A Soyuz rocket lifted off yesterday on its maiden flight from Europe’s South American space base, carrying the first two satellites in the Galileo geopositioning system.
The launch — the first by the veteran rocket beyond Russia’s historic bases at Plesetsk and Baikonur — is part of a commercial deal struck in 2003 to extend the range of Arianespace, which markets services from the European Space Agency (ESA) base in Kourou.
The 5.4 billion euro (US$7.2 billion) Galileo project is designed to comprise 27 operational satellites and three spares by its completion in 2020.
It should give geopositioning accuracy to within a meter, whereas the US Global Positioning System (GPS) is currently accurate to between three and eight meters, according to official Web sites.
PROPELLED INTO ORBIT
After a nine-minute flight through Earth’s atmosphere, the Soyuz’s final stage, the Fregat, was to propel the satellites on a three-hour flight toward their orbital slot.
The launch was originally scheduled for Thursday, but the countdown was canceled about two hours before liftoff after a problem surfaced in a pneumatic system on the launch pad gantry.
The system is designed to disconnect fueling lines to the rocket’s third stage just before flight.
“During the final phase of third stage-fueling, there apparently was a change in pressure in this pneumatic system, and we observed the unplanned disconnection of the two connectors that enable the fuelling of Soyuz’ third stage with liquid oxygen and kerosene,” the head of launch operator Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, told reporters on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS