A rival to Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture is wooing potential buyers who might wish to bring the prospect of space travel to the UAE.

Arianespace successfully launched Yahsat Y1A into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana, on Friday, April 22, aboard an Ariane 5 launcher.

Arianespace is on track for a rescheduled April 22 liftoff of its Ariane 5 mission with the Yahsat 1A satellite.

Commercial opportunities along with military and humanitarian demands driving the need for sustainable space and satellite programmes across the Middle East will be in focus at the Global Space and Satellite Forum (GSSF) 2011.

Insurance issues relating to the space industry will take centre stage at an international conference to be held in Abu Dhabi in May, when experts from across the world will discuss market conditions for the sector's future at the Global Space & Satellite Forum (GSSF).

The flying of the space shuttle involves complex choreography of man (or woman) and machine. With five shuttle missions under his belt and a stint as the chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office, U.S. Navy Capt. (ret.) Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson is among the most qualified to explain what must be done to make a flight a success. In an exclusive Aviation Week pilot report, he describes what transpires from launch through landing from the commander’s point of view.

The loss of two shuttle orbiters and 14 brave astronauts gave NASA and the nation several textbooks worth of painful lessons about launching humans into space, including how easy it is to forget those lessons. The Challenger accident scuttled forever the notion that the space shuttle was an operational vehicle that could take humans to orbit as a matter of “routine.” Columbia’s loss underscored that schooling, and killed the shuttle program.

As new competitors enter the commercial aircraft market, Boeing and Airbus face big decisions about how to keep their products on the leading edge. Should they make incremental upgrades now, or wait until game-changing technologies are ready? Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney sat down at the company’s Chicago headquarters with AW&ST Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo to discuss the options the company is mulling and why he thinks China will become the industry’s next big power.