November 18, 1996 Vol. 0 - No. 0 By subscription only ============================== THE ORBITAL REPORT ON-LINE ============================== Space Executive's Weekly News Digest This is an experimental issue of Takyon International's latest on-line newsletter. OReOL is intended to cover space industry's news and market trend and provide the necessary background information for immediate analysis. Please feel free to contact us for any comment. === HEADLINES === * Contact with the US$64-million Mars 96 Russian/international probe was lost 77 min. after its launch by a Proton K/DM vehicle from Baykonur, Kazakhstan, at 20:48 UT on November 16. Built by NPO Lavochkin, the 6,700-kg spacecraft carried 38 experiments from Russia, ESA and 18 countries (24 on Orbiter, 6 on two landers and 8 on two penetrators). It was due to enter Martian orbit on September 12, 1997, and study Mars for one year. Apparently, the second burn of the RKK Energiya-built Block DM upper stage either did not happen or did not provide enough thrust to boost the probe on its trajectory to Mars, leaving the spacecraft in Earth orbit. * Arabsat 2B and Measat 2 were successfully launched by an Ariane 44L-3 vehicle (V92) from Kourou, French Guiana, at 22:40 UT on November 13. Arabsat 2B (22C, 12Ku) was built by Aerospatiale under a US$257.9-million contract from the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat). It will be positioned at 22=B0E. Built by Hughes under a contract from Malaysia's Binariang, Measat 2 (12C, 4Ku) will be located at 91.5°E. * Spot 3, France's latest remote sensing satellite, lost attitude control on November 14 causing interruption of its mission. An investigation is underway. If attitude control can't be restored, CNES, the French space agency plans to revive Spot 1 and launch Spot 4 as soon as possible in 1997. Spot 2 still performs correctly on parts of its orbit. * NASA has decided to postpone all of its missions currently planned for launch on Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Pegasus vehicles following the loss of Argentina's SAC-B and MIT's HETE spacecraft on November 4. === BUSINESS === * Alenia Spazio, of Rome, Italy, was awarded the AU845-million (US$1,125-million) prime contractorship for ESA's Integral gamma ray astronomy satellite. * US Air Force's Space & Missile Center has awarded three contracts for suborbital sounding rocket launch services in support of the Launch Test Program through November 2001 to Coleman Research Corp., of Orlando, Florida (US$136 million), Orbital Sciences Corp., of Chandler, Arizona (US$67.6 million), and Space Vector Corp. (US$63.4 million). * Auspex Systems Inc. of Santa Clara, California, will provide software to NASA to ensure continuous access to critical data by Johnson Space Center's mission controllers. * US attitude control systems manufacturers, Ithaco, Inc., of Ithaca, New York state, and Space Sciences Corp., of White Plains, New York state, have completed their merger. The resulting entity will keep the name Ithaco and be headquartered in Ithaca. === MARKETS === * Matra Marconi Space, of Velizy, France, proposes to develop the US$2-billion WEST (Wideband European Satellite Telecommunications) network for broadband communication services over Europe using one or two geostationary satellites and nine satellites in intermediate circular orbit before 2003 * McDonnell-Douglas Aerospace, of Huntington Beach, California, holds preliminary talks with Arianespace, of Evry, France, on the possibility to launch Delta vehicles from Kourou, French Guiana. === TECHNOLOGIES === * Rohr, Inc., of Chula Vista, California, plans to order two carbon-carbon test models of X-33's nose tip to Aerospatiale of Paris, France. * Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP), of Suresnes, France, has shipped the Vulcain engine (serial number M16) for the second Ariane 5 test flight to Aerospatiale's Les Mureaux plant for integration on the vehicle's Core Cryogenic Stage (EPC) on November 15. * MAN Technologie AG, of Augsburg, Germany, has delivered the 100th Ariane thrust frame to SEP on November 7. * The experimental aircraft flight control system developed by NASA and the US Air Force for the LoFlyte waverider demonstrator and based on neural networks, has been named one of the 100 'Best of What's New' in the annual Popular Science magazine competition. === PREVIEW === * Nov. 18: France's CNES and Japan's NASDA space agencies sign cooperation agreement. * Nov. 19: Launch of Columbia for STS-79 mission. Main payload is Germany's Orfeus-SPAS telescope and University of Houston's Wake Shield Facility (WSF-2). * Nov. 20: Launch of Progress M33 resupply spacecraft to Mir. * Nov. 21: Mars Surveyor trajectory correction maneuver possibly used to fully deploy solar array. * Nov. 22: Launch of Eutelsat's Hot Bird 2 on an Atlas vehicle. Next issue is tentatively planned for November 25. The Orbital Report On-Line will be published 40 times per year by Takyon International (RCS Paris B 401 465 398) 34, boulevard Exelmans, 75016 Paris, France Phone: +33 (0) 148 935 781 * Fax: +33 (0) 148 935 725 Editorial hotline: +33 (0) 607 995 056 E-mail: [email protected] Chief Editor: Stefan Barensky Technical Contributor: Samuel Szdat (c) Takyon International - November 1996 Subscription information will be available soon. Takyon International also publishes The Orbital Launcher Report, a monthly space transportation newsletter. ------------------ End of issue Vol.0, No.0 ---------------------
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