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Arianespace eventually signed a previously announced launch contract with Satelites Mexicanos SA de CV (SatMex) to loft its US$300-million Satmex 6 communication satellite atop an Ariane 5 vehicle during the first quarter of 2003. This 5,700-kg satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, will carry 36 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. It will be located at 109.2° West, above the Pacific Ocean, to provide communications and internet services on most of Latin America and of the United States.
Editor's note: SatMex had announced Arianespace's selection in February.

The collapse of the constellations market is well reflected by the new forecast which identifies only 79 commercial payloads to non geostationary orbits (NGSO), half of which are planned in 2002-2004. These payloads would require 24 launches in the medium-lift range (19 in 2004-2005) and 3 to 5 flights of small launch vehicles every year. The launch demand to NGSO is down 21% compared to last year's forecast.
Download the report (pdf, 284 kb).

Editor's note: The first WDR was successfully completed on March 11-16. A third WDR was initially planned but was cancelled as all objectives could be achieved with only two.

Editor's note: In 2000, Arianespace posted losses for the time since its inception in 1980. The €242-million deficit, despite sales topping at an all-time record of €1.1 billion, was then the result of the high cost of the Ariane 4/5 overlap and the uncompetitive production cost of the early Ariane 5s as well as of the major investments by Arianespace in the production and operational infrastructure for Ariane 5 and its evolutions. Before July 2001 and the market collapse in the second half of the year, Arianespace had expected to be back into the black in 2001.
In 2002 Arianespace has signed confirmed launch contracts with Alcatel Space (Star One C1), DirecTV Inc. (DirecTV-7S) and Shin Satellite (iPStar 1). Also announced but not officially confirmed by communiqué are a second contract with Alcatel for Agrani Satellite's Agrani 2 and another with Satelite de Mexico SA de CV for its SatMex 6 high-power satellite. The sixth contract could be the long-rumored transfer of Alenia Spazio's Atlantic Bird 1 (built for Eutelsat) from a Chinese CZ-3A to an Ariane 5.

In its press release following the May 13 announcement of three new launch contracts, Arianespace confirms the contracts with DirecTV Inc. for the launch of DirecTV-7S and with Shin Satellite for iPStar 1. However, the surprise comes from the announcement of a new launch contract with Alcatel Space to loft the Star One C1 satellite for Brazil's Star One, the former satellite division of Embratel. Star One C1, previously known as Brasilsat C1, is a 4,100-kg Spacebus 3000 satellite with 44 Ku-band transponders. It will be jointly operated by Star One and Bolivar*Sat, a joint-venture of Star One and the Andesat alliance formed by 15 communication operators from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Launch is due in the last quarter of 2004 on an Ariane 5 vehicle.
Editor's note: Confirmation of the previously announced contract with Alcatel Space to loft the Agrani 2 satellite for India's first private satellite operator, Agrani Satellite Services Ltd., has apparently been delayed, presumably to organize an official signing ceremony with the final customer. Alcatel Space sold its 51% stake in Bolivar*Sat to Star One in April.

Backgrounder: Agrani 2 is the former Thaicom 4 satellite which has been in storage at Alcatel Space's facilities in Cannes since 1997. The spacecraft, built under an option to the Thaicom 3 procurement contract with Shinawatra Satellite (now Shin Satellite), will be modified with 24 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders to provide direct broadcasting, Internet access and other communication services to India and surrounding regions. Total cost of the Agrani 2 project is estimated at Rs 11.5 billion (US$236 million).

Arianespace and Boeing Launch Services are bidding to launch PT Telkomonikasi Indonesia's Telkom 2 satellite during the first quarter 2004. PT Telkom plans to spend US$120-150 million to build and launch the satellite, to replace its aging Palapa B4. Boeing Satellite Systems and Orbital Sciences Corp. are competing to build the satellite.
Editor's note: Arianespace launched Telkom 1 in 1999 while Boeing is already under contract with PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, 22.7%-owned by PT Telkom, to launch its M2A satellite on a Delta 4 vehicle in late 2003.

International Launch Services has postponed its second Atlas 3B launch to September at the earliest upon request by its customer, Asia Satellite Communications Ltd., of Hong Kong, as Boeing Satellite Systems needs to conduct additional tests on the Asiasat 4 satellite. These tests are reportedly required by Boeing's new policy for increased quality control.
Editor's note: The launch was initially due on May 28.

Editor's note: Only four Ariane 4s remain on inventory, all of which will fly in the Ariane 44L configuration with four PAL liquid strap-on boosters. Since 1984, FiatAvio provided 22 PAA (7.3 ton of propellant) for Ariane 3 and 142 PAPs for Ariane 4.

Boeing's first assembled Delta 4 launch vehicle was erected on the SLC-37 launch pad in Cape Canaveral as part of the preparation for the vehicle's maiden flight in August. The vehicle, composed of a 41-m-tall Common Booster Core (CBC) and a cryogenic upper stage but still lacking its payload fairing and strap-on boosters, will be used for a series of on-pad demonstration activities. By mid-May, the vehicle will be powered-on. In late May, a mock satellite and a payload fairing will be installed at the top of the booster. Four fueling and defueling tests are scheduled in June and early July, paving the way for two "Wet Dress Rehearsals", with stage fueling and simulated countdowns in July. The last of these WDRs will also include a 5-sec. flight readiness firing of the Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 engine.

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The U.S. Air Force may choose to deploy its future third generation of Navstar satellites for the Global Positioning System (GPS-3) by pairs in a bid to reduce overall cost of the program, according to Aerospace Daily. A RfP for the GPS-3 system will be released in August for a contract award in early 2003. Some 27-30 satellites could be ordered for launches beginning in the early 2010s. Launches will be provided by a mix of Boeing Delta 4 and Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 vehicles procured under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The current generation will be phased out circa 2017-2018.
Editor's note: Boeing and Spectrum Astro have already conducted architecture studies for the GPS-3. each satellite is expected to cost US$100-120 million, compared to US$60-80 million for the current constellation.

Boeing Expendable Launch Systems has rolled out the first Delta 4 vehicle due to fly on behalf of U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program at its dedicated production facility in Decatur, Alabama. This vehicle, the second flight model of the Delta 4, is currently scheduled to fly in November, to loft U.S. Air Force's DSCS-3-B6 military communication satellite as part of the Defense Satellite Communications Systems. The launcher's two stages will be shipped to Cape Canaveral during the third quarter.
Editor's note: Boeing has been contracted by U.S. Air Force's Space & Missile Center for 21 Delta 4 launches under the EELV program. In addition, the U.S. Air Force also provides funding for the first demonstration flight of the Delta 4H heavy lift version.

The Japanese government has decided that the National Space Development Agency of Japan should transfer the responsibility for the production and operations of its H-2A family of launchers to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in order to reduce costs, according to the daily newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun. MHI is already the leading shareholder of Rocket System Corp., the 30-company joint venture in charge of marketing the H-2A of which it owns 29.8%. The handover decision will be presented in mid-June in a report by the Japanese Council for Science & Technology Policy.

The U.S. Air Force is reviewing its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program in order to reduce the common points of potential failure between Boeing's Delta 4 and Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 families of launchers. This review is conducted as the U.S. Department of Defense is preparing its Program Objective Memorandum for FY2004. U.S. Air Force's main concern is Pratt&.Whitney's RL10 cryogenic engine which powers both the Delta 4's and the Atlas 5's upper stage. In case of RL10-related failure, both series of launchers could be grounded, leaving the United States with no access to space for large military payloads. The U.S. Air Force is considering the possibility to develop an alternate engine. In addition, the U.S. Air Force might have to invest about US$200 million per year to compensate for the collapse of the commercial launch market in order to keep the two families of launchers afloat until the market recovers.
Editor's note: Replacements for the RL10 have been proposed by Boeing Rocketdyne with the MB-60 (developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), by Gencorp Aerojet with the AJ60 and by Pratt&Whitney with the RL60.

