columbus Launch Puts Space Law To The Test

Paris, France (SPX) Nov 06, 2007 - Whose law will apply when Europe's Columbus space laboratory joins the US-led International Space Station in December? And what happens if astronauts from different countries get into a fight? Those were two of the questions posed at a meeting in Vienna last month to examine the contributions made by the humanities to the exploration of space. Columbus is due to be launched into orbit aboard the US space shuttle Atlantis on December 6. It will become part of the International Space Station (ISS) and the most important module supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

SpaceDev Completes Milestone Under NASA Space Act Agreement

Poway CA (SPX) Nov 06, 2007 - SpaceDev recently completed its first milestone under the Space Act Agreement that it signed with NASA in June 2007. This significant first milestone is to define the outer mold line (OML) of the SpaceDev Dream Chaser space vehicle. The SpaceDev team generated a surface model that will be used for future analysis, subscale flight test modeling, and full scale tooling of the Dream Chaser flight vehicle. The Dream Chaser OML surface model was derived from digitized scans of the original NASA Langley wind-tunnel tested models, which are currently on loan to SpaceDev.

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

China May Use Long March 3 For Lunar Landing

Beijing, China (XNA) Nov 06, 2007 - China is studying the feasibility of using the Long March 3B carrier rocket for the country's second-stage moon mission of lunar landing, a spokesman for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said here Monday. The Long March 3B carrier rocket, in the same family as the Long March 3A on which China's first lunar probe Chang'e-1 was launched, boasts of strong thrust power, Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesman, told a press conference here.

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

Discovery Undocks From Space Station

Houston TX (SPX) Nov 06, 2007 - Discovery undocked from the International Space Station at 5:32 a.m. EST as they flew over the South Pacific. STS-120 Pilot George Zamka backed the orbiter about 400 feet from the station and performed a fly-around to allow crew members to collect video and imagery of the station in its new configuration. He completed the final separation engine burn at 7:15 a.m. The shuttle crew members used the shuttle robot arm and the 50-foot long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to conduct a late inspection of the thermal protection system.

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

E’Prime Aerospace Receives Launch Site Policy Review Approval

Falls Church VA (SPX) Nov 06, 2007 - E'Prime Aerospace announced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA/AST) has completed the interagency portion of the policy review for E'Prime's launch site license application A-07-EPA-121. Furthermore, the Departments of Defense, and State, and NASA cited no issues, including START Treaty compliance, associated with E'Prime's proposed canister launch program that would adversely impact U.S. National Security or Foreign Policy interests.

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

Opportunity Studies Rock Composition And Changes In Atmosphere

Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 06, 2007 - Though atmospheric dust has returned to nearly pre-dust storm levels, Opportunity's solar arrays are still dustier than before the storm, keeping power levels about 200 watt-hours lower than pre-storm levels. Opportunity continues to generate solar power levels of more than 600 watt-hours per Martian day, or sol (100 watt-hours is the amount of energy required to light a 100-watt bulb for one hour), with the help of wind-related cleaning of the solar panels. The spacecraft is healthy.

Nov 6, 2007
Legacy Reports

Space Exploration 3.0 About To Begin

Vienna, Austria (SPX) Nov 05, 2007 - Space exploration is about to enter a third age where nations will cooperate to explore the solar system. Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), told the meeting in Vienna that the era of launching space missions to bolster national prestige was long past and that new opportunities for cooperation had emerged since the end of the Cold War. He predicted that an imminent third phase of space exploration could inspire nations to work together in a spirit of discovery.

Nov 5, 2007
Legacy Reports

STS-120 Crew Closes Hatches To Station; Discovery To Undock Monday

Houston TX (SPX) Nov 05, 2007 - The STS-120 crew bid farewell to the Expedition 16 crew before the hatches closed at 3:03 p.m. EST Sunday between Discovery and the station. Attention now turns to Discovery's undocking from the station a little after 5:30 a.m. Monday. STS-120 arrived at the station Oct. 25, delivering the Harmony Node 2 module to the station. The crew installed Harmony Oct. 26 and conducted four spacewalks during its stay at the station. During the third spacewalk, the crew installed the P6 truss and solar array pair in its permanent location outboard of the port truss.

Nov 5, 2007