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News ofJanuary 1999 |
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January 29
- NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center plans to contract with Norsk Romsenter to procure sounding rocket launch services, involving Black Brant and Viper 3A vehicles, from Andøya Rocket Range, Lofoten Islands, in July 1999.
- Lockheed Martin Astronautics is awarded a US$7.6-million contract by U.S. Air Force‘s Space & Missile Systems Center to refurbish a Minuteman 2 ballistic missile into a suborbital launch vehicle under the Multi Service Launch System (MSLS) program. Launch is due in June 2000.
- Boeing has identified a faulty vernier engine as the cause of the aborted launch of a Delta 2 vehicle carrying the Argos satellite and the Sunsat and Oersted microsatellites on January 27. One of the first stage’s two Boeing Rocketdyne LR-101-NA-11 vernier engine failed to ignite and both the RS-27 main engine and the other vernier were shut down. The Delta 2 launcher due to loft NASA‘s Stardust probe on February 6 is under review.
- The launch of a Proton K vehicle carrying Loral Skynet‘s Telstar 6 is postponed to February 17 to allow the replacement of the fourth stage’s digital computer. International Launch Services provides the launch. This delay will affect following commercial Proton launches.
- Boeing signs an agreement with Spaceport Florida Authority to finance and build the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) for the Delta 4 launch system at Cape Canaveral Air Station. SFA will later lease back the 9,500 sq.m facility to Boeing under a long-term agreement.
- A new laser-guided positioning system has been successfully tested at the X-33 advanced technology demonstrator launch site at Haystack Butte in Edwards AFB. This system, developed by NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center engineers, will allow to quickly place the X-33 on the launch platform and rotate it into launch position.
- Kistler Aerospace has raised US$100 million to proceed with the development of its K-1 two-stage reusable launch vehicle.
- Microcosm Inc. successfully completes the first test flight of its Scorpius SR-S low-cost single engine suborbital rocket.
- The Ariane 4 launch due February 3, carrying Arab League’s Arabsat 3A and Great-Britain’s Skynet 4E is postponed to February 26, after Arianespace has decided to replace servoactuator mechanisms on the first and second stages’ engine gimballing systems.
- The governments of the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan sign the Technology Safeguard Agreement (TSA), a comprehensive trilateral agreement governing the conditions under which U.S.-built satellites can be launched from Baykonur.
- This signature allows Starsem to proceed with the preparation of the first Soyuz/Ikar vehicle for a launch in mid February to loft four Globalstar satellites. It also allows International Launch Services (ILS) to prepare the launch of the AsiaSat 3S satellite atop a Proton K/DM3 on February 21.
- NASA‘s Lewis Research Center (LeRC) plans to develop avanced ion propulsion technologies for use as primary propulsion system on power-limited spacecraft (less than 500W).