US Army orders 19 more Gray Eagle Drones despite problems
Washington (Sputnik) Jun 28, 2015 -
The General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle is commonly described as a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone developed by GAAS for the US Army as an upgrade of its MQ-1 drone.
"Work will be performed in Poway, California, with an estimated completion date of Sept.[ember] 30, 2018," the statement read on Tuesday.
According to publicly released information, the Gray Eagle has a top speed of 1 ...
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Rocket Lab Announces World's First Commercial Launch Site
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
Today Rocket Lab announced it will be the first commercial company to build and operate an orbital launch site. The company plans to build the launch site on Kaitorete Spit in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island, which will be used to launch Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle designed to deliver small satellites to Low Earth Orbit.
"Creating and operating our own launch s ...
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Twin Space Institutes to perform a biomedical research study
Houston TX (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) has announced that a pathfinder study is underway in Cologne, Germany to investigate the effects of simulated spaceflight conditions on brain physiology.
NSBRI has deployed a team of American neurologists and scientists to conduct a pilot demonstration experiment at :envihab, a newly-built specialized facility of the German Aerospace ...
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NASA Met Unprecedented Challenges Sending Spacecraft to Pluto
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
NASA's New Horizons mission presented challenges like no other, but its goal also was unprecedented. The spacecraft will soon begin a study of the farthest reaches of the solar system. It was an historic journey of over 3.6 billion miles that began at the agency's Florida spaceport.
Plans call for New Horizons to send the first-ever, close-up images and scientific observations of distant P ...
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New Horizons 'Speeds Up' on Final Approach to Pluto
Laurel MD (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
With just two weeks to go before its historic July 14 flight past Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft tapped the accelerator late last night and tweaked its path toward the Pluto system. The 23-second thruster burst was the third and final planned targeting maneuver of New Horizons' approach phase to Pluto; it was also the smallest of the nine course corrections since New Horizons launched in ...
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Siberia Home to New Russian Space Monitoring Complex
Moscow (Sputnik) Jul 03, 2015 -
The Russian Space Monitoring System will comprise a network of more than a dozen specialized complexes by 2018; the first will appear in Siberia's Altai and Primorye regions.
The Russian Space Monitoring System has been tested efficiently, as told by the commander of Space Forces and Aerospace Defense of the Russian Federation, Major-General Oleg Maidanovich.
Earlier, it was reported ...
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More Fidelity for SpaceX In-Flight Abort Reduces Risk
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
Following the successful pad abort test in May, SpaceX began developing a plan that would move its in-flight abort test to provide higher fidelity data and reduce risk to future crews launched to the International Space Station in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX agreed to consider this proposed change prior to the mishap of SpaceX's seventh commercial resupply services mission.
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Engineers help NASA fine-tune new Space Launch System
Athens GA (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Engineering are helping NASA determine if a key rocket component can withstand the rigors of the next generation of space flight.
The parts in question-bellows expansion joints-serve several functions in rocket propulsion systems, perhaps most critically as connectors between fuel and oxidizer lines and the rocket's engines. While bellows ...
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Global Positioning System: A Generation of Service to the World
Peterson AFB CO (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
Twenty years ago, the United States Air Force announced the Global Positioning System had achieved Full Operational Capability. As of July 17, 1995, a total of 24 satellites were on orbit, providing global 24-hour coverage. In the two-decades since, GPS has been woven into nearly every aspect of human activity, from military operations to sports.
At the time "FOC" was announced, GPS had al ...
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Russia launches Soyuz Progress with supplies for ISS
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Jul 03, 2015 -
The Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the Russian Progress-M28M cargo spacecraft has been launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan and is headed for the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian Mission Control outside Moscow said.
"The estimated time of the transport cargo vessel's separation from the third stage of the launch vehicle and its entering the set orbit is July 3 08: ...
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Cosmonaut Padalka Sets World Record in Combined Flight Duration
Moscow (Sputnik) Jun 28, 2015 -
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka currently working on the International Space Station (ISS) has set a world record in combined flight duration, a space industry source told RIA Novosti early on Monday. Padalka completed his first space flight in 1999 as commander of the Soyuz TM-28 mission to the Mir space station.
This year, Padalka departed for the ISS on March 27 on board the Soyuz TMA ...
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Cyprus stages play for peace at reopened landmark
Famagusta, Cyprus (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
Cyprus's Othello Tower, named after the ill-fated Shakespearean hero, reopened Thursday after a facelift with a performance of the tragedy that organisers hope will spread unity among long-divided communities.
The year-long, EU-funded project to renovate the mediaeval tower in the port of Famagusta's 14th century castle comes as Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are locked in talks to reach ...
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With army ranks depleted, Syria urges people to enlist
Damascus (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
With the Syrian army's ranks depleted by casualties and rampant draft-dodging, a new campaign in the war-torn country is urging citizens to enlist.
In recent weeks, billboards have sprung up across Damascus reading "Join the army," "We are all the army," and "With our army, we'll win our country."
