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The launch of the first H-2A vehicle sold by Rocket System Corp. will slip from February 2003 to July/August of the same year as its payload is getting late. The MT-Sat 1R satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral for Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure Transport and the Japan Meteorological Agency, will provide weather monitoring from geostationary orbit as well as mobile communication services, mostly from aircarft in flight for air traffic control.
Editor's note: MT-Sat 1R will replace the similar MT-Sat 1 which was lost in the launch failure of the last H-2 on November 15, 1999. It is also supposed to provide in-orbit replacement for Japan's sole remaining meteorology satellite, the 6-year old Himawari 5, which has exceeded its planned lifetime.

In order to improve the competitiveness of the Ariane launch system, the European space ministers have asked ESA to prepare a consolidation of the Ariane production processes to streamline the relationship between the industrial partners. A consolidated approach with only one prime for the stage and one for its propulsion will be applied for the development of the new ESC-B stage and its Vinci engine. Proposals for an industrial take-over of the whole vehicle will have to be finalized for mid-2002.
Editor's note: Currently, the operational Ariane 5 launchers are produced under prime contractorship of Arianespace with seven primary contractors: Astrium GmbH (upper stages and dual launch structures), Astrium SAS (vehicle equipment bay), Contraves Space (payload fairing), EADS CASA Espacio (payload adapters), EADS Launch Vehicles (core stage and booster stages), Europropulsion (solid propulsion) and Snecma Moteurs (cryogenic propulsion).

Arianespace plans to resume Ariane 5 launches by late January and to launch another Ariane 4 before that according to a new provisional launch manifest posted on the company's website. An Ariane 42L is due to loft India's Insat 3C on January 16 while the next Ariane 5 will loft ESA's 8-ton Envisat polar platform.
Editor's note: Insat 3C was initially due to fly with Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 2 on an Ariane 5 in September but the launch was delayed after Ariane 5 experienced a launch mishap on July 13. Atlantic Bird 2 went alone on an Ariane 44P on September 25.

In the report on its results for the 3rd quarter of 2001, Space Systems/Loral announces that the launch of the Intelsat 903 satellite, expected in late November, has now slipped to early 2002. However, the launch of the long-delayed DirecTV-5 satellite is still due in 2001.
Editor's note: Intelsat 903 was due to fly on a Proton M vehicle and was moved to a Proton K upon request by Intelsat. A swap to an Ariane 4 has been considered with Intelsat 904 moving from Ariane to Proton in case of launch schedule conflicts.

International Launch Systems has asked Space Systems/Loral to deliver its DirecTV-5 satellite before the end of November if it wants it to be launched before the end of the year. The satellite is being checked after a major power loss affected PanAmSat's PAS-7 which is of similar design. The launch of DirecTV-5 has been postponed four times since October 2000 and moved from a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS vehicle to a GKNPTs Khrunichev Proton K/DM-2M launcher in September to cope with conflicting schedules. According to Space News, ILS has warned that it will not move the satellite back to an Atlas launch if it experiences further delays.
Editor's note: DirecTV-5 was initially planned for launch in 1996 as Tempo 1. The last remaining Atlas 2AS launch slot, which was freed by DirecTV-5 in September, has been sold to Space Communications Corp. (SCC) for its Superbird 6 satellite. ILS has no low-cost Atlas 2AS launch opportunities left and can only sell Atlas 3 and Atlas 5 launches as back-up to the Proton flights.

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Editor's note: The Adeos 2 satellite was initially due to fly in 2000 on the last H-2 vehicle but the launch was cancelled in the wake of the H-2 launch failure on November 15, 1999. MT-Sat 1R will replace the MT-Sat 1 satellite lost on that launch.

