Ariane 5 rockets puts Africa's first satellite into space

On Friday Africa flew into the space age on an Ariane 5 rocket. It was an African telecommunications satellite though there was also another satellite on the rocket made by a US-Japanese joint venture, Arianespace said. The rocket, the 36th launch of an Ariane 5 and the sixth this year, lifted off at 9:42 GMT and successfully placed the satellites for the pan-African operator RascomStar-QAF and US-Japanese Horizons 2 Satellite LLC. The pan-African satellite, weighing 3.2 tonnes, is the first from the continent to be put into space. Several African dignitaries witnessed the launch but Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who was expected, was a no show. The Horizons-2 satellite, weighing 2.3 tonnes, was manufactured by Satellite LLC, a joint venture between Intelsat of the US and Japanese firm JSAT. Hopefully Africa will continue with space ventures and catch up with the rest of the world. I would say this is a good start.

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European Space Agency to Finance Mars Rover

Yep finally the European Space Agency (ESA) has agreed to provide early finances for a new Mars Rover mission that may involve the United States and Russia, though it is not set is stone and the final decision will come in November. ESA's decision to spend $117 million in 2008 on the ExoMars mission will help make the projected launch date of 2013 a little more feasible. The ESA has recently ditched a plan for a smaller rover project and upgraded to the much more expensive and much more capable operation that they are planning and working on now. The current plan would cost around $150 billion. The Italian government has pledged to fund almost half of the project and the British, German, and French government has said they would fund most of the other half. The ESA is vying to get Russia rockets and American instruments though this process is quite difficult. The ESA is also working with Russia on their mission to Phobos, one of Mars's moons. Well I truly hope that both of theses programs are carried out succesfully and the European Space Agency and all invloved benefit from it. But as we all know, only time will tell.

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Odyssey Moon Accepts Google X Prize Challenge

This Thursday Odyssey Moon unveiled its plans the enter Google's Lunar X Prize. The Google X Prize competition is a global race to see who can land the first private spacecraft on the moon without any government aid. The competition has a $30 million dollar purse which will hardly cover the expected $60-$100 million cost of the venture but the company will then have a moon capable spacecraft which will be worth quite a lot and they may even have a new and ripe market for their services. Based in the Isle of Man – located just off the west coast of Great Britain – Odyssey Moon's inaugural mission will involve a small robotic lander designed to deliver scientific, exploration and commercial gear to the surface of the Moon. Odyssey Moon believes that there will sometime soon be a moon rush and they intend to cash in on it. The Google X Prize must be won by 2013 for anyone to get the prize money.

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Space tug offered to NASA as new space delivery system

NASA has been offered an interesting new way to deliver cargo to the ISS and other outer space targets. Space Systems/Loral has submitted proposals for $175 million in Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration money, following NASA's decision to withdraw support from Rocketplane Kistler's stalled K-1 reusable launcher program. NASA is offering a total of $500 million to companies who can show potential ideas for space delivery systems. SpaceX already is entitled to $278 million in grants for it's Dragon rocket system. The Space System/Loral team would use the company's proven 1300-series satellite bus as a refuelable space tug that would remain in orbit for as long as 10 years. After docking with and escorting an essentially dumb cargo vessel to the station, the vehicle would remove it from the station and allow it to be de-orbited over an ocean. The technology is almost all there it is simply a new concept that may be very workable in the end. I think NASA will like this because it is all American made and possible reliable and reusable. Only time will tell.

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Solar System Squashed, Classified USA Rocket launched

New studies show theory that our solar system is slightly dented and even squashed on the southern heliosphere. An interesting little story, I just thought I would mention it to you, if you want to read some more http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22186054/ there you go.

Today United Launch Alliance launched a classified USA intelligence satellite into orbit today and it seems that it was a very successful launch aboard the ULA's reliable Atlas 5 rocket, there will obviously be little news about this satellite because it is classified but if I learn anything of interest I will of course pass it along.

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More Problems Plague NASA Shuttles

Well we may as get right into the thick of it.

As you may know NASA's scheduled launch of the Atlantis shuttle on Thursday had to be scrubbed due to the failure of a pair of fuel gauges on the external tank. NASA had originally only delayed the launch by a few day but now launch engineers plan the next possible launch date to be January 2, 2008, so that they can decide exactly how to fix the problem. The fuel gauges monitor the levels of super-chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant in Atlantis' external tank. They serve as a backup system to shut down the shuttle's three main engines during flight before the fuel tank runs dry. On Thursday two of the four gauges were malfunctioning. Ever since 2005 NASA has been plagued by engine shut-offs and many other problems. Don't you think they should have just built a more reliable machine to begin with? But anyway, hopefully Atlantis will get off the ground in January and complete its 11 day run which included at least three spacewalks to attach the $2 billion Columbus lab to the ISS.

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