The campaign is the work of a pro-government organisation known as the "Syrian Women's Grou ...
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US military on defensive over F-35 fighter jet
Washington (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
The US Air Force said Wednesday its eye-wateringly expensive F-35 stealth jet is superior to the cheaper F-16 despite reports from a test pilot that suggested otherwise.
The F-35, manufactured by defense giant Lockheed Martin in part to replace the F-16, is the most expensive fighter plane in the history of the US military.
But the $390-billion program is seven years behind schedule and ...
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Advanced radar to feature on upgraded Singapore fighters
Singapore (UPI) Jul 2, 2015 -
The government of Singapore has detailed the upgrade of its fleet of F-16 fighters, which first entered service with its military in 1998.
The modernization of Republic of Singapore Air Force FG-16s begins in 2016 and will be conducted in phases over a period of five to six years.
The aircraft are to receive active electronically scanned array radar, extending the F-16's detectio ...
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Air strike kills IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
Washington (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
A senior Islamic State leader who recruited funds and fighters and procured weapons for the jihadists has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Tariq bin Tahar al-Awni al-Harzi was killed in the northern city of Shaddadi on June 16, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement.
His brother Ali, an IS recruiter and person of inter ...
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Australia orders airborne refueling tankers
Canberra, Australia (UPI) Jul 2, 2015 -
Airbus Defense and Space is to provide Australia with two additional TA330 MRTT tanker variant aircraft under a deal worth more than $313.7 million.
The multi-role tanker, designated the KC-30A by Australia, has a fuel capacity of more than 110 tons, and transfers fuel to F/A-18A/B Hornets, F/A-18F Super Hornets, E-7A Wedgetails, C-17A Globemasters and other KC-30A aircraft through a lo ...
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Libya peace talks stall again despite UN sanctions threat
Tripoli (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
Libya's rival governments will not return to peace talks this week after rebel forces Wednesday rejected the latest proposal, defying threats the UN Security Council would impose sanctions on anyone who stands in the way of a deal.
The National General Congress parliament in Tripoli, which was seized by rebel forces last year, said it would consult for a week on the new draft, ruling out ret ...
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Thai navy votes to buy three Chinese submarines worth $1 bn
Bangkok (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
Thailand's navy has voted in favour of buying three Chinese submarines worth US$1 billion, an official said Thursday, the kingdom's first such vessels in decades if the purchase is approved by the cabinet.
The country last operated submarines in its waters 50 years ago and wants the new high-tech vessels as a "deterrent", said Thailand's navy chief, without elaborating on the nature of threa ...
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UK police hold two women for alleged terror offences
London (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
British police on Thursday charged a 26-year-old woman with inciting terror through Twitter and membership of the Islamic State group, and arrested a 15-year-old girl on suspicion of preparing an attack.
Police were also continuing an investigation into the disappearance of a family of 12, including three generations, believed to have travelled to Syria.
The 26-year-old woman was detaine ...
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Compact cannon for British armored vehicles
London (UPI) Jul 2, 2015 -
Britain's Ministry of Defense has contracted CTA International to supply a compact 40mm cannon system for the army's armored fighting vehicles.
The system is the Cased Telescope cannon, which is more compact than currently fielded 40mm cannons. It features a thermal sleeve, automatic ammunition loading and a range of compact ammunition for use against armored vehicles, hardened targets ...
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Deadly clashes rock Yemen as UN raises emergency level
Aden (AFP) July 2, 2015 -
At least 22 people were killed Thursday in Yemen as fighting raged in the southern port of Aden and Saudi-led warplanes bombed Shiite rebels in the capital Sanaa, officials said.
The violence came a day after the UN declared its highest level of humanitarian emergency in the country, where it says some 3,000 people, half of them civilians, have been killed since March.
But there was a ra ...
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European space industry collaborates with ESA for the future
Paris (ESA) Jul 01, 2015 -
More than 80 companies from ESA Member States met recently to begin discussing new models of collaboration to reinforce European space industry's presence in the world market. A first-ever event hosted at ESA's European Space Operations Centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, on 25-26 June brought Agency experts together with space industry to discuss the path for future collaboration in mission operations ...
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NovaWurks and Spaceflight Services set for payload test bed mission in 2017
Los Alamitos CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2015 -
NovaWurks and Spaceflight Services have announced a signed launch contract for a NovaWurks Payload Test Bed (PTB) mission planned for the third quarter of 2017. PTB-2, the second of the company's Payload Test Bed missions, is scheduled to launch into a sun-synchronous orbit on Spaceflight's SHERPA in-space transportation platform aboard a U.S. commercial launch vehicle.
Flown on NovaWurks' ...
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NASA Gears Up to Test Orion's Powerhouse
Sandusky OH (SPX) Jul 01, 2015 -
NASA is getting ready for a series of tests that will check out Orion's service module, a critical part of the spacecraft that will launch atop the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on future missions to an asteroid and on toward Mars.
The testing, which will take place at NASA Glenn's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, will begin with the arrival of a crew module adapter simula ...
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