Delta 4 Heavy Demo Flight Slips to 2003

As expected, the maiden flight of Boeing's largest Delta 4 vehicle will slip from late 2002 into the first quarter 2003, according to Space News. The move was apparently triggered by a decision by Space Systems/Loral, customer for the third Delta 4, to delay the launch of its Estrela do Sul satellite from the third to the fourth quarter of 2002.
Editor's note: Under its initial Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract awarded in 1998, Boeing had to conduct a demonstration flight before the first operational mission, in this case the launch of U.S. Air Force's DSP-23 early warning satellite, currently due in August 2003. As prospects for a commercial payload on this mission did not materialize, the U.S. Department of Defense agreed in October 2000 to pay US$141 million to fund the flight. However, Boeing is still allowed to sell payload capacity to a commercial customer. The Delta 4H vehicle is reportedly able to deliver 13,130 kg of payload into geostationary transfer orbit.

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The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has signed a contract with Eurockot Launch Services for the launch of its Microvariability & Oscillations of STars (MOST) microsatellites on the first Rokot KS mission in October 2002. This 60-kg spacecraft, developed by Dynacon Enterprises Ltd. and built at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), MOST is the first of a new series of science microsatellites to be launched by the CSA.
Editor's note: This launch will demonstrate the modified Breeze KS upper stage and Eurockot's new "Launch a Piggy" commercial service for piggyback payloads on launches for Russian communications and remote sensing satellites.

During ESA's ministerial council meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, France has agreed to invest €40 million in ESA's Italian-led Vega small launcher in order to cover most of the missing budget for its development.
Editor's note: During ESA's previous ministerial council, in 1999, France had withdrawn from the program and almost caused its cancellation, argueing that no actual market existed for the vehicle.

NPO Kosmicheskaya Sviaz has signed an agreement with GKNPTs Khrunichev to buy its Dialog small geostationary communication satellite when it is successfully reaching its final orbit. This "Delivery In Orbit" procurement is a first for NPO-KS which usually had to procure the satellites and launches step by steps through Rosaviakosmos. The Dialog spacecraft, based on Khrunichev's Yakhta bus, will be delivered in low Earth orbit by a Rokot KS launcher and will rely on an onboard xenon propulsion system to raise its orbit.
Editor's note: Two Dialog satellites have reportedly been sold to Intersputnik, and are also scheduled to fly on Rokot KS vehicles in 2003. Khrunichev plans to subcontract the launches to Eurockot Launch Services. Each Dialog satellites will carry 6 to 8 C/Ku transponders.

The investigation on the launch failure of an Orbital Sciences Taurus vehicle on September 21 has identified the cause of the mishap as a stuck actuator in the second stage's thrust vectoring system. The actuator apparently seized up for five seconds after ignition, causing the vehicle to veer off course, before control could be restored.

KT-1
(SSRC)

The first picture of China's new Kaituozhe 1 (KT-1, formerly SLV-1) all-solid launch vehicle was released by Aerospace China and spotted by Go Taikonauts. A model of the vehicle, under development by Space Solid Fuel Rocket Carrier Co. Ltd. (SSRC), was actually on display on behalf of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. (CASIC), in September in Beijing during an exhibition. The maiden flight of the KT-1 is still scheduled for 2002.
Editor's note: The displayed model suggests a 20-m-tall four-stage design based on China's DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missile with two solid upper stages. The 2-m-diameter first stage features four nozzles. SSRC is a consortium including China Machinery & Electronics Engineering Integrated Design Department, China Space Machinery & Electronics (Group) Co., the Space Solid Fuel Rocket Propulsion Technology Research Institute, the Controls & Electronics Technology Research Institute and the Chenguang (Group) Co. Ltd.

U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Program Agency is studying a concept of partly reusable vehicle for quick on-demand launch of small payloads to orbit. The Responsive Access Small Cargo Affordable Launch (Rascal) project would be based on a reusable first stage and an expendable upper stage to loft microsatellites of less than 50-kg in 24 hours for 44k$/kg. ARPA expects to develop a prototype within 4 years.

Japan's Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) has signed a launch agreement with Eurockot Launch Services GmbH to loft the first satellite of the Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System (Servis) atop a Rokot KM vehicle from Plesetsk, Northern Russia, in 2003. The contract was concluded through Eurockot's Asian agent, Mitsui Bussan Aerospace. The 1,000-kg SERVIS-1 spacecraft, under development by Mitsubishi Electric Co. will operate on a 1,000-km-high Sun-synchronous orbit to experiment the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components and technologies in actual space environment on behalf of the JapanÕs Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Organization for New Energy and Industrial Technologies Development (NEDO).
Editor's note: Eurockot has a joint marketing policy with Starsem which was reportedly negotiating for the launch of the two SERVIS missions on Soyuz-Fregat vehicles.

