The Cosmic Mirror

of News events across the Universe

Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer, Skyweek - older "Mirrors" in the Archive - and find out what the future might bring!

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Current mission news: MGS (science!) + Cassini + Galileo + Prospector

The next MEPCO is coming ... to Bulgaria, in early August, 1999!
For details on this astronomical conference just before the total solar eclipse click here!

Update # 109 of October 30th, 1998, at 22:00 UTC

Ariane 5, DS 1, STS-95: All are up!
What a month for spaceflight: On October 21st, the third and final qualification flight of the Ariane 5 rocket was a full success, on October 24th the first New Millennium mission Deep Space 1 went on its journey to an asteroid, and on October 29th a long hiatus of space shuttle flights ended - with the most anticipated (and hyped) launch since STS-26 ten years ago...
The next launches, anywhere in the world.

Ariane 5 now ready to take paying customers
After blowing it 1 1/2 times, everything worked this time: The first Ariane 5 had been lost only seconds after liftoff, the second one shut down too early and reached a wrong orbit - but "Ariane 503" performed flawlessly. First the powerful European rocket released an experimental reentry capsule that made a soft ocean touchdown Apollo-style after a suborbital flight. And then a dummy satellite was put into a geostationary transfer orbit - with convincing accuracy: perigee 1027 km (target: 1027 km), apogee 35863 km (target: 35898 km), inclination 6.999 degrees (target: 6.998 degrees). This performance should convince commercial customers to book their satellites on the 5 - and if there's another failure they will even get a free 2nd launch.
Ariane 503 Homepage
Arianespace News, pictures from the flight, a report, and Germany's reaction.

Deep Space 1: High risk, high payoff, some science
This is not a mission about science but one about testing new technologies - twelve of them, actually - for future science craft. Deep Space One, the first 'New Millennium" mission, could even be called a success if it wouldn't return any science data - but then again, why waste a whole spacecraft for tests? And so DS 1, with its ion engine (never before used in 'deep space'), concentrator solar arrays and autonomous navigation and decision-making capabilities, will in the end be directed towards an asteroid (the nameless 1992 KD)next July and perhaps even to two comets in 2001.
The main activities of the mission take place in the first few weeks and months, however: The initial focus is on the ion propulsion system, followed by the first tests of the spacecraft's camera (perhaps an image of the Earth and the Moon will be taken). Then the autonomous navigation system will be validated - and if everything works, DS 1 will be allowed to find out where it is and change its course on its own. About 6 weeks after launch a long burn of the ion engine should set DS 1 on its track to 1992 KD.

DS 1 Homepage, spacecraft info, DLR's role.
News from the mission, the status of October 24, 25 and 28, a collection of stories.
Reports by CNN (# 1, # 2), BBC ( # 1, # 2) and ABC.

Onboard of the same Delta 2 rocket that launched Deep Space 1, there was also a small student-build satellite: SEDSAT 1. It seems to work - and will deliver color images of the Earth directly to the WWW, for everyone to see.
Homepage

Mission STS-95: It's (also) about astronomy!
So you thought that shuttle mission STS-95 is mainly about sending an old senator into space, for whatever reason? Wrong: This shuttle flight has a lot of different objectives, and while studies related to aging were part of the original plan, there was never need for a 77-year old. And the more visible aspects of the mission don't deal with life sciences at all: There are several astronomical telescopes on board, both mounted on the SPARTAN freeflyer and in the payload bay. And there is even a little (German) experiment (CODAG) in a GAS canister that will simulate the basic processes of planetary formation in the very early solar system.
With several 100 000 watching, lift-off had come 19 minutes late (mostly because of aircraft straying into the restricted area) - and it wasn't as picture-perfect as it looked. When the main engines fired up, the door of the drag chute that helps the orbiter slow down after landing fell off and bounced off one of the engines. It's not clear whether the parachute has survived the launch, and NASA says it's not essential anyway - but that something can fall off the orbiter at all is remarkable enough. By a strange coincidence the reentry system of John Glenn's first spacecraft 'Freedom 7' had also caused trouble (although the alarm about a defective heat shield later turned out to be erroneous)...

Special Coverage e.g. from CNN, the Tucson Citizen and ASTRONET.
Lauch reports: SpaceViews, CNN, BBC and ABC; 1st day reports from CNN and ABC; Interviews by PBS.
STS-95 Astronomy, SPARTAN, CODAG and aerogel experiments; more on the science from the DLR, ABC and CNN.

In several Nutshells: SOHO almost back: Only one instruments remains to be reactivated, according to the Recovery Updates. Great joy greeted the first EIT images, and there are now new corona views every day. / Is ROSAT dead? The German X-ray satellite - 8 years old - has a severely degraded attitude control, and on Sept. 20 the satellite accidentally pointed directly towards the sun. Since then the only remaining detector HRI hasn't produced any useful astronomical images, according to the ROSAT News # 66. But the satellite hasn't been given up for good yet.

New spectacular images from ISO have been released at a major conference, report the ISO News: Among the many results are IR views of the Andromeda galaxy, gravitational arcs and a ring of organic matter around a star. / Triana is coming: NASA has selected the Scripps Institution to build this controversial "GoreSat". The claim is that future Earth observing satellites will also go to the L1 point and that thus Triana is a real pathfinder...

Among the crew members of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 1999 will be German astronaut G. Thiele, DLR reports. / An Austrian amateur astronomer has discovered a (faint) comet: Here is the ephemeris of C/1998 U3 (Jaeger) - the CBAT is still misspelling the name... / With the 60th anniversary of the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast coming up, there are rumors about the detection of a SETI signal - probably a hoax. Learn more from the BBC, the original claims, a sharp rebuttal from a Boston astronomer, and general comments from Project Phoenix. ASTRONET is also covering the strange story.

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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
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Ariane 5, DS 1, STS-95: All are up! What a month for spaceflight: On October 21st, the third and final qualification flight of the Ariane 5 rocket was a full success, on October 24th the first New Millennium mission Deep Space 1 went on its journey to an asteroid, and on October 29th a long hiatus of space shuttle flights ended - with the most anticipated (and hyped) launch since STS-26 ten years ago...	The next launches, anywhere in the world.
Ariane 5 now ready to take paying customers After blowing it 1 1/2 times, everything worked this time: The first Ariane 5 had been lost only seconds after liftoff, the second one shut down too early and reached a wrong orbit - but "Ariane 503" performed flawlessly. First the powerful European rocket released an experimental reentry capsule that made a soft ocean touchdown Apollo-style after a suborbital flight. And then a dummy satellite was put into a geostationary transfer orbit - with convincing accuracy: perigee 1027 km (target: 1027 km), apogee 35863 km (target: 35898 km), inclination 6.999 degrees (target: 6.998 degrees). This performance should convince commercial customers to book their satellites on the 5 - and if there's another failure they will even get a free 2nd launch.	Ariane 503 Homepage Arianespace News, pictures from the flight, a report, and Germany's reaction.
Deep Space 1: High risk, high payoff, some science This is not a mission about science but one about testing new technologies - twelve of them, actually - for future science craft. Deep Space One, the first 'New Millennium" mission, could even be called a success if it wouldn't return any science data - but then again, why waste a whole spacecraft for tests? And so DS 1, with its ion engine (never before used in 'deep space'), concentrator solar arrays and autonomous navigation and decision-making capabilities, will in the end be directed towards an asteroid (the nameless 1992 KD)next July and perhaps even to two comets in 2001. The main activities of the mission take place in the first few weeks and months, however: The initial focus is on the ion propulsion system, followed by the first tests of the spacecraft's camera (perhaps an image of the Earth and the Moon will be taken). Then the autonomous navigation system will be validated - and if everything works, DS 1 will be allowed to find out where it is and change its course on its own. About 6 weeks after launch a long burn of the ion engine should set DS 1 on its track to 1992 KD.	DS 1 Homepage, spacecraft info, DLR's role. News from the mission, the status of October 24, 25 and 28, a collection of stories. Reports by CNN (# 1, # 2), BBC ( # 1, # 2) and ABC.
Onboard of the same Delta 2 rocket that launched Deep Space 1, there was also a small student-build satellite: SEDSAT 1. It seems to work - and will deliver color images of the Earth directly to the WWW, for everyone to see.	Homepage
Mission STS-95: It's (also) about astronomy! So you thought that shuttle mission STS-95 is mainly about sending an old senator into space, for whatever reason? Wrong: This shuttle flight has a lot of different objectives, and while studies related to aging were part of the original plan, there was never need for a 77-year old. And the more visible aspects of the mission don't deal with life sciences at all: There are several astronomical telescopes on board, both mounted on the SPARTAN freeflyer and in the payload bay. And there is even a little (German) experiment (CODAG) in a GAS canister that will simulate the basic processes of planetary formation in the very early solar system. With several 100 000 watching, lift-off had come 19 minutes late (mostly because of aircraft straying into the restricted area) - and it wasn't as picture-perfect as it looked. When the main engines fired up, the door of the drag chute that helps the orbiter slow down after landing fell off and bounced off one of the engines. It's not clear whether the parachute has survived the launch, and NASA says it's not essential anyway - but that something can fall off the orbiter at all is remarkable enough. By a strange coincidence the reentry system of John Glenn's first spacecraft 'Freedom 7' had also caused trouble (although the alarm about a defective heat shield later turned out to be erroneous)...	Special Coverage e.g. from CNN, the Tucson Citizen and ASTRONET. Lauch reports: SpaceViews, CNN, BBC and ABC; 1st day reports from CNN and ABC; Interviews by PBS. STS-95 Astronomy, SPARTAN, CODAG and aerogel experiments; more on the science from the DLR, ABC and CNN.