H-2A/212
(NASDA)

H-2A/304
(NASDA)

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Editor's note: According to some Israeli sources, this could be the maiden flight for the Shavit 1, an upgraded version of the Shavit featuring a stretched first stage motor (13 t of propellant instead of 9) developed by Israel Military Industries. Other sources suggest that this version has already flown in April 1995 to launch Ofek 3. The Shavit 1 is similar to the LK-A launcher proposed by LeoLink, the launch marketing arm of Israel Aircraft Industries' MLM Division. The larger LK-1 (formerly known as Next), reportedly under development would replace the second stage motor by a stretched version too. Some U.S. analysts believe that the payload of the failed Shavit launch in 1998 was an early Eros commercial remote sensing satellite, the civilian version of the Ofeq, currently operated by ImageSat International.

The Saudi Institute for Space Research will launch its third Saudisat microsatellite on a MKK Kosmotras Dnepr vehicle in late 2002. Two 10-kg Saudisats (1a and 1b) were launched on a previous Dnepr flight in September 2000.

Israel Space Agency and Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. are developing an air-launched version of the Shavit/LK launch system. This Airborne Launch Vehicle (ALV) would be based on the LK-1 vehicle minus its first stage. It would released from a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules carrier aircraft using a special parachute and pallet kit to loft up to 350 kg of payload into low Earth equatorial orbit.
Editor's note: IAI and Astrium have decided to fold their LeoLink joint-venture in March. As a consequence, LK launchers are now expected to incorporate an Israeli-built injection module. However, IAI still plans to propose LK launchers for missions from the United States with L-3 Communications' Coleman Aerospace acting as a local prime contractor. The air-launched concept would allow IAI to operate the ALV from any place in the world as demonstrated earlier by Orbital Sciences Corp. with its Pegasus system. Currently, Shavit launchers have to fly westward from Israel in order not to fly over Arab countries.

Shavit
(IAI)

Vega
(ESA)

Russia's ZAO Puskoviye Uslugi is taking part in the upgrade of NPO Yuzhnoye's Tsyklon 2 vehicle as the project coordinator of industrial cooperation between Russian and Ukrainian industry. The new Tsyklon 2K will be based on the Tsyklon 2 vehicle with the post-boost module of the NPO Yuzhnoye-built RS-22 (SS-24 'Satan') intercontinental ballistic missile. This new version, developed under joint funding of the Russian and Ukrainian space agencies, Rosaviakosmos and NKAU, will be introduced in mid-2003, with the capability to launch 1,800 kg to a 800-km-high Sun-synchronous orbit from Baykonur at a cost of about US$8,000/kg.

Great-Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. is negotiating a contract with Russia's ZAO Puskoviye Uslugi for the launch of up to 8 microsatellites on two dedicated and one shared Kosmos 3M missions. Algeria's Al Sat 1 will be the first to go, in September, on a shared launch with a Russian Nadezhda navigation/search-and-rescue satellite. The other six microsatellites of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation will be launched by clusters of three in 2003 and 2004. The British Defence Evaluation & Research Agency's Topsat microsatellite could fly on one of the two clustered launches.
Editor's note: According to Puskovye Uslugi, instead of two dedicated clustered launches, SSTL's satellites could fly piggyback on multiple launches. Production of Kosmos 3M was discontinued by AKO Polyot in 1995 and about 15 launchers remain in stockpile. Phasing out is expected circa 2005/2006. SSTL had previously planned to launch all DMC satellites together on a MKK Kosmotras Dnepr vehicle.

Kosmos 3M
(Puskoviye Uslugi)

Brazil's Aeronautics & Space Institute (IAE/CTA) is preparing the launch of a Sonda 3 V31 sounding rocket from the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center (CLBI) carrying the F2 Glow 2 payload developed by the National Space Research Institute (INPE) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, to study the ionosphere. Launch is due between May 9 and 15. No recovery is planned.