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Editor's note: In order to enable its current military operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. administration has lifted its non-proliferation sanctions on Pakistan in September.

The Russian Armed Forces announce that, by December 4, they will have reached their objective of a nuclear arsenal reduced to 6,000 warheads as required by the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-1) which took effect in December 1994.

U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs awarded a US$283,45-million contract to Lockheed Martin Missile & Space for support to its deployed fleet of Trident 2 (D5) sea-launched ballistic missiles for FY2002.

  
Minuteman 2 and PLV
(U.S. Air Force/LMMS)

In order to comply with the provisions of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-1), Russia has begun the dismantlement of its railborne missile launch systems. A train carrying launch containers and control equipment for RS-22V (SS-24 'Scalpel) intercontinental ballistic missiles has been moved from storage at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, in Northern Russia, to Braynsk for disposal.

Editor's note: According to U.S. sources, North Korea earned US$580 million by selling 250 missiles to Middle East countries during the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s.

A refurbished sea-launched ballistic missile had to be destroyed 52 sec. after launch from the Kodiak Launch Center, Alaska, due to a loss of telemetry. The vehicle, made of two Lockheed Martin Polaris sea-launch ballistic missile stages and a Pratt&Whitney Orbus kick motor, did not veer off course before its flight termination system was initiated. This launch, the first of 20 Strategic Target System (STARS) missions to be conducted from KLC by U.S. Army's Space & Missile Defense Center for the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, was heading southward to simulate the flight of a warhead and accompanying decoys to evaluate discrimination capabilities by ground-based radars in California.
Editor's note: According to local opponents to the STARS program, the launch was conducted under bad weather conditions.

An unarmed Minuteman 3 ballistic missile was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California, toward the Kwajalein Missile Range in Marshall Islands. The missile's dummy warhead hit its target according to the U.S. Air Force. This flight was previously planned as part of a dual launch to be conducted in mid-September. The two launches werepostponed after the terrorists attacks of September 11. Since the objectives of the second launch required the availability of downrange tracking radar which is currently down for maintenance, it will be conducted at a later date.
Editor's note: As part of its new wartime communication policy, the U.S. Air Force no longer provides schedules for its missile and satellite launches.

Russia may revise its position regarding amendments to the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty signed in 1972 between the Soviet union and the United States. In an interview, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that Russia's position was "flexible" and that "a compromise can only be found as a result of very intense negotiations." President Putin is due to meet U.S. president George Walker Bush on November 13-15.

China is preparing a test launch of an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile, presumably a DF-31, from its Wuzhai Missile & Space Center, Shanxi. The launch is due before mid-November according to Russian military diplomatic sources. The DF-31 is reportedly planned to enter operational status in 2002.
Editor's note: Depending on the missile's caharacteristices and the test objectives, the test flight could aim at a target in the Taklimakan desert, in the Xinjiang Uygur (Eastern Turkestan) province or into the Pacific Ocean.

Russian Strategic Missiles Forces (RVSN) and the Russian Space Forces successfully launched a RS-12M 'Topol' intercontinental ballistic missile from Plesetsk, Northen Russia. Its dummy warhead reportedly hit its target at the Kura test range, Kamchatka, some 7,000 km downrange.

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NASA and Rosaviakomos have revised their plans for the launch of STS-108 mission to loft the replacement crew and logistics to the International Space Station. Endeavour's liftoff has been postponed to December 4 in order to enable a spacewalk by the current ISS crew on December 3 to remove a foreign object in the Zvezda module's aft docking bay which prevents hard docking of a Progress M1 resupply ship.
Editor's note: The Progress M1-7 spacecraft is attached to the ISS only by its docking probe. The removal of the 'foreign object' (apparently a cable) will allow effective docking with latches and fluid connections. Unless this 'hard docking' is complete, the ISS will remain in free drift mode and no further rendezvous will be attempted to prevent the Progress ship from breaking loose.

