3 June 2001

Satcoms

NetSat Express Extends Contract with SkyOnline
NetSat Express has been awarded a US$ 3 million multiyear contract from SkyOnline Inc, a satellite - and wireless- based service provider.

This is an extension of SkyOnline's current contract and more than doubles its satellite capacity for an additional three years.

Under the terms of the contract, NetSat Express will provide transponder capacity on the Satmex-V satellite. The satellite capacity will be used for the connectivity of DAMA-based rural telephony sites throughout Latin America. The telephony infrastructure allows customers in rural regions of Latin America to communicate worldwide without the need for local landline infrastructure.

Manned Space

Canadarm2 Problems Delay Shuttle Flights
The Canadarm2 robotic arm is having a few teething problems since its recent integration with the International Space Station (ISS). Shuttle flights to the ISS are being rescheduled to minimise disruption.

The Canadarm2 is the main constructional tool on the ISS and is used to manoeuvre large items around the outside of the station.

It was scheduled to be used to position the next addition to the ISS, an airlock, whilst it was mated to the ISS. This airlock was to be delivered on the next ISS flight which was due towards the end of this month. This flight has now been delayed until early July to allow for time to fix the Canadarm2.

The following shuttle flight carries the replacement crew for the current three man ISS crew. This flight has now been pushed back a month from July to August.

The problem with the robot arm appears to be a computer failure in the backup control system for the arm. The arm operates normally using the primary control system but one joint has problems when the backup control system is used.

A software patch has failed to cure the problem and it is now possible that a joint on the arm may need to be replaced.

Toys in Space
Space Media Inc, a subsidiary of Spacehab, has delivered payloads to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought them back to Earth for Lego Systems Inc and Popular Mechanics magazine.

The educational and promotional packages were transported to the Russian segment of the ISS aboard the Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft launched April 28 with three cosmonauts. The payloads were delivered to the ISS on April 30 and returned to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft that landed May 6.

Space Media provided the Lego Company and Popular Mechanics a commercial space services package encompassing payload preparation, launch to the ISS, on-orbit payload procedures (including photographic documentation), and return flight.

Cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin conducted and filmed a Popular Mechanics promotional initiative and educational experiment using Lego bricks aboard Zvezda on May 3. Following their return to Earth, the payloads were delivered to their owners in the United States on May 23.


The Lego Company flew an experiment designed to help students learn about weight and mass. Space Media's STARS Academy global education program developed this experiment, and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education contributed educational materials for it. In this first-ever toy-based experiment on the ISS, cosmonauts attached a Lego Life on Mars Red Planet Protector toy set to a mass measurement device and determined the oscillation frequency of the toy in the device in order to gauge its mass in space. Cosmonauts videotaped the experiment for educational uses. The LEGO payload also included a promotional banner, which cosmonauts unfurled and photographed in space, and 300 toy "alien" figures. Most of the figures will be awarded to winners of the LEGO "Life on Mars Survival Challenge National Building Contest" for children aged 5-12.

New York-based Popular Mechanics magazine's promotional package included a copy of the magazine and a banner displaying its name. Cosmonauts opened up the 1-meter-by-0.5-meter banner and the magazine aboard Zvezda and photographed and videotaped the event.

Technology

NASA's Experimental X-43A Destroyed During First Flight
The unmanned X-43A test plane was destroyed by range safety officers shortly after it was dropped from its B-52 launch aircraft when the Pegasus booster accelerating the craft veered off the planned flight path.

The test flight was the first of three unmanned flights which was to test a supersonic-combustion ramjet which was to have powered the craft at Mach 7.

The X-43A mated to a Pegasus booster flew from Edwards Air Force Base in California slung under a B-52 launch aircraft. The X-43A/Pegasus vehicle was dropped as planned, but once the Pegasus booster was ignited it began to fly off course and was destroyed by the range safety team.

The Pegasus booster was to have accelerated the X-43A to a speed at which its experimental ramjet engine could operate. After a brief period of powered flight the X-43A was to have crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

The next flight of an X-43A was scheduled for the end of this year and a third flight, in which the X-43A would fly at Mach 10, was planned for late 2002.

Launch Services

Aerojet to Study Channel Wall Nozzle for Shuttle Main Engine
Aerojet has won an eight-month, US$ 5 million contract from NASA to study the feasibility of developing a channel wall nozzle to replace the tube nozzle in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME).

The existing tube nozzle is constructed by brazing together more than 1,000 specially shaped tubes to form the nozzle. During engine operation, hydrogen flows through the inside of these tubes to cool the nozzle and gasify the hydrogen.

Channel wall nozzles feature very few components and incorporate cooling slots milled directly into the nozzle structure that are transformed into individual hydrogen coolant channels when an outer jacket is attached. Channel wall nozzles could offer a significant increase in SSME nozzle reliability and could potentially be produced faster, more consistently and at lower cost than tube nozzles. NASA's requirements are that the channel wall nozzle be capable of 55 flights, 27,000 seconds of operation and one abort flight.

