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Upcoming Conferences & Events
10 - 12 Jun 2008 - San Diego, CA
26th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC) More info > See Complete List » industry headlines
After a ten-month journey, the Mars Phoenix Lander is scheduled to touch down near the red planet's north pole 25 May. If successful, the probe will be the first lander to reach a Martian pole and the first to actually touch the planet's water ice. Scientists are anxiously counting the minutes to touch-down as the Phoenix is much more challenging than other lander missions. The spacecraft must land upright on three slender legs instead of being cushioned by giant air bags, and must be slowed in the final 18 seconds above the surface by downward-facing jets that, if they function properly, will fire automatically. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL)
Boeing has announced that the U.S. Air Force placed the first Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite into operation over the Pacific region on 16 April, following satellite and ground systems tests. WGS has the capacity to transmit information at rates of more than three gigabits per second. During operational testing, the government successfully transmitted a record-breaking 440 megabits-per-second communications test signal through the satellite. WGS-1 was launched 10 Oct., 2007, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, FL, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle. (Image Credit: www.spacewar.com)
The seven-member STS-124 crew participated Friday in a launch dress rehearsal at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Part of the three-day terminal countdown demonstration test, the rehearsal required the astronauts to be fully suited for liftoff as they simulated the final hours of the countdown. They concluded the rehearsal by practicing an emergency escape from Launch Pad 39A. The astronauts returned to their home base at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Friday afternoon. They'll return to Kennedy a few days before their scheduled launch aboard space shuttle Discovery, targeted for 31 May. (Image Credit: NASA)
General Electric is joining with NASA to revive studies of its long-abandoned GE36 unducted fan, or 'open rotor,' and is also launching a next-generation CF34 technology effort to develop families of fuel-saving engines. The move is part of a strategy that could lead to both open-rotor and advanced conventional turbofan demonstrators in the latter part of next decade. GE’s work with NASA is "a Space Act agreement" that covers studies of the open rotor concept, which offers the potential for up to 30 percent lower fuel burn compared with current engines. (Image Credit: NASA)
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