NASA is delaying its next shuttle mission to the International Space Station by at least 24 hours as Rosaviakosmos' latest Progress M1 resupply ship did not dock correctly with the outpost on November 28. The Progress M1-7 spacecraft was successfully launched by a Soyuz FG vehicle on November 26 and docked apparently smoothly two days later. However, complete docking with all latches engaged could not be confirmed. Unless firm docking is completed and checked, no shuttle docking will be allowed with the station, as the stresses induced could break the 7-ton spacecraft loose. The launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-108 mission, due on November 30 has slipped to December 1st at the earliest.

China is likely to conduct the third unmanned test flight of its Shenzhou man-rated vehicle in December according to analysts. Senior officials from the Chinese National Space Administration have announced that the first manned flight is due before 2005 and that plans were being set up for future manned missions to the Moon.
Editor's note: Since no picture have been released from the Shenzhou 2 recovery capsule after its landing in January, a partial failure of this second test flight can be assumed.

ESA's ministerial council has set target dates in 2004 and 2007 respectively to decide the development of experimental systems to demonstrate reusable launch vehicle technologies and to decide the actual development of a full-scale reusable launch system. The 2004 term is also planned to decide the next step of evolutions for both the Ariane 5 and Vega launchers. To prepare for these decisions, a Future Launcher Preparatory Program (FLPP) will be defined from earlier proposals by ESA and national agencies and finalized for a kick-off decision expected in the second quarter of 2002. A two-phase program is foreseen, with a first three-year phase to address the technologies for the development of experimental vehicles beginning by mid-2002.
Editor's note: The Future Launcher Technology Program (FLTP) was approved with a €48-million budget by ESA's last ministerial council in May 1999 in Brussels but could not be implemented due to rivalries between agencies and was discontinued by the Edinburgh Council, with its funds being re-allocated to the preparation of FLPP. Several proposals were drafted for a FLTP-2 program for this council meeting with a tentative €270-million budget request but as no consensus could be reached in time, the budget line was removed from the proposal.

A budget to continue the development of the NASA/Boeing X-37 space maneuvering vehicle demonstrator has reportedly been approved by the U.S. Congress on behalf of the FY2002 budegt for the Space Launch Initiative. This budget would allow to reach the atmospheric drop test phase of the program.
Editor's note: The U.S. Air Force has announced its intent to stop financing its share of the project by the end of FY2002.

ATV on Ariane 5
(EADS-LV)

Editor's note: ESA's share in the ISS program is planned to reach €8 billion over the whole program's life. Canada's own investment amounts to C$1.4 billion from 1984 to 2004.

NASA should slow down its Space Shuttle launch schedule for the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station if it wants to stay within its planned US$8.3-billion budget for 2002-2006 according to the ISS Management & Cost Evaluation (IMCE) task force. In its report to NASA's Advisory Council, the group estimates that the projected budget is "not credible for the core complete baseline without radical reform" and concludes that one flight should be cut in 2003 and 2004 and two flights in 2005 and 2006, to stabilize the launch rate at only four missions per year. The report will be used by NASA to draft its budget recommendations for FY2003.
Editor's note: Under the latest available ISS assembly plan (Revision F, August 2000), 7 shuttle missions to the ISS are due in FY2002, 5 in FY2003, and 6 per year in FY2004-2006. At the proposed launch rate, the ISS assembly, with the current limited crew capabilities, could last through 2008.
Download the IMCE Report

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A modified Ariane 5 Solid Booster Stage was test fired by CNES in Kourou, French Guiana, on behalf of ESA's Ariane 5 R&T Accompaniement (ARTA-5) program in order to qualify upgrades and new sources for various materials and equipment. The 240-t motor delivered up to 6,850 kN of thrust for 125 seconds. Among the major test objectives were the qualification of a new nozzle with less elements - to reduce production costs and cycles - of a redesigned upper segment propellant load with 2.2 ton of additional propellant. The test also qualified Wecco as a U.S.-based secondary source for amonium perchlorate.
Editor's note: The redesigned propellant load, which will allow to loft 200 kg of additional payload to geosynchronous transfer orbit, had already been tested on a previous static firing test on May 16, 2000.