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An Orbital Sciences OT-2a ballistic target vehicle launched from Wake Island, in the mid Pacific Ocean, was successfully intercepted and destroyed by a PAC-3 missile during a test conducted on behalf of the Missile Defense Targets Joint Project Office (MDTJPO) for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The OT-2a is a lightweight derivative of OSC's Theater Missile Defense Critical Measurements Program-3B (TCMP-3B) launch vehicle. It consists of two modified Gencorp Aerojet SR19 motors, from the second stage of Minuteman 2 intercontinental balistic missiles, integrated with two Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) motors as boost-assists for the first stage. During this test, the OT-2a flew a ballistic trajectory 1,124 km down range and reached an altitude of 270 km before delivering a dummy reentry vehicle to an intercept area northeast of the Kwajalein Missile Range, Marshall Islands. OSC is under contract by the MDTJPO for a second flight by mid-2003 for its Critical Measurements Program (CMP-4).

Russia has begun the destruction of launch silos for its R-36M (RS-20 or SS-18 'Satan') intercontinental ballistic missiles in Kartaly, Cheliabinsk oblast, one of the last four launch facilities for such missiles. The 59-1 missile division in Kartaly has already scrapped its six R-36M missiles.

The U.S. Air Force Space Command has opened a US$1.6-million Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Center of Excellence (ICE) in Warren AFB, Wyoming. The center will provide focused training and evaluation process for all forces in charge of ICBMs in the United States. Previously, each ICBM wing in Warren AFB, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and Minot AFB, North Dakota, had developed its own training and evaluation methods. The ICE will receive 546 students each year: 210 security forces members, 176 maintainers and 160 missile operators.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency announces that work on underground silos for the first ground-based missile defense interceptors in Fort Greely, near Fairbanks, Alaska, will begin on June 14, the first day after the official withdrawal of the U.S. government from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty it signed with the Soviet Union in 1972. Five silos and associated communications systems will be built in order to provide an emergency missile defense capability as soon as September 2004.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has decided to classify details of the targets and countermeasures that will be used in all future integrated flight tests (IFT) to be conducted under the development program for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System (GMDS). According to MDA officials the classification was required by the increasing complexity in the test program to prevent sensitive data from being released to "potentially hostile nations." MDA denies any intent to to cover up test failures or hide the program from public scrutiny. The next GMDS interception test (IFT-9) is slated for late July.
Editor's note: During the previous interception tests, MDA's Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) was deployed against limited targets (a dummy warhead and one or two balloons as decoys). Further tests will incorporate more realistic decoys to demonstrate the EKV sensors discrimination capability.

Iran's Shahab 4 intermediate range missile could be a threat for some European countries members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization according to U.S. State Department officials. The new missile, developed with support from Russia and "other countries" (namely North Korea and China), will have an initial range of 2,000 km but anticipated upgrades would place Italy, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece within its reach.
Editor's note: The Shahab 4 missile, presumably a derivative of North Korea's Pekdosan 1 (US designation: Taepo Dong 1), has been presented by Iran as a small satellite launch vehicle, not to be used for military purposes.

Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space was awarded a US$8.7-million contract by U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs to initiate procurement of Long Lead Material (LLM) required for the production of additional Trident 2 (D5) sea-launched ballistic missiles to be ordered in FY2003 and completed by September 2006.

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Top officials from the U.S. Air Force and NASA have agreed to study the possibility of jointly developing a reusable launch vehicle demonstrator which could eventually lead to the development of a follow-on cargo vehicle to serve both U.S. Air Force and NASA needs, as well as a of a man-rated vehicle for NASA. Under a mutual agreement, U.S. Air Force and NASA will cooperate through joint studies to refine concepts of operations, requirements, figures of merit, and design reference missions. This cooperation was part of the recommendations by a 120-day RLV study completed earlier this year. According to this study, potential RLV commonality exists between NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense in areas like technology development, cargo lift requirements and launch architecture elements. A demonstrator could provide an early limited operational capability for military missions and a design heritage for an operational system.

China is reportedly about to complete the selection of 14 fighter pilots to serve as the country's first "taikonauts" onboard the Shenzhou manned spacecraft before 2005.

NASA's Johnson Space Center has awarded a US$42.5-million increase to SpaceHab Inc.'s Research & Logistics Mission Support Contract. The increase will cover two flights of SpaceHab's Logistics Single Module to support the STS-116 and STS-118 missions to the International Space Station in May and September 2003. The contract, initially awarded in December 1997, is now worth US$224.5 million.

