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2008 In Spaceflight
The year 2008 contained several significant events in spaceflight, including the first flyby of Mercury (planet), Mercury by a spacecraft since 1975, the discovery of Ice, water ice on Mars by the Phoenix (spacecraft), Phoenix spacecraft, which landed in May, the first China, Chinese spacewalk in September, the launch of the first Indian Moon, Lunar exploration of the Moon, probe in October, and the first successful flight of a privately developed orbital launch vehicle by SpaceX's Falcon 1. Overview The internationally accepted definition of a spaceflight is any flight which crosses the Kármán line, 100 kilometres above sea level. The first recorded spaceflight launch of the year occurred on 11 January, when a Black Brant (rocket), Black Brant was launched on a suborbital trajectory from White Sands Missile Range, White Sands, with the LIDOS ultraviolet astronomy payload. This was followed by the first orbital launch of the year on 15 January, by a Sea Launch Zenit-3S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automated Transfer Vehicle
The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit five times, exclusively by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. It effectively was a larger European counterpart to the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft for carrying upmass to a single destination—the International Space Station (ISS)—but with three times the capacity. The five ATVs were named after important European figures in science and engineering: '' Jules Verne'', '' Johannes Kepler'', ''Edoardo Amaldi'', ''Albert Einstein'', and ''Georges Lemaître''. Following several delays to the program, the first of these was launched in March 2008. These ATVs performed supply missions to the ISS, transporting various payloads such as propellant, water, air, food, and scientific research equipment; ATVs also reboosted the station into a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of Australia). The Moon is a planetary-mass object with a differentiated rocky body, making it a satellite planet under the geophysical definitions of the term and larger than all known dwarf planets of the Solar System. It lacks any significant atmosphere, hydrosphere, or magnetic field. Its surface gravity is about one-sixth of Earth's at , with Jupiter's moon Io being the only satellite in the Solar System known to have a higher surface gravity and density. The Moon orbits Earth at an average distance of , or about 30 times Earth's diameter. Its gravitational influence is the main driver of Earth's tides and very slowly lengthens Earth's day. The Moon's orbit around Earth has a sidereal period of 27.3 days. During each synodic period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falcon 1 Flight 4 Liftoff
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broad wing. This makes flying easier while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults. The falcons are the largest genus in the Falconinae subfamily of Falconidae, which itself also includes another subfamily comprising caracaras and a few other species. All these birds kill with their beaks, using a tomial "tooth" on the side of their beaks—unlike the hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey in the Accipitridae, which use their feet. The largest falcon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thuraya 3
Thuraya ( ar, الثريا, Gulf Arabic pron.: ; from the Arabic name for the constellation of the Pleiades, ''Thurayya'') is a United Arab Emirates-based regional mobile-satellite service (MSS) provider. The company operates two geosynchronous satellites and provides telecommunications coverage in more than 161 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia. Thuraya's L-band network delivers voice and data services. Thuraya is the mobile satellite services subsidiary of Yahsat, a global satellite operator based in the United Arab Emirates, fully owned by Mubadala Investment Company. The geostationary nature of the service implies high round trip times from satellite to earth leading to a noticeable lag being present during voice calls. Services * Voice communications with satellite phones or fixed terminals * Short message service * 60 kbit/s downlink and 15 kbit/s uplink "GMPRS" mobile data service on Thuraya satellite phones * 444 kbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zenit-3SL
The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau. RKK Energia produces the Block DM-SL upper stage, whilst the payload fairing is produced by Boeing. Launches are conducted from the Ocean Odyssey platform anchored on the equator in the Pacific Ocean, at a point with 154°W longitude, about 370 kilometres east of Kiritimati. The Zenit-3SL design began in the late 1980s as the Zenit-3, a proposed replacement for the Proton-K, which would have used a Zenit-2 rocket with a Block D upper stage. This proposal was shelved after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as Russia inherited the space programme, however the Zenit was manufactured in Ukrainian SSR. Boeing became involved in the programme in 1994. The design was subsequently modified, with a modified version of the Block DM r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Launch
Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit-3SL rockets from a former mobile/floating oil drilling rig renamed ''Odyssey''. By 2014, it had assembled and launched thirty-two rockets, with an additional three failures and one partial failure. All commercial payloads were communications satellites intended for geostationary transfer orbit with such customers as EchoStar, DirecTV, XM Satellite Radio, PanAmSat, and Thuraya. The approach Sea Launch LLC used was to assemble the launcher on a purpose-built ship ''Sea Launch Commander'' in Nimitz Rd., Long Beach, California, USA. The assembled spacecraft was then positioned on top of the self-propelled ''Odyssey'' floating launch platform and moved to the equatorial Pacific Ocean for launc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultraviolet Astronomy
Ultraviolet astronomy is the observation of electromagnetic radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths between approximately 10 and 320 nanometres; shorter wavelengths—higher energy photons—are studied by X-ray astronomy and gamma-ray astronomy. Ultraviolet light is not visible to the human eye. Most of the light at these wavelengths is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so observations at these wavelengths must be performed from the upper atmosphere or from space. Overview Ultraviolet line spectrum measurements (spectroscopy) are used to discern the chemical composition, densities, and temperatures of the interstellar medium, and the temperature and composition of hot young stars. UV observations can also provide essential information about the evolution of galaxies. They can be used to discern the presence of a hot white dwarf or main sequence companion in orbit around a cooler star. The ultraviolet universe looks quite different from the familiar stars and galaxies s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LIDOS
Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MNC Corporation Europe * Lido (Belgrade), a river beach on the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia * Lidö, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden * Lido di Venezia, an 11-kilometre-long sandbar near Venice, Italy * , a restaurant chain in Latvia founded by Gunārs Ķirsons * Ruislip Lido, a reservoir and artificial beach in Ruislip, London, UK. North America * Di Lido Island, a neighborhood of the South Beach district of Miami Beach, Florida * Lido Isle, Newport Beach, a man-made island, located in the harbor of Newport Beach, California * Lido Key, a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida Oceania * Lido, Papua New Guinea, a village Music * Lido (musician), Norwegian producer * ''Lido'' (Clearlake album), 2001 * ''Lido'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National Park is located within the range. Significant events *The first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) was test detonated at Trinity Site near the northern boundary of the range on 16 July 1945, seven days after the White Sands Proving Ground was established. *After the conclusion of World War II, 100 long-range German V-2 rockets that were captured by U.S. military troops were brought to WSMR. Of these, 67 were test-fired between 1946 and 1951 from the White Sands V-2 Launching Site. (This was followed by the testing of American rockets, which continues to this day, along with testing other technologies.) *NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrop Strip at WSMR on 30 March 1982 as the conclusion to mission STS-3. This was the only ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suborbital
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital revolution (it does not become an artificial satellite) or reach escape velocity. For example, the path of an object launched from Earth that reaches the Kármán line (at ) above sea level), and then falls back to Earth, is considered a sub-orbital spaceflight. Some sub-orbital flights have been undertaken to test spacecraft and launch vehicles later intended for orbital spaceflight. Other vehicles are specifically designed only for sub-orbital flight; examples include crewed vehicles, such as the X-15 and SpaceShipOne, and uncrewed ones, such as ICBMs and sounding rockets. Flights which attain sufficient velocity to go into low Earth orbit, and then de-orbit before completing their first full orbit, are not considered sub-orbital. Exam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Brant (rocket)
The Black Brant is a family of Canadian-designed sounding rockets originally built by Bristol Aerospace, since absorbed by Magellan Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over 800 Black Brants of various versions have been launched since they were first produced in 1961, and the type remains one of the most popular sounding rockets. They have been repeatedly used by the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. History Black Brant was the result of research at Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) during the 1950s into the nature of the upper part of the atmosphere as part of ongoing research into anti-ballistic missile systems and very-long-range communication. In 1957 CARDE contracted Bristol to produce a simple rocket fuselage, called the Propulsion Test Vehicle, for studies into high-power solid fuels. The resulting design, by Albert Fia, was quite heavy, as it was designed to be able to accommodate a wide variety of engine burning times, propellant loadings and la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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