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Tag: EADS

Sea Launch Back in Action With Successful Launch!

Posted on by Val
Sea Launch is back after a two-year hiatus after a Zeni-3SL rocket launched the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 broadcast satellite into orbit from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform. One hour and seven minutes after launch from the equatorial location, a Block DM-SL upper stage fired to send the Eutelsat satellite into an equatorial transfer orbit. Officials […]
Sea Launch is back after a two-year hiatus after a Zeni-3SL rocket launched the ATLANTIC BIRD™ 7 broadcast satellite into orbit from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform. One hour and seven minutes after launch from the equatorial location, a Block DM-SL upper stage fired to send the Eutelsat satellite into an equatorial transfer orbit. Officials report the launch went as planned and that the satellite is performing as expected. This was the first Sea Launch mission in more than two years. The international consortium went through a bankruptcy organization that resulted in the Russian company Energia purchasing 95 percent of the company. Satellite operators had been looking forward to the return of Sea Launch, which provides more competition among launch providers. Sea Launch is especially well suited for geosynchronous communications satellites that require equatorial orbits because the launch platform can be towed to an ideal location. The launch was also good news for the the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Yuzhny Machine Building Plant, which design and construct the Zenit boosters. The return to flight gives a boost to the nation’s space industry.
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Space Solar Power – EADS plans to launch a test satellite with solar panels.

Posted on by Val
It is a known fact that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment. There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost […]
It is a known fact that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment. There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost competitive with any renewable source: space solar power.

A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth. These panels would collect far more energy than land-based units, which are hampered by weather, low angles of the sun in northern climes and, of course, the darkness of night.

Once collected, the solar energy would be safely beamed to Earth via wireless radio transmission, where it would be received by antennas near cities and other places where large amounts of power are used. The received energy would then be converted to electric power for distribution over the existing grid.

Watch this video to see STRATFOR’s founder and CEO, George Friedman, discuss the push for space-based energy infrastructure after EADS, Europe’s largest space company, announces plans to launch a test satellite with solar panels.