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Preparation for the second flight of University of Queensland's HyShot scramjet demonstrator is proceeding toward a targeted launch in late July or early August. The experiment will try again to achieve supersonic combustion with an axisymetric scramjet, designed by UQ's Centre for Hypersonics, after launch atop a Terrier Orion suborbital rocket launched from the Woomera Rocket Range, Southern Australia. After reentry from an apogee of 350 km, the scramjet will be operated at a velocity of up to Mach 7.6 between 35 km and 23 km of altitude before crashing into the ground some 370 km downrange. A first attempt failed, on October  30, 2001, due to a malfunction in the carrier rocket's second stage which prevented the payload from reaching its planned altitude and velocity. The payload impacted only 100 km downrange and collected data were reportedly valuable but inconclusive. The experiment is expected to confirm data collected during ground-based experimentation in UQ's T4 hypersonic shock tunnel.
Editor's note: The main partners in this AU$1.5-million (about €800,000) project include NASA's Langley Research Center, British Aerospace Australia, QinetiQ (the former British Defence Evaluation & Research Agency or DERA, the Australian Department of Science & Technology (DSTO), South Korea's Seoul National University, Germany's DLR, the Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI), Alesi Technologies, AECA and Luxfer Australia.

Pratt&Whitney and Gencorp Aerojet have completed tests on the first of three subscale preburners for the Co-Optimized Booster for Reusable Applications (COBRA) engine they are jointly developing on behalf of NASA's Space Launch Initiative. Tests on the fuel-rich preburner, in Aerojet's facilities in Sacramento, California, demonstrated combustion stability, a prerequisite for the engine's staged combustion cycle. Two alternate subscale preburner designs will be tested through the end of the month. Full-scale preburner testing is planed in 2003 at NASA's Stennis Space Center. P&W and Aerojet also manufactured and proof-tested a 40% scale milled channel wall nozzle for the COBRA engine. In addition, the preliminary design review for the prototype engine was completed in April.
Editor's note: The Pratt&Whitney-Aerojet Propulsion Associates joint-venture was formed in March 2000 to support NASA's SLI. The team is developing two cryogenic engines: the COBRA staged combustion cycle engine and the RLX expander cycle engine.

Japan's Galaxy Express plans to use a modified NPO Energomash RD-180 engine to power the Atlas-derived first stage of its GX launch vehicle instead of a NK-33 engine procured through Gencorp Aerojet, as initially planned.

RL10 (P&W)

RL60 (P&W)

Snecma will ship its new PPS-X000 stationary plasma thruster to Qinetiq in Great-Britain by mid-May to conduct a series of firing tests due to last 1,000 hours of cumulated operations..

Boeing Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power was awarded a 5-year contract, worth US$1.14 billion, by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center to provide maintenance and support for the 2,280-kN Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) which power its fleet of Space Shuttle Orbiters. The contract covers on-going flight, test engineering and engine refurbishment to support the Space Shuttle manifest. It also includes manufacturing, assembly, testing and delivery of three additional SSME flight models. Rocketdyne will provide engineering support for SSME processing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and firing tests at the Stennis Space Center.
Editor's note: Rocketdyne has been manufacturing SSMEs for the Space Shuttle program since 1972, assembling 106 engines.

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In response to a Marshall Islands request to identify its future need for U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command's Kwajalein Missile Range, the U.S. State Department announced that the United States "would not object to an extension" of the current lease for 7 years beyond its current 2016 termination, with an option for an additional 20 years. However the U.S. administration made it clear that it does not want to pay a higher fee for the facility. The 7-year extension would bring the pact into line with a 20-year funding deal with the Marshall Islands that is under negotiation. Kwajalein landowners have asked for nearly US$2 billion for a 50-year use of the atoll. The United States currently pay about US$13.2 million per year for the lease.
Editor's note: The US$4-billion Kwajalein Missile Range is United States' primary target site for ballistic missile and missile defense tests. By requiring a firm approval by the Marsall Islands government that its lease could be extended through 2043, the U.S. government gave clear indications that it intends to continue to use the facility as a primary missile defense testing center.

