Cape Canaveral (AFP) June 20, 2007 - The shuttle Atlantis could face storms, rain and low clouds when it is scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a spokesman for the Kennedy Space Center said Wednesday. NASA's greatest concern for Thursday's landing is the presence of storms, rain or low cloud cover, predicted at 900 meters (yards) for the landing, George Diller told reporters.
Sandusky OH (SPX) Jun 20, 2007 - Before NASA's new spacecraft, Orion, carries the next generation of explorers into space, it first will make a shorter journey to the world's largest vacuum chamber. In this massive, cathedral-like structure, it must endure a variety of rigorous challenges. Called the Space Power Facility, the vacuum chamber resides at NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.
Beijing (Xinhua) Jun 19, 2007 - China plans to develop a new generation of carrier rockets with an increased payload capacity in order to advance its lunar exploration program, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The payload capacity of China's Long March series of carrier rockets will be increased from its current weight of 9.5 tons to 25 tons, an official with the corporation said.
Le Bourget (AFP) France, June 19, 2007 - The European satellite launcher Arianespace on Tuesday said 2006 was a bumper year, leaving it with the biggest backlog of orders in an increasingly competitive industry. In 2006, Arianespace successfully launched five Ariane 5 ECAs, placing 10 communications satellites and one technology experiment into geostationary transfer orbit, it said.
Poway CA (SPX) Jun 19, 2007 - SpaceDev has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to facilitate its development of reliable, safe and affordable transportation of passengers and cargo to and from Earth orbit. Under the Agreement, NASA will provide information about the agency's projected commercial demand for crew and cargo services to the International Space Station (ISS) as well as technical support regarding commercial vehicle requirements for rendezvous and docking with the ISS. NASA will also provide inputs to the development program through regularly scheduled technical exchange.
Houston TX (SPX) Jun 19, 2007 - The STS-117 crew bid farewell today to the Expedition 15 crew before the hatches closed at 6:51 p.m. EDT between Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. Attention now turns to Atlantis'' undocking from the station 10:42 a.m. Tuesday. The STS-117 crew members are wrapping up a stay in which they continued the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation of the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment.
Paris, France (SPX) Jun 18, 2007 - International Launch Services (ILS) and SES Satellite Leasing announced a contract today that calls for the launch of five SES satellites on Proton Breeze M vehicles through 2013. Financial details were not disclosed.
Washington (AFP) Jun 18, 2007 - US astronauts Sunday staged their fourth and final spacewalk of the Atlantis mission after repairing the shuttle for its trip home and adding to a string of space records. During their six-hour spacewalk, mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson were adding segments to the International Space Station (ISS) and activating a power generator that tracks the Sun, NASA said.
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jun 18, 2007 - The Space Shuttle Program still can surprise engineers and technicians, even after 117 flights. And the engineers have proven up to the task, even if it means building unique tools to handle the situation. The latest example came from a freak hail storm that hit shuttle Atlantis while it sat on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The hail dinged the foam on the external tank, setting off an unprecedented repair effort.
Beijing (XNA) Jun 18, 2007 - China plans to launch in September the third earth resources satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil, said Sun Laiyan, director of the China National Space Administration here Thursday. Satellite 02B will be soon moved into a space environment simulator and go through a number of tests, said Sun. Before returning to China in April this year, the satellite underwent a series of tests at the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE).
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Jun 18, 2007 - International Launch Services (ILS) announced today it has been selected to launch a satellite for Arabsat. ILS will launch the satellite, either Arabsat-5A or BADR-5, in the 2009-2010 timeframe on a Proton Breeze M vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ILS partner Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center builds the Proton in Russia.
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Jun 18, 2007 - Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has today launched one of the world's fastest air-breathing engine experiments, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Mr Peter Lindsay announced. The scramjet engine experiment reached speeds of up to Mach 10, approximately 11,000 km per hour, or ten times the speed of sound. Scramjets are air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet engines that could make it possible for a two hour flight from Sydney to London.
Noordwijk, Holland (ESA) Jun 18, 2007 - Time to bid farewell to the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built in Europe. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will leave ESA's ESTEC establishment in the Netherlands in mid-July and be shipped to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Washington (AFP) Jun 16, 2007 - A US astronaut of Indian heritage made history early Saturday when she set a new record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman. At 1:47 am (0547 GMT), International Space Station (ISS) engineer Suni Williams surpassed the 188-day, 4-hour mark set by her compatriot Shannon Lucid in 1996, according to US space officials. It was not the first record set by Williams, who began her space journey last December 10.
Washington DC (AFP) Jun 15, 2007 - Astronauts on Friday fixed a tear in the shuttle Atlantis's heat shield and repaired two main computers at the International Space Station after an unprecedented systems breakdown that lasted 48 hours, a NASA spokeswoman said.
Paris (AFP) Jun 15, 2007 - The European Space Agency on Thursday announced the latest in a long series of delays in the maiden launch of a robot craft designed to resupply the International Space Station. The Jules Verne, which ESA had previously hoped to launch in the last quarter of 2007, will now lift off not earlier than mid-January 2008, the agency said in a press release.