NASA's Stennis Space Center is about to select a contractor to build a new test stand for Rocket-Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) engines. This facility will be available in early 2003.

Brazil's Aerospace Technical Center (CTA) has coducted a static firing test of the 7-t S-43 solid rocket motor used as the first and booster stages of the VLS-1 national launch system. The test, performed at CTA's Coronel Abner propellant plant, qualified modificationson the motor's propellant, thermal protection and liner. The third test flight of the VLS-1 is tentatively scheduled in the second half of 2002

Germany's DLR conducted the qualification vacuum test firing for a modified test bench in Lampoldshausen, Baden-Würtemberg. The P4.2 stand will be used to qualify the modified ignition sequence for the Astrium Aestus engine as part of Arianespace's recovery plan for its Ariane 5 launcher. The stand has been equipped with "damping" propellant tanks in order to test the engine with its actual flight propellant lines.
Editor's note: Some 70 Aestus ignition tests have already been conducted on the stand since August and prior to its modifications.

Small cracks have been reported on a valve in the liquid oxygen turbopump of a Boeing Rocketdyne Space Shuttle Main Engine which flew in July 1999 on Space Shuttle Columbia. Although two similar turbopumps have been mounted on Space Shuttle Endeavour for a liftoff scheduled on November 30, NASA doesn't plan to delay the launch any further as preliminary analysis show that the cracks would have no effect on the engines performance.

HSLV/X-43A
(OSC/NASA)

NASA's Kennedy Space Center plans to purchase 1.9 cu.m of monomethyl-hydrazine from France's Groupe SNPE to serve as a sample for qualification testing. According to a request for offer issued by KSC, the MMH is planned to be produced at Groupe SNPE's Toulouse plant in order to qualify the facility as an alternate source to Arch Chemicals, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is currently NASA's sole domestic source.
Editor's note: Groupe SNPE's facilities in Toulouse (Tolochimie and Isochem) have been closed since the explosion of the AZF (Atofina) fertilizer production plant on September 21. A partial re-start is tentatively planned for early 2002.

Australia's University of Queensland has decided to postpone the second HyShot scramjet demonstrator flight to December at the earliest, after completion of the investigation by the Australian government's Space Licensing & Safety Office (SLASO) on the launch mishap which marred the first flight on October 30. A premiminary report is expected no earlier than November 20. This second flight is due to test a scramjet design developed by Great-Britain's QinetiQ, the former British Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA).
Editor's note: HyShot flights are conducted from the Woomera Rocket Range, Southern Australia, atop Terrier Orion suborbital rockets.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and ATK Thiokol Propulsion have conducted a 123.1-sec. static firing test on a full scale Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) at Thiokol's test site in Promontory, Utah. The Engineering Test Motor-2 (ETM-2) was fired to demonstrate new process, materials, components and designs to be introduced on future flight models. These improvements included a new low temperature O-ring seal in the aft field joint, an asbestos-free nozzle flexible boot, a new adhesive to bond metal and phenolic parts, environmentally friendly solvents, a new nozzle ablative insulation, carbon fiber rope thermal barriers in three of the six nozzle joints and a modified bolted assembly design on the No.5 nozzle joint.
Editor's note: Failure of the aft O-ring seal after launch at very low external temperature was the main cause of the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger, 73 sec. after liftoff for mission 51-L on January 28, 1986.

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Despite overoptimistic reports by Russian press agencies, no final decision has been made by European space ministers during their two-day meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, regarding the possibility to operate Soyuz launchers from Kourou, French Guiana. In an unanimously-approved resolution cobering numerous topics, they asked ESA to design a plan of action - including legal provisions - to prepare for the possible opening of the Guiana Space Center to foreign launch systems, based on evaluations by the Ariane Launcher Program Board. This plan will serve as a basis for a final decision whether or not to allow the launches of Soyuz vehicles from the site to be taken by ESA's Council at an unspecified date.
Editor's note: If launched from Kourou, Soyuz vehicles would have to be operated and marketed by Arianespace.