The chairman of the council of the Russian Federation, Sergey Mironov, promised its full support to the completion of a new launch complex for the GKNPTs Khrunichev Angara family of launchers in the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. According to local officials, more than Rbl 15 billion (US$480 million) will be needed to complete the complex but only Rbl 9.1 billion (US$290 million) have been obligated by the federal military budget. The launch complex will have to be ready in 2005.

The government of Russia's autonomous republic of Kalmykia (Khalmg Tangch), near the Caspian Sea, is reportedly proposing to develop a commercial spaceport for medium-sized launch vehicles.

The second and only remaining Russian shuttle orbiter "Ptichka" (OK-2K, 11F35 N°102 ) is presumably in storage in the nearby MZK-112A fuelling and assembly building. Two orbiter mock-ups are also stored in Baykonur (OK-ML1 at the OKI firing stand and OK-MT at the SDI vertical static stand).

The European Space Agency and France's CNES have signed a contract to cover part of the fixed operational costs related to the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. ESA will provide €411.6 million to cover one third of the fixed operating costs of the launch center over the 2002-2006 period. The remaining €205.8 million will be funded by CNES. This contract excludes costs related to the launch facilities. Arianespace remains in charge of the variable costs which are directly related to the launch activity.
Editor's note: This funding was approved in November 2001 by ESA member states at the ministerial council in Edinburgh in order to provide Arianespace a support similar to that of U.S. Air Force to its U.S. competitors. In the past, Arianespace was charged about €12 million per launch for site support while its U.S. competitors had to pay an average fee of US$1.5 million per launch. With this support, Arianespace's fee will be reduced to €4 million per launch. Since it also contributes through ESA, CNES actually supports 56% of the fixed costs.

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France's Groupe SNPE could be cleared to resume production of ammonium perchlorate and monomethyl-hydrazine for Ariane launchers at its Isochem facility in Toulouse shortly after the second round of the French legislative elections, on June 16. Isochem was closed on September 21, 2001, following the explosion of the nearby AZF (Atofina) fertilizer production plant. Due to massive protest by local groups against any kind of chemical industry in the Toulouse area, a new production facility could be built on another SNPE site in St Jean d'Illac, near Bordeaux.
Editor's note: To increase its strategic reserves, which would have been depleted by late 2002, Arianespace had to purchase a first batch of ammonium perchlorate from Williams Equipment & Controls Co. (Wecco), of South West Jordan, Utah, at a price 50% higher than that of SNPE. Moreover, the purchase was subject to export licensing by the U.S. State Department.

Lockheed Martin 's chairman & CEO, Vance Coffman, announced that "a strategic action of one sort or another" is required for the company's commercial satellite manufacturing business, namely Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. According to analysts this statement might be either a motivational wake up call to the business unit or a sign that Lockheed Martin is looking for possible buyers.

Belgium's Sabca has signed an agreement with EADS to become a strategic partner and a prefered supplier for future aerospace and defense programs. In space, Sabca will be a EADS-LV's primary supplier for structural parts and actuators.
Editor's note: This agreement places Sabca in good position to provide the electromechanical actuators for the Vinci engine on the ESC-B cryogenic upper stage to be developed by EADS Launch Vehicles for the Ariane 5ECB launcher.

TRW shareholders have rejected a bid by Northrop Grumman to purchase more than 20% of TRW's shares pursuant to an unsolicited US$53-per-share exchange offer. TRW's board of directors has unanimously rejected Northrop Grumman's offer as "financially inadequate, highly conditional and not in the best interests of TRW shareholders."
Editor's note: Northrop Grumman has been unsuccesfully bidding to take over TRW since February 21.

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The Indian Space Research Organisation's Space Applications Centre will issue a report on its proposed unammned mission to the Moon by late June. The lunar task force is conducting a feasibility study for a lunar orbiter to be launched on a PSLV by 2006/2007. The two-year mission would include surface mapping and high energy X-ray observation from a 100-km altitude orbit.

