An advanced Progress spacecraft sent to support reactivation of Russia's Mir space station was paid for with NASA funds intended to help Moscow de-orbit the aging outpost. NASA had agreed to help scuttle Mir after Russian officials said they did not have enough Progress and Soyuz vehicles to supply both Mir and the new International Space Station. But the Progress M1 tanker/transport that NASA thought would be used for de-orbiting instead arrived at Mir on Feb. 3 to deliver supplies and re-boost the station's orbit.
A NASA/Boeing Rocketdyne team at the Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss., has successfully fired an XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine for 125 sec. at full power. This longest test to date included the first thrust vectoring of the engine where its individual combustion chambers were cycled providing differential thrust across the aerospike ramps. Two similar engines are eventually to power the X-33 reusable launch vehicle demonstration vehicle.
Composite liquid oxygen tanks are to be developed at Marshall Space Flight Center for evaluation in NASA's X-34 program. Two tanks are under a 50-50 cooperative agreement between the center and Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems. The first tank, currently under construction, will be used for ground testing, while the second structure it intended to be used on the third vehicle within the X-34 program, a demonstration effort to study technologies aimed at lowering launch costs.
Checkout has been completed on the three main instruments of the European Space Agency's recently orbited X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) spacecraft, clearing the way for the initiation next month of full science operations. European space officials last week unveiled several images taken by XMM after its doors were opened on Jan. 25. The $700-million observatory is designed to peer five times deeper into the universe than NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, but at lower resolutions (AW&ST Dec. 20, 1999, p. 126).
ADP Management, a joint subsidiary of the ADP Paris airports authority and Groupe Suez, will acquire for $120 million a 9.99% stake in Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). Late last year, ADP Management concluded a five-year ``strategic partnership'' with BCIA, in an initiative set to boost the airport's overall efficiency and increase its non-aviation revenues. Recently, an additional terminal was completed to raise Beijing airport's capacity to 35 million passengers per year. BCIA was partly privatized on Feb. 1 and is now listed on the Hong Kong exchange.
The extensive use of airpower by Russia in the conflict in Chechnya is laying bare shortfalls in air force capabilities and spurring calls for greater modernization efforts.
Bertrand Piccard, who with Brian Jones completed the first nonstop round-the-world balloon trip, has been appointed goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.
The new Spanish Hispasat 1C spacecraft now undergoing checkout in geosynchronous orbit is shown during prelaunch anechoic chamber tests at Alcatel facilities (right) in Cannes, France. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 3 on board a Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas 2AS booster with four solid rocket motors (below). Two previous Hispasat missions were launched by Ariane 4s.
Boeing's engineers and technical workers went on strike last week after last-minute negotiations by the nation's top federal labor mediator failed to resolve an impasse in contract talks. An estimated 75% of Boeing's 22,000 engineers and technicians walked off the job on Feb. 9, the first day of the job action.
The apparent first-stage nozzle failure of a Nissan M-5 vehicle on Feb. 10 after its launch from the Kagoshima Space Center resulted in the loss of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science's Astro-E X-ray observatory. The satellite separated from the launcher but appears to have burned up in the atmosphere. Officials said a camera mounted on the M-5 showed an apparent breach of the solid-rocket motor's nozzle by exhaust gases at 25 sec. and 41 sec. after liftoff.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and China have approved an air services agreement that opens the way for future expansion between the two entities. Although Hong Kong is part of China, its SAR status gives it economic and regulatory independence, hence the need for the updated air services bilateral. The pact allows airlines of both sides to operate scheduled services. The effect is to open route rights for Hong Kong carriers equally with mainland Chinese carriers.
Russia's efforts to consolidate its aerospace industry into integrated companies covering all aspects of production--from R&D to customer support--are moving forward with the creation of the Tupolev Joint Stock Co., nearing completion. The company, with an initial capitalization of $277 million, combines ANTK Tupolev (more commonly known as the Tupolev Design Bureau) and Ulyanovsk-based aircraft production plant Aviastar. The Russian government holds a 51% stake in the company.
One of the first production winglets for the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) is shown during installation at Boeing facilities in Seattle. This aircraft will perform certification flight tests for the bolt-on modification this month and next, as well as generate data for other next-generation 737 models. Although the winglets will be a standard feature on the long-range BBJ, Boeing plans to offer them as a standard option on other 737 models. Earlier flight tests indicate the winglets, designed by Aviation Partners Inc.
The next NASA X-38 test flight at Edwards AFB, Calif.--scheduled for Feb. 24--is to include the vehicle's first intercept of a spaceflight trajectory for 8-10 sec. prior to drogue chute deployment (see photo). The unmanned X-38 test Vehicle 132 will be dropped from a NASA B-52 carrier aircraft at 39,000 ft. and simulate the end-point of its lifting body trajectory from Mach 0.7 at 26,500 ft. to Mach 0.68 at 23,500 ft.
The FAA is requiring that all Boeing DC-9, MD-80, MD-90 and 717 transports be inspected for damage to the horizontal stabilizer trim actuator by Feb. 13-14 to continue flying in revenue service, based upon evidence uncovered in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 accident.
An item about Eurocontrol in this column (Jan. 24, p. 68) listed the Web site for the conditional route availability message incorrectly. It should have read http://cram.ecacnav.com.
Competing priorities rule out a Republican move to trump Clinton with an extra $30 billion a year for new weapons Congressional Republicans promise to beef up President Clinton's 2001 defense plan, assailing his $60-billion procurement request as no more than a down payment on a modernization shortfall that will take 10 years to remedy.
Klauss Steffens has been appointed chairman/CEO of Motoren-und Turbinen-Union. He succeeds Rainer Hertrich, who has been designated co-CEO of the European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Co. Steffens was MTU executive vice president-engineering and production.
The Stardust spacecraft is on track for its scheduled Earth gravity-assist maneuver next January after completing three propulsion firings last month. The three firings each lasted about 30 min. and--combined with a shorter firing in late December--changed the velocity of the spacecraft by about 171 meters per second (383 mph.). The gravity-assist at Earth will be used to propel Stardust toward a planned 2004 rendezvous with Comet Wild-2 to collect samples of comet dust to be returned to Earth in 2006.
Frederick H. Vogt, director of the Tennessee Aeronautics Div., has won the President's Award for Aviation from the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials. He was cited for gearing the Tennessee Transportation Dept.'s aviation interests toward achievements in promotion, development and management.
GALAXY AEROSPACE CO. has made the first customer delivery of a Galaxy business jet to TTI Inc., a Fort Worth-based company specializing in distribution of electronic components. The airplane, serial no. 6, is the second Galaxy to enter service. The first was a company demonstrator aircraft that began flying last year. Brian Barents, Galaxy's president and CEO, said plans call for delivering aircraft at the rate of one per month before reaching two per month by June.
Rockwell Collins has been selected in a $10-million award to provide high-frequency radios for the communications system for the Australian Defense Force.
Korean Air is to hire 240 pilots this year, including 130 expatriate captains to add to the 147 it already employs, in a bid to improve its safety record. The remaining 110 pilots are to come from Korea Aviation University, the military and the Cheju Flying School. The hiring effort represents a 40% increase over 1999 when Korean Air hired 173 new pilots. Its reform effort includes reducing the maximum number of hours pilots can fly on 30 consecutive days to 120 from 180 hr., in accordance with FAA standards.
A Travel Industry Assn. of America (TIA)'s report released this month says the travel consumer/Internet bond is growing stronger. There were 85 million online travelers in 1999, an increase of 190% compared to 1996, when there were 29 million users. The survey found that almost all Internet users are also travelers and that business travelers in particular were more frequent online consumers.
