Posted on April 24, 2013, at 4:55 pm .
Stephane Israel (Credit: Arianespace)
New Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël has a clear message for his customers and rivals: “Launches speak louder than words.”
Israël mentions this phrase, which is Arianespace’s unofficial motto, in a Q&A published by the company on its website. It’s not clear precisely to whom he might be referring, but one might guess that it is a certain American entrepreneur named Elon Musk who talks a lot and whose company, SpaceX, has only a handful of launches under its belt.
SpaceX has, of course, notched a lot of launch contracts for satellites waiting to be flown. This accomplishment that has put a great deal of fear into other launch providers, not that you would know it from Israël’s answers. While it’s unlikely that Musk will suddenly stop speaking as much as he does in the years ahead, SpaceX will have a lot more launches that will speak to the company’s reliability and accuracy.
Continue reading ‘New Arianespace Chief: “Launches speak louder than words”’
Posted on April 22, 2013, at 10:28 am .
SEATTLE, WA, April 21, 2013 (Spaceflight PR) – Spaceflight Inc. (Spaceflight) announced today that it successfully deployed five CubeSats from two different launch vehicles that were launched from two different continents.
On Friday April 19, 2013, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle successfully lifted off from its pad in Baikonur to insert the Bion-M1 satellite into orbit. The Bion-M1 spacecraft is a biological research satellite that carried a host of experiments aimed at researching how to make life in space easier and healthier for astronauts.
Continue reading ‘Spaceflight Successfully Deploys Five Spacecraft From Two Launch Vehicles’
Posted on March 28, 2013, at 10:23 am .
Jean-Yves Le Gall
In an appearance before the French Senate, outgoing Arianespace Chief Executive Jean-Yves Le Gall — who is expected to take over the French space agency CNES next month — almost had something nice to say about Elon Musk and SpaceX.
In his 10 years as chief executive of Arianespace, Le Gall has been routinely withering in his disparagement of SpaceX, saying the company has not shown it is able to launch successfully with sufficient frequency to succeed in the market.
But in recent months, Le Gall has modulated his view of SpaceX. As he prepares to take the reins of CNES, an event likely to occur by mid-April, he even complimented — in a back-handed way — SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Continue reading ‘Arianespace Chief Sort of Grudgingly Compliments SpaceX’
Posted on March 26, 2013, at 1:42 pm .
As Russian and American officials consider if and when to send sopranonaut Sarah Brightman into space, the British singer has hedged her bets by buying a less costly ride there.
Keeping all bases covered Miss Brightman, who has an estimated fortune of £30 million, already has a much cheaper ticket, just £125,000, for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic programme, which hopes to begin carrying commercial passengers into space next year. But the singer is said to be frustrated by the lack of any firm date….
Continue reading ‘Sarah Brightman Going to Space — One Way or the Other’
Posted on February 25, 2013, at 9:42 am .
Credit: Golden Spike Company
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
With human flights beyond Earth orbit not expected to occur for at least eight years, the private sector is increasingly eying deep space for a series of ambitious robotic and human missions for both adventure and profit.
Nine programs are currently underway that include robotic and human landings of the moon, human flybys of the moon and Mars, the mining of the moon and asteroids, and even a settlement on Mars. Backers of these initiatives include the X Prize Foundation, Google and its executives, and the world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito.
Continue reading ‘Private Sector Seeks Profit, Adventure Beyond Earth Orbit’
Posted on February 2, 2013, at 5:22 am .
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
China’s surging space program moved into second place in 2012 in terms of both orbital launches and payloads, passing the United States and inching closer to Russia.
China successfully launched 19 rockets last year, placing a total of 30 payloads into orbit, according to an annual report released by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST). Russia led all nations with 34 payloads on 24 launches, while the United States came in third with 28 payloads on 13 launches.
Continue reading ‘China Surpassed U.S. in Launches, Payloads in 2012′
Posted on January 9, 2013, at 2:38 pm .
Evry, France, January 8, 2013 (Arianespace PR) — After an especially successful year in 2012, Arianespace is gearing up for the New Year with the constant aim of further strengthening its world leadership in the launch services market.
Ten years of uninterrupted success
With 53 successful launches in a row, Ariane 5 closed out 2012 on a high note, marking ten years of uninterrupted success. This is an extraordinary level of reliability, largely unrivaled in the launch industry.
The launcher logged perfect countdowns throughout the year, ensuring on-time launches and clearly reflecting the skills and commitment of the people who produce and operate Ariane 5.
Arianespace’s family of three launch vehicles performed ten launches in a year from the Guiana Space Center for the first time in 2012: seven by Ariane 5, two by Soyuz and one by Vega. Arianespace set another record as well, sending nearly 75 metric tons into orbit.
Continue reading ‘Arianespace: Continuing to Kick Ass in 2013′
Posted on December 30, 2012, at 7:22 am .
Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin. (Credit: Roscosmos)
Izvestia has published a lengthy interview with Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin, who touched upon issues that included singer Sarah Brightman’s planned space tourism flight, upcoming Angara flight tests, American interest in purchasing a new rocket engine, Russia’s launch record in 2012, and the general state of the industry.
Key excerpts, courtesy of Google Translate, are reproduced below. All the sections involve translated quotes except for the one on Angara flights.
On Sarah Brightman’s Planned Space Tourism Flight
“We are not opposed to training, but so far we have no contract to that effect has been signed. By agreement between Roscosmos and NASA planned extremely long expedition to the ISS crew of two in 2015, people will spend at the station for a year. At the same time, the warranty term of the spacecraft Soyuz in orbit – no more than six months. That is, during the extremely long expedition ship docked to the ISS needs to be changed. Question – how to do it? You can put it in two tourists and 10 days to return back. The second option – to do some expedition. But the 10-day expedition is impractical – in fact it will be hidden in the performance of tourism trained astronauts. You can extend the life of the expedition up to 40 days, but then on the ISS will not be six and nine. All this pulls the start of another cargo ship ‘Progress,’ and this is serious money we are unlikely to find, as the program up to 2015 is already laid out. Therefore, we have not decided who to put in two free seats. Send our trained astronaut to have it on 10 days to fly there in fact a tourist by the state – perhaps it is not entirely justified. Moreover, our European colleagues have told us that they would like to purchase a vacant chair for her astronaut. Now we weigh all the ‘pros’ and ‘cons.’ Plan to take a decision in the I quarter of next year.”
Posted on December 27, 2012, at 7:45 am .
RSC Energia announced that it has completed the design of Russia’s next-generation human spacecraft, which is intended to debut the same year that the Soyuz will reach its 50th anniversary:
The proposed spacecraft is commonly known as PPTS (or Prospective Piloted Transport System) and RSC Energia won the tender to build it in 2009. Initially, 2015 was named as the date of the first test flight, but that was then shifted to 2018. Now, [Energia Chief Vitaly] Lopota has brought the test date forward again.
Continue reading ‘Energia Completes Design of Soyuz Replacement, Eyes 2017 Test Flight’
Posted on November 27, 2012, at 2:00 pm .
The Russian government is embarking on an extensive and complicated reorganization of the nation’s space industry that could see Roscosmos transformed into a state-run corporation that would be in charge of the whole kit and caboodle.
A structural reform of Russia’s space industry will see its numerous enterprises united into five or six large holdings, Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said on Monday….
The draft list of industries to get separate holdings includes orbital spacecraft development, in-orbit operation, guidance systems, scientific research, testing and strategic rocketry, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said, also on Monday.
Continue reading ‘Russia Plans Major Reorganization of Space Industry’
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