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News briefs: July 12
Posted: Sat, Jul 13, 2002, 12:16 PM ET (1616 GMT)
- A Russian rocket launched a spacecraft on a suborbital flight early Friday to test an inflatable reentry system. The Volna rocket launched from a Russian sub in the Barents Sea, placing the Demonstrator-2 spacecraft on a suborbital trajectory with the Kamchatka Peninsula as the intended landing site. The spacecraft tested a European-Russian inflatable reentry and landing system known as IRDT. Friday's flight was the second test for IRDT, which first flew in early 2000.
- Lance Bass may be close to a deal with the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos to fly on a Soyuz flight as early as October, SPACE.com reported Friday. Rosaviakosmos officials said that flying the October