Aerospaceguide.net: Newsletter 38, Sunday 17th, October, 2004

Hi Everyone,

In this newsletter you will find space poll results on the X-Prize,
pages on Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, X-43, Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter and lots of space news.

For your information, Spacestore.com is the official online retailer
for the Ansari X-Prize.

GET READY FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS SPACE SHOPPING

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SPACE POLL RESULTS

The question was: "Who will win the X-Prize Competition?"

- 40% voted for SpaceShipOne.
- 10% for da Vinci Project's Wild Fire Mark VI.
- 10% for perhaps one of the other competitors.
- 20% didn't know.
- 20% never heard of the X-Prize Competition.

WHAT's NEW?

* Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spacecraft/jimo.html

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter spacecraft (JIMO) is a Planet Jupiter
robotic explorer. It will orbit the three Jovian moons: Callisto,
Ganymede and Europa between 2015-2020. JIMO is the first NASA mission
using nuclear electric propulsion and the first mission of Project
Prometheus.

* Books
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spacebook/military.html

Two new additions:

1. Star Wars : US Tools of Space Supremacy and
2. Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System.

* X-43
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spaceplanes/x-43.html

X-43 is a small, unmanned hypersonic scramjet test vehicle which is
part of the Hyper-X aerospace research program. NASA is using the
Hyper-X vehicles to test scramjet propulsion technologies that could
be applied to future reusable space launchers and hypersonic aircraft.

* Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/lunar.html

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first planned mission from NASA's
Robotic Lunar Exploration Program as part of NASA's New Vision for
Space Exploration. It maybe launched in 2008.

* Books on Telescopes
http://aerospaceguide.net/spacebooks/telescopes.html

Added more books to this page. You can find books on how to make a
telescope to books on space telscopes like the Hubble.

SPACE NEWS IN BRIEF

* SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X-Prize competition of 10 million USA
dollars. To win the prize, SpaceShipOne had fly above 100 km twice in
a two-week period. The first flight was on September 29 and the
second flight on October 2. Both flew from the Mojave Spaceport.

* India's Edusat was launched on September 20, 2004 from Satish
Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikotain in Southern India on the
first operational flight of GSLV and the third in the GSLV series.
Edusat is India's first-ever satellite dedicated exclusively for
education and will transmit lectures and seminars to remotest parts
of India.

* Expedition Ten (ISS-10) was launched on October 14 on a Soyuz FG
rocket. It is the fourth flight to the ISS by a Soyuz spacecraft
since the US suspended shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster of
February 2003.

The new crew were Russian cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri
Shargin and American astronaut Leroy Chiao. Sharipov and Chiao are to
replace Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and U.S. astronaut Mike
Fincke. Shargin will return to Earth with them. Soyuz TMA-5
spacecraft docked successfully at the ISS after approaching too
quickly. A danger signal was activated causing the crew to switch
from automatic to manual control.

* The first launch of a Ukrainain Tsyklon 4 is planned for 2007. It
will be launched from Brazil's Alcantara Space Centre. It may carry a
Chinese/Brazilian Earth observation satellite.

* The final Atlas 2 (Atlas IIAS) was launched on 31 August 2004 from
Pad 36A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The payload was a U.S. National
Reconnaissance Office satellite (NROL-1). It was the 63rd flight and
last flight of any Atlas II version. It was also the final flight of
the Rocketdyne MA-5A engine after 47 years service. Future missions
will involve the Atlas III or the next-generation Atlas V rockets.

* Genesis Spacecraft returned solar wind samples in a capsule on
September 8, 2004. The Genesis sample return capsule landed within
the projected ellipse path in the Utah Test and Training Range, but
its parachutes did not open. It impacted the ground at nearly 320
kilometres per hour. The capsule was to be grabbed by a helicopter in
mid-air above the Utah desert.

* The final flight of the X-43A research aircraft may be launched in
early or mid November 2004. X-43A is powered by a usng a scramjet
engine. The aim of the flight is sustain a speed of up to Mach 10 (10
times the speed of sound - about 7,000 mph. If successful, a new
speed record for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine will
be set.

See you in the next newsletter.

Regards,
Vic Stathopoulos
Web Master

Aerospaceguide.net
http://www.aerospaceguide.net
Space Projects and Info

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