Aerojet is competing with Rocketdyne for possible selection to design and fabricate nozzles for the next SSME upgrade. Other elements in the potential SSME upgrade project include a new larger throat combustion chamber that reduces system operating pressures and temperatures, and an Advanced Health Management System that enhances anomaly detection and mitigation during engine operation.

Hitachi Cameras to Monitor Shuttle Launches
Hitachi Denshi America Ltd's Broadcast & Professional Group has been chosen as the first supplier of digital cameras in a project to upgrade the mission-critical system that helps technicians monitor the Shuttle spacecraft and its exterior instrumentation during launches.

Twenty-two Hitachi HV-D5W 2/3-inch, three-CCD, 16:9/4:3 switchable cameras will be installed at strategic points around NASA's two launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center within the next year as part of an Operational Television (OTV) system modernisation effort. Under OTV project plans, 160 black-and-white analogue cameras, most of which have been in use for 14 years, will be replaced over the next five years. First and foremost, NASA was looking for a camera that could operate smoothly under the tremendous vibration caused by 28 Gs of force during a typical Shuttle launch.

The new cameras will be connected to NASA's new Unified Control System, which features a Sony serial digital, 270 Mb/s, 384 x 576 router (expandable to 384 x 720) that distributes video signals to panels of display monitors closely watched by hundreds of technicians and scientists in the Firing Rooms.

Each camera view is monitored by a team responsible for a vital component or gauge, such as a dial showing liquid oxygen levels. The Hitachi video cameras will be used in conjunction with NASA's 100-camera film surveillance system.

Hitachi will provide warranty maintenance service to NASA for all of the HV-D5W's.

Launches

Cosmos 2377

Launched: 29 May 2001
Site: Plesetsk cosmodrome, Russia
Launcher: Soyuz U
Orbit: LEO, apogee: 382 km, perigee: 176 km: inclination: 67.1°
International Number: 2001-022A
Name: Cosmos 2377 (Yantar-4K2, Kobalt)

This is a Russian military imaging satellite. It is expected to remain in orbit for about 4 months.

Business

5G Wireless Purchases 30% Of Skyhub Asia
5G Wireless Communications Inc has completed the purchase of 30% of the capital stock for Skyhub Asia Holdings Limited.

Under the terms of this purchase, 5G shall provide US$ 1 million in financing for expansion of Skyhub's network. The 30% acquisition of Skyhub Asia Holdings Limited will provide 5G Wireless Communications Inc customers with an enhanced wireless last mile solution. 5G also retains an option to purchase a further 20% stake in the company.

Skyhub will provide 5G with a satellite infrastructure that will allow 5G to rapidly deploy wireless solutions over a wide geographical area in Asia, Europe, India and Australia. Furthermore, Skyhub will enable 5G to increase market penetration by providing this geographical region with an innovative and economical communications solution.

Thales to Buy Magellan and NavSol From Orbital Sciences
Thales is to acquire all of Orbital Sciences' satellite navigation and positioning businesses for approximately US$ 70 million.

Two Orbital Sciences subsidiaries are involved in the transaction: Magellan, one of the leading global suppliers of GPS equipment, and NavSol, which is in charge of the Hertz car rental group's satellite-based car navigation service. The closing of the transaction is expected by the end of June 2001.

The two subsidiaries generated combined revenues of US$ 114 million in 2000. Magellan is one of the world market leaders in professional, recreational and automotive GPS products and has a strong presence in the United States.

Thales already has a European leadership position in GPS equipment through its subsidiary Thales Navigation (formerly DSNP), which was reinforced in May 2000 through the acquisition of French company MLR, specialists in GPS equipment for merchant marine users, fishing vessels and recreational craft. Together, these two companies generated revenues of 24 million Euros in 2000.

People

Boeing Satellite Systems Names Two Senior Vice Presidents
Boeing Satellite Systems, (BSS) has named two industry veterans, Jack Wormington and Al Wyatt, to senior vice president posts.

Wormington, most recently senior vice president of Engineering and Operations with XM Satellite Radio Inc, returns to BSS as senior vice president of Programs, filling a position vacated by Randy Brinkley when he was named president of BSS in March. Wormington will be responsible for profit and loss in BSS' three major markets: Digital Processing, Fixed Satellite Service/Broadcast Satellite Service and DoD-Civil. He will oversee the formulation and execution of BSS market segment sales campaign activities as well as all program services activities including satellite launch campaigns. He will be BSS' primary focal point for customer interface and for meeting current and near-term customer requirements.

Wyatt, an 18-year veteran of the company, becomes vice president of Operations, replacing Alexis Livanos, who was named BSS executive vice president earlier this month.

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