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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.

Kelly Space Launches Indoor Rocket Engine Test Service

San Bernardino CA (SPX) Nov 05, 2007 - Kelly Space and Technology, Inc. has announced the successful completion of a series of rocket engine hot-fire tests at its Aerospace Research and Development Center. The tests, conducted in the only indoor commercial jet and rocket test facility of its type in the United States, involved the successful demonstration of rocket engine technology, utilizing environmentally-friendly cryogenic liquid propellants, developed for a U.S. government program.

Nov 5, 2007

Shuttle Discovery heads home after ambitious, risky mission

Washington (AFP) Nov 5, 2007 - The US shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station on Monday, wrapping up a complex mission marked by a daring spacewalk to repair a torn solar array.

Nov 5, 2007

Space station repairs end in success

Washington (AFP) Nov 3, 2007 - A physician astronaut successfully stitched a torn solar panel Saturday, in a risky and unprecedented space walk to ensure an adequate power supply at the International Space Station, NASA said.

Nov 3, 2007

Outside View: Rocket revolutions — Part 1

Moscow (UPI) Nov 2, 2007 - No one doubts that humans will one day fly to Mars. The flight will last 350 days, 20-30 days will be spent on the Martian surface, and the return journey will take another 350 days. But the exact date remains unknown.

Nov 2, 2007

Successful Rocket Motor Test Helps NASA’s Shuttle And ARES I

Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 02, 2007 - NASA's Space Shuttle Program successfully fired a four-segment reusable solid rocket motor Thursday, Nov. 1, at a Utah test facility. The two-minute test provided important information for continued launches of the shuttle and for development of the Ares I rocket, a key component of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew vehicle on missions to the moon.

Nov 2, 2007

China’s Lunar Probe Completes Last Orbital Transfer Before Leaving Earth

Beijing (XNA) Nov 01, 2007 - China's lunar probe Chang'e-1 completed its fourth orbital transfer on Wednesday afternoon, a critical move to push it to fly to the moon in a real sense. The engine on the probe was started at 5:15 p.m.. Thirteen minutes later, the probe was successfully shifted to the earth-moon transfer orbit with an apogee of about 380,000 km.

Nov 1, 2007

New Carrier Rocket Series To Be Built

Beijing (XNA) Nov 01, 2007 - A week after the launch of the first lunar orbiter, the government announced Tuesday the building of a new family of rocket launchers and a launch center. The Long March 5 carrier rockets will be made in the northern coastal city of Tianjin while the new launch center will be located in the southernmost province of Hainan.

Nov 1, 2007

China Starts Developing New Heavy-Duty Carrier Rockets

Tianjin (XNA) Nov 01, 2007 - China is building a new range of carrier rockets designed to send heavyweight satellites into space, boosting the current carrying capacity by nearly three times, a space expert has said. The Long March 5 rockets will be able to carry payloads of up to 25 tons for low earth orbit satellites, up from the current limit of 9.2 tons, said Wu Yansheng, president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which is developing the new series of launch vehicles.

Nov 1, 2007

Outside View: Row over Baikonur

Moscow (UPI) Nov 1, 2007 - On Oct. 26, a Proton heavy launch vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian republic.

Nov 1, 2007

NASA postpones spacewalk again

Washington (AFP) Nov 1, 2007 - NASA has postponed for the second time a spacewalk by two crew members from the shuttle Discovery, this time pushing it back from Friday to Saturday, US space officials said.

Nov 1, 2007

Teams Evaluate Array Damage

Houston TX (SPX) Oct 31, 2007 - Engineering teams continue to look at the damage to the P6 4B solar array spotted by the crew during deployment Tuesday. NASA halted the deployment of the solar array wing to evaluate the damage. Deployment was about 80 percent complete. The crew photographed the area on the solar array wing and downlinked the images to the ground.

Oct 31, 2007

South Korean Rocket To Make First Launch In 2008

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Oct 31, 2007 - The first launch of a South Korean rocket from the Naro space center, 450 km south of Seoul, built with Russia's participation is set to go ahead in 2008, the Russian Space Agency said Tuesday. The first launch of the South Korean Launch Vehicle [KSLV] from the Naro space center is scheduled for 2008, reads a report on a recent visit to South Korea by Anatoly Perminov, Russian space agency chief.

Oct 31, 2007

Arianespace Prepares The Fifth And Sixth Ariane 5 For 2007 Launches

Kourou, French Guiana (SPX) Oct 31, 2007 - The Spaceport in French Guiana is alive with activity as Arianespace continues its sustained mission pace to perform six flights of the workhorse Ariane 5 in 2007. For Ariane 5's November 9 launch, the Skynet 5B and Star One C1 satellites are being integrated into their dual-payload stack.

Oct 31, 2007

Russia To Launch German Satellite On November 1st

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Oct 31, 2007 - A Russian Cosmos 3M carrier rocket will launch on November 1 a German SAR-Lupe satellite from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The German satellite is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It offers spatial resolution of less than 1 meter, and allows imaging at night and through clouds. The launch of a Cosmos-3M carrier rocket with a SAR-Lupe satellite has been scheduled for November 1, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Oct 31, 2007

NASA postpones spacewalk until Friday

Washington (AFP) Oct 31, 2007 - NASA has postponed for one day a spacewalk by two crew members from the Discovery space shuttle, pushing it back from Thursday to Friday, US space officials said.

Oct 31, 2007

China to deploy theft patrol on Everest

Beijing (AFP) Oct 31, 2007 - A Chinese mountaineering official will have the unenviable task of trying to prevent robberies on the roof of the world after a spate of equipment thefts, officials said Wednesday.

Oct 31, 2007