ESA, CNES, Arianespace and ELV, the joint-venture of the Italian Space Agency and FiatAvio, have selected the deactivated ELA-1 launch pad of the Guiana Space Center as the future launch site for the Vega small launch vehicle. A new launch pad will be designed to reuse the existing concrete structure and flame ducts. However, a new control room will be set up within the current CDL-3 operational center used for Ariane 5 as the deactivated CDL-1 is far too damaged to be refurbished.
Editor's note: ELA-1 was initially built in the early 1970s as the ELE, or Europa Launch Facility, for the Europa 2 launcher. After one failed flight in November 1971, it was deactivated in 1972 and refurbished a few years later as ELA-1 for the Ariane 1, 2 and 3 launchers. Twenty-six Ariane flights were conducted from there between December 1979 and July 1989.

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Kvaerner AS, a 20% sherholder in Sea Launch Co., has agreed to merge its Oil & Gas business with its main rival Aker Maritime and increase its capital in order to avoid bankuptcy. Following the NOK 3.6-billion (US$400-million) transaction, Aker will own about 50% of Kvaerner's capital.
Editor's note: Aker already owns 24.9% of Kvaerner. An Anglo-Norwegian shipbuilder, Kvaerner has reportedly been trying to sell its share of Sea Launch since 1999.

Snecma and Groupe SNPE have resumed their talks regarding the merger of their solid propulsion activities and the incorporation of the Herakles joint-venture. According to French daily trade newspaper La Tribune, the two French state-owned groups are due to propose a revised timetable to the French Ministry of Defense in early December. A final agreement could be signed in early 2002 with a retroactive effect on January 1st. At first, Herakles would be a holding company with shares of two subsidiaries, one of Snecma and one of Groupe SNPE.
Editor's note: The merger could be eased by the delay of Snecma's privatization in the wake of the ongoing crisis in the airline business.

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Despite the ongoing crisis in civilian air transport, AirTV Inc. is still optimistic it can raise the US$1 billion it still needs to launch and operate its satellite-based in-flight entertainment system before 2004. Total cost of the project reportdely amounts to US$1.4 billion.
Editor's note: AirTV is partnering with Alcatel Space, which is due to provide four Spacebus 3100B3 class geostationary satellites, and Arianespace, which holds launch reservations to loft them.

NASA has selected the 'New Horizons' concept developed by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as baseline for its proposed mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. SwRI's team, including John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL), Stanford University, Ball Aerospace Corp., and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will proceed with preliminary design studies. A US$30-million budget for the mission has been allocated to the mission for FY2002. To proceed into 2003, the mission will have to undergo a NASA 'confirmation review' and be awarded additional funding by the U.S. Congress. The launch is tentatively set for January 2006 with an arrival at Pluto in 2014 or 2018 depending on the launch vehicle.
Editor's note: Wide concern has been raised upon the future of this mission which was revived by the U.S. Congress in NASA's FY2002 budget but is still opposed by senior officials at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget who consider that the Pluto mission and an orbiter to Jupiter's moon Europa cannot be conducted both within NASA's current budget. Pluto was at perihelion in 1999 and while it is now rushing back into deep space its tiny atmosphere is freezing. There will be no other opportunity to study it for more than two centuries. NASA's newly appointed administrator is the current head of the OMB.

PanAmSat Corp. has exercised its options on two small geostationary satellites it had ordered from Orbital Sciences in March. Galaxy 5R and Galaxy 1RR, each carrying 24 C-band transponders, are due to replace Galaxy 5 and Galaxy 1R2. The first launch is set for the fourth quarter of 2003.
Editor's note: Launches for the two satellites have already been ordered by OSC from Arianespace in June, under the designations PAS-Light 2 and 3. Both will fly on Ariane 5 vehicles.

Orbital Sciences Corp. has completed the technology and system review for the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) vehicle it is developing for NASA with Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. NASA, which awarded a US$47.15-million contract to OSC under its Space Launch Initiative program, has allowed the contractor to proceed with actual manufacturing of the demonstrator.
Editor's note: DART will be launched in 2004 onboard a Pegasus vehicle to conduct a series of rendezvous maneuvers with an orbiting satellite using technologies previously developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and tested in 1997 onboard the Space Shuttle.

Rascom, the Regional African Satellite Communication organization has reportedly raised most of the US$180-million budget for its satellite project. A firm procurement contract is expected in January with Alcatel Space.

U.S. Air Force's Space & Missile Systems Center has awarded a joint US$2,698-million contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space and TRW Space & Electronics to develop its Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communication satellite system. The contract includes the manufacturing of two satellites. The 10-year contract will be shared 55% to TRW (payload integrator) and 45% to Lockheed Martin (spacecraft prime).
Editor's note: AEHF satellites (a.k.a. Milstar 3 or Advanced Wideband Satellites/AWS) will be designed to provide secure and survivable communication links to U.S. military forces during all levels of conflict and will form the protected backbone of the U.S. Department of Defense's military satellite communication architecture. First launch is tentatively due in 2006.

Niue, a 1,600-inhabitant microstate in the Pacific Ocean, is reportedly planning to back a U$300-million satellite project by an unidentified group of U.S. investors for a transpacific communication satellite to be launched in 2005/2006. Niue would receive a 35% fee on the profits.

The capacity available on the insurance market to cover space launches will shrink significantly in 2002 as a result of major losse in 2000 and 2001 as well as e reaction of the international crisis. In 2001, the space insurance sector expects to collect some US$500 million of premiums and pay some US$800 million in claims, mostly for in-orbit satellite failures. The terrorist attacks of September 11 had a tremendous effect on the insurance and re-insurance market with some re-insurers reportedly becoming unable to cover their claims. According to major space insurance brokers, tough negotiations are underway to renew the insurance capacities for 2002, as the current agreements will expire on December 31. Some players are likely to reduce their capacity while others will simply withdraw. In parallel, premium rates are on the rise.
Editor's note: The current capacity theoratically available per launch is just above US$1 billion. Most of the commercial launches planned in 2002 are already covered.

SES Global, the newly-formed largest satellite operator in the world, has announced that it will consolidate its satellite fleet by cancelling several redundant procurements. Two GE satellites (GE-3E and GE-4E) ordered to Alcatel Space by GE Americom for a European coverage will be the first casualties as SES-Astra already has sufficient capacity over Europe. Several other satellites and their related launches are being considered for cancellation.

Editor's note: Actually, GE-3E and 4E have not been included in the new fleet listing provided by SES-Americom. Neither has the Lockheed Martin-built GE-9.

SES Global, the new holding of Luxembourg-based Société Européenne des Satellites, has completed the US$4.3-billion acquisition of GE American Communications. The resulting group now owns interests in 41 satellites forming the largest fleet in the world.

Editor's note: SES Global holds three firm launch contracts with Arianespace (for 2 Astra and one AMC satellites), five with International Launch Services (one AMC on Atlas and 3 on Proton, Astra 1K on Proton). One more Astra is due to fly on Ariane on behalf of Boeing Satellite Systems. Two AMC satellites are contracted through Alcatel Space and two more through Lockheed Martin for launches on Proton vehicles. Asiasat has one launch contracted on Atlas 3.

Thailand's Shin Satellite is reportedly looking for bank loans to fund US$250 million out of the US$350 million it needs to complete and launch its iPStar broadband communication satellite. Shin officials expect the loans to be finalized within 6 months in order to allow the 6-ton, Space Systems/Loral-built satellite to be launched in 2003.
Editor's note: Arianespace's Ariane 5 and Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 are reportedly competing for the launch.

