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News briefs: July 9
Posted: Wed, Jul 10, 2002, 7:59 AM ET (1159 GMT)
- The Chinese religious movement Falun Gong, banned by the Chinese government, reportedly jammed television signals from a Chinese satellite for a week last month, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Signals from Sinosat-1 were jammed between June 23 and 30, interrupting World Cup telecasts. On at least one occasion Falun Gong was able to transmit their own broadcast, briefly, via Sinosat-1.
- Russia plans to spent $100 million to upgrade the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia to support launches of other types of vehicles, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday. Russian officials said that it is no longer cost-effective to launch anything other than manned missions from Baikonur, noting that the annual lease paid to Kazakhstan for use of Baikonur is $120 million.
- Three cracks have been found in the flow liners of shuttle Columbia's main engines, Florida Today reported Tuesday. The discovery of one crack was reported last week; two more were found since then. Similar cracks were previously found in Discovery and Atlantis, with Endeavour's engines to be inspected later this week.
- The Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 solar sail project passed a major test earlier this week when a solar sail blade was successfully deployed in a vacuum chamber. The 15-meter sail blade successfully unfolded in the chamber in Russia, where the spacecraft is being assembled. Cosmos 1 will be launched late this year on a sub-launched Volna rocket, although The Planetary Society said an exact date has not been set.
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