ESA has selected three mission concepts for feasibility studies (Phase A) under the second round its Earth Explorer opportunity missions. A total of 27 proposals was received after a call for proposals in June 2001. Six were eventually downselected by ESA's Earth Science Advisory Committee by mid-May. Two of these three missions will be eventually selected for implementation, with the first one to be launched in 2008. Each mission is expceted to cost about €110 million to completion.
• The Atmosphere & Climate Explorer (ACE+) would feature four satellites in low Earth orbits (650-850 km) to monitor the changes in global atmospheric temperature and water vapour distribution using intersatellite crosslink measurements.
• The European Global Precipitation Mission is a Sun-synchronous satellite to be flown in coordination with NASA and National Space Development Agency of Japan payloads under the joint Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) due to succeed to the aging Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). EGPM would provide high-latitude data.
• Swarm is a constellation of four small satellites on two orbital planes in low Earth orbit (400-550 km) to conduct a high-resolution survey of the dynamics of the Earth's magnetic field.
Editor's note: The Earth Explorer program inclludes large core missions and smaller opportunity missions. Two core missions have been selected in 1999: the Gravity field and Ocean Circulation (GOCE) mission and the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeolus) to be launched in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Two opportunity missions have already been selected in 1999 too: Cryosat, to be launched in 2004 to study ice sheets and sea ice, and the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, scheduled for launch in 2006. No launcher has been selected yet for any of these missions. ESA's Swarm mission must not be mixed up with the French Essaim (Swarm) constellation of experimental eavesdropping minisatellites.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has selected Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. to build the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite to serve as a gapfiller between the current U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration polar satellites and the future, jointly operated National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). It will also serve as a follow-on to NASA's Earth Observing System missions. The US$94-million NPP spacecraft, sometimes referred to as "Bridge", will be based on Ball's BCP-2000 bus and launched in May 2006, presumably atop a Boeing Delta 2/7320 launch vehicle.
Editor's note: Ball was selected on catalogue through GSFC's Rapid Spacecraft Development Office. The RSDO already selected Ball to develop the ICESat and QuikScat satellites in 1997 and 1998.

This initial contract includes the manufacturing of two satellites. First launch is tentatively due in 2008.

China has denied earlier reports regarding plans to land men on the Moon by 2010. According to the chief scientist of China's Moon Program, the exploration will be conducted by unmanned spacecraft and a first phase could be completed by 2007-2010. One of the primary objectives of the Chinese Moon program will be the collection and recovery of soil samples.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to procure launches on the international market to loft some of its seven Insat 4 series satellites.
Editor's note: ISRO had previously announced that the Insat 4 series will be launched by its own Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle but the launch mass of some of the satellites is likely to exceed its payload lift capability unless the GSLV Mk3 version is introduced in 2007.

Eutelsat plans to issue RfPs for the procurement of its Hot Bird 8 and 9 direct broadcasting satellites during the 3rd quarter of 2002 in order to award contracts by year-end. The two satellites could be launched by late 2004 or early 2005 with launch services contracts being awarded some 9 months in advance.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.'s project for a constellation of small satellites to monitor natural disasters is taking ground as all seven members of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation consortium have agreed to build their own microsatellite for the constellation. The partners are Algeria's National Center for Space Technologies, China's Ministry of Science & Technology, Nigeria's National Space Research & Development Agency, Turkey's Scientific & Technical Research Council (Tubitak), Thailand's Mahanakorn University of Technology, Vietnam's National Center for Science & Technology and the British National Space Center. Algeria's Al Sat 1 microsatellite, built by SSTL, will go first, in September, as a piggyback payload on a Russian Kosmos 3M launcher. Then, Turkey's Bilsat 1, Nigeria's Nigeriasat 1 and Great-Britain's UK-DMC, also built by SSTL, will fly as a cluster, presumably on a Dnepr vehicle, in 2003. SSTL is in final negotiation to build the Chinese and Vietnamese satellites while Thailand is building its own, dubbed Thai-Paht 2. These last three satellites are due for launch in 2004.

The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) has signed a deal with PanAmSat Corp. to lease its PAS-5 satellite as a gapfiller for direct broadcasting services over the Middle East through 2006. PAS-5 was retired in 1999 due to power shortage. It will be moved to 26°East in order to provide a temporary replacement in C-band for capacity lost onboard the Arabsat 3A satellite which suffered power problems too in late 2001. PanAmSat will still operate the satellite for a US$1.5 million yearly fee while PAS-5's insurers and Arabsat will share the revenues.
Editor's note: This deal could mean that Arabsat does not expect to launch a replacement satellite before 2005. PAS-5, launched in August 1997, was the very first HS-601HP satellite built by Hughes Space & Communications (now Boeing Satellite Systems) while Arabsat 3A, launched in February 1999, is a Spacebus 3000B built by Alcatel Space. According to Airclaims' SpaceTrak database, insurers repaid US$185 million for PAS-5's "total loss" claim after onboard battery problems and agreed to share revenues with PanAmSat for its future use. A US$170-million claim was filed in January for Arabsat 3A's "total loss" due to a solar arry problem. In space insurance, "total loss" means the loss of 50% of the satellite capacity or power.

The Andean countries will have their own communication satellite in geostationary orbit by late 2004, according to Conatel, Venezuela's telecommunications institute. The satellite will be jointly owned with Brazil's Star One, the former satellite division of national operator Embratel.
Editor's note: The Andean satellite project has been under study since 1988 by Andesat, an organization st up by the members of the Association of Andean Community's Communication Operators (Aseta): Bolivia's Entel; Colombia's Telecom, Telebucaramanga, Internexa and ETB; Ecuador's Andinatel, Pacifictel, Etapa, Impsat and BellSouth; Peru's Telefonica and Tesam; and Venezuela's CanTV, Movilnet and Telcel. A joint-venture, Bolivar*Sat, was incorporated in October 1999 with Alcatel Space. The proposed Simón Bolívar satellite could actually be Brazil's Star One C1, which was ordered from Alcatel Space in October 2001 and currently due for launch in 2004. Star One C1's footprints cover both Brazil and Andean countries. Andesat owns four geostationary slots, two for C-band services at 106°W (Simón Bolívar 1) and 109°W (Simón Bolívar 3), and two for C/Ku-band services at 67°W (Simón Bolívar 2) and 78.5°W (Simón Bolívar 4). Star One C1's all-Ku-band satellite is due for deployment at 67°W.

The U.S. Department of Defense has certified the Space-Based Infrared System High (SBIRS-High) program for continuation in order to allow its funding to continue despite cost overruns exceeding 25% which trigerred a congressional review. The program's contractors, Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space and Northrop Grumman, have been noticed that any additional cost or technical problem might lead to its cancellation.
Editor's note: The SBIRS-High system, for early missile defense warning, has already undergone several adjustments to reduce its costs. Four satelites are to be built by Lockheed Martin based on its A2100 bus to replace aging Defense Support Program satellites built by TRW. The first launch has slipped from 2002 to 2006 at the earliest and could even be postponed to 2008. Two launches are tentatively manifested on Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 and one on a Boeing Delta 4. The program's cost has skyrocketed from an initial US$1.8 billion to more than US$4.5 billion.

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U.S. representative Nick Lampson (Democrat, Texas) has drafted a bill intended to "restore a vision for the U.S. human space flight program by instituting a series of incremental goals that will facilitate the scientific exploration of the solar system and aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe." The "Space Exploration Act" bill proposes that NASA should develop reusable space vehicles to carry humans from low-earth orbit to the L1 and L2 Earth-Sun libration points, to lunar orbit and to the Earth-Moon libration points within 8 years, to a near-Earth asteroid within 10 years, to the lunar surface within 15 years and to Mars within 20 years. The bill also proposes to operate such vehicles to build large observatories in deep space as well as man-tended research facilities on the Moon and on one of the moons of Mars. Competitions would be organized within the industry to develop the vehicles.
If this bill is approved, NASA would establish an Office of Exploration and receive US$50 million in FY2003 and US$200 million in FY2004 to prepare for the human exploration of the Solar System.
Read the "Space Exploration Act" bill on SpaceRef's website.
Editor's note: Representative Lampson's district includes NASA's Johnson Space Center.

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