ICO satellite
(Boeing Satellite)

U.S. Air Force's Space & Missile Systems Center (SMC) has awarded a US$50-million increase to its contract with the Team Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment (SBL-IFX) joint-venture to cover the initial phase of the third increment in the SBL-IFX project, to run from December 2001 through April 2002. This phase will include risk reduction testing in the areas of laser, beam control and beam direction, as well as long lead procurement and first release of the payload specification for the IFX demonstrator, due for launch circa 2013.
Editor's note: The Team SBL joint-venture members are Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW. The SBL-IFX program is expected to cost about US$3 billion through completion.

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The European Space Agency has released the amount of the budgets approved by its ministerial council meeting in Edinburgh on November 14-15. In addition to a €1,556.76-million budget for space transportation (see details below), the ministers have awarded €527.87 million to the Galileo global navigation system and €82.9 million to the Global Monitoring for Environment & Security (GMES) network.
The science programs did not get their expected increase with a budget limited to €1,869 million through 2006 which may result in the cancellation of one long-term Cornerstone mission. A limited investement was also decided for future Earth Observation systems, the Earth Explorer envelope program receiving only €926.44 million instead of €1.7 billion and should lead to several delays and downgrades in the deployment of environment monitoring satellite systems.
A budget worth €1,025 million was approved for the European contribution to the International Space Station. However, the ministers decided to freeze 60% of this budget from 2003 on unless the situation of NASA's funding is clarified. A resolution was voted to ask the United States to respect their previous engagements on the program.
Among the other programs to get support were a large geosatellite bus demonstrator (€133.85 million), the InfoTerra/TerraSAR remote sensing system and the Fuegosat fire detection system (€9 million). An attempt to get a €75 million European funding for Italy's Cosmo/Skymed radar satellites program did not succeed.

Editor's note: The European Union Transportation ministers are due to meet on December 7 to approve another €500-million budget for Galileo which shall give the program its actual kick-off.

ESA's ministerial council meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, closed with only €8 billion comitted by the delegations instead of the €10 billion which were requested by the agency. The detail of contributions has not been released yet but the Science and Manned Spaceflight programs appear to have not obtained the expected level of resources. The third phase of Ariane 5 Plus program, with the development of the Ariane 5ECB version featuring the ESC-B cryogenic upper stage and its Vinci restartable engine, was fully approved, as well as most of the funding support to the launch site activities. Other major approved programs include two partnership with the European Union: the Global Monitoring for Environment & Security (GMES) network and the Galileo global positioning system.

Ministerial delegations from ESA's 15 member countries have gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland, to discuss budgets and orientations for future European space programs o November 14-15. ESA's executives will present the delegations with proposals for some €10 billion worth of investment. Among the major space-related topics will be the third and final step of the Ariane 5 Plus program with the development of the Ariane 5ECB version featuring the ESC-B cryogenic upper stage and its Vinci restartable engine, designed to loft 12 tons of paylods to geostationary transfer orbit. Two programs, "Infrastructures" and "CSG", are planned to cover the fixed costs of operating the Guiana Space Center in order to lower the price paid per launch by Arianespace from €12 million to €3 million and bring it closer to the fees charged to U.S. launch providers for the use of U.S. Air Force launch facilities (about US$1.5 million per launch). Decisions on a revived Future Launcher Technology Program have been delayed beyond the current meeting as ESA and the national agencies have not been able to define a precise program in due times.

Editor's note: The delegations will also discuss the possibility to establish a launch facility for Soyuz vehicles in French Guiana. A political statement is expected on the topic but no formal decision is likely to be taken before mid-2002.

Editor's note: The flight of an Indian astronaut and of Indian experiments onboard the International Space Station are likely, as well as a closer cooperation on Earth observation and sciences.

A U.S. presidential commission is about to propose to move the U.S. agencies in charge of military satellite remote sensing, namely the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency and the National Imagery & Mapping Agency, under control of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in order to reduce bureaucracy and consolidate complementary capabilities.
Editor's note: The yearly budget for NRO, NSA and NIMA amounts to about US$15 billion, more than four times that of CIA, which is estimated at US$3.5 billion. CIA has been operating its own electronic intelligence satellites (Rhyolite, Aquacade, Magnum, Orion and Mentor) since 1970.

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