Russian facility at Kourou to be delayed

AFP The first launches by the veteran Russian rocket Soyuz and a new light rocket called Vega from Europe's space base will be postponed to 2010, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday.

They had been scheduled to take place by the end of the year.

A workhorse of space, Soyuz is being added to ESA's launch pad at Kourou, French Guiana, to provide the agency with operational flexibility, to cope with medium-level payloads while the Ariane 5 rocket takes care of heavy payloads.

ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain told reporters at the Paris Air Show that there were delays in a Russian-made mobile gantry that will be added to the launch pad.

"The mobile gantry should have been integrated now, meaning that the first launch of Soyuz from French Guiana will take place now in the first weeks of 2010 instead of the end of 2009," Dordain said.

Soyuz until now has only been launched from Plesetsk, northern Russia, and from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, and has not used a gantry for support.

The version that will be used in Kourou will be a "Soyuz 2", able to hoist three tonnes into geostationary orbit, compared to 1.7 tonnes that can be launched from Baikonur.

Meanwhile, Dordain added there were delays in completing the testing of a new light rocket called Vega that will be the third component of the flexible launcher strategy.

Vega, with a payload capacity of 1.5 tonnes, is to be deployed from the launchpad of the old Ariane-1 rocket. ESA had hoped to have the rocket take its maiden flight by the end of 2009.

Details HERE.

Europe expects busy year in space

Jonathan Amos, BBC News

Europe will launch two flagship space telescopes this year, and three satellites that will acquire key data about ice, gravity and soils on Earth.

European Space Agency boss Jean-Jacques Dordain set out his priorities for 2009 at a Paris briefing on Wednesday.

He said 2008's successes, which saw the Columbus science lab attached to the space station, were "exceptional".

"Last year was really an outstanding vintage," he added. "But there'll be no breathing space going forward."

Esa activity this year will witness the recruitment of new astronauts and the start of Soyuz launches from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana.

The Soyuz initiative has required considerable investment at Kourou, to construct facilities that are a facsimile of those at the Russian rocket's traditional home of Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

IMAGE BBC NEWS: If all goes according to plan,
2009 will see the maiden launch of VEGA

Read more HERE.

Soyuz: The Russian rocket will start launching from Europe's Kourou spaceport. Because rockets launched close to the equator get a favourable "kick" from the Earth's rotation, Soyuz at Kourou will have increased capacity. In 2010, Soyuz will start launching operational Galileo satellites.

Vega: This is Europe's newest rocket. It is currently scheduled to make its maiden flight from Kourou in December. Vega will be used for smaller payloads that have struggled recently to find an available launcher. Vega is part of Europe's policy of having "guaranteed access" to space.

Frank De Winne: The Belgian astronaut will become the first European commander of the International Space Station. He will launch to the orbiting platform on a Soyuz in May. His tour of duty will last roughly six months. He will have a five-person crew under his charge.

ESA Vega small SRB launcher milestone

Zefrio 23 second stage solid test nominal

On Thursday, a static test of the second stage motor for Vega - ESA's new two stage launcher - was successfully completed at the Salto Di Quirra Inter-force Test Range in Sardinia.

Ignition of the "qualification model" of the solid-propellant rocket motor occurred at 12:15 UT.

ESA reported, "in just 14 seconds, the thrust reached the equivalent to nearly 95 tonnes of force."

This was the second and final firing test for the Zefiro 23, in which over 24 tonnes of propellant was consumed with a flame temperature of over 3000 K. The burn lasted approximately 75 seconds and initial results show the test to be a success.

The combustion chamber pressure and motor thrust were well within the test prediction. Large amplitude movements of the thrust vector control system were executed - simulating worst-case manoeuvres - and the performance was very satisfactory. Additionally, modifications implemented in the nozzle design following the anomaly experienced during the previous Zefiro 9 test were proven to be effective.

"The success of this test demonstrates the soundness of the design and rewards the enormous efforts of the team that has worked on the project," stated Francesco Betti, Head of the Design Department at Avio's Space Division.

The motor will now be transported back to Avio's facility at Colleferro for a thorough inspection of all its components and the data obtained from the 400 sensors deployed during the test will be analysed in more detail.

"The project team will rendezvous at Salto Di Quirra in June for the Zefiro 9 firing test," announced Paolo Bellomi, Technical Director of ELV, the Vega launcher prime contractor.

In the past 27 months, four Vega test firings have taken place at Salto Di Quirra, each one a milestone in the development of the Vega launcher. The Zefiro 23 is the second Vega solid rocket motor to achieve qualification, following the P80 first stage motor, which completed qualification testing in December 2007.

Of course, the Vega small launcher, utilizing upper stage solids for the first time, was expected to be in service, launching from Kourou by this time. Nevertheless, ESA continues, as do European aircraft concerns in full competition with Boeing.

And with Vega launching from Kourou, eventually in competition with SeaLaunch and other equatorial and high inclination launch systems - including those of American private launch companies, aided and unaided by NASA, and Russia as well.

Boeing's victories with 787 commercial Dreamliner sales, preferred over that of the bulky A380 Airbus (and its recent loss of the next generation of military tankers to the same European Union subsidies), when included in with Astrium's determination to build a competitive space plane, should be warning enough that the regulatory protections, backed by nations, will inevitable shape free access to space by American entrepreneurs.

ESA's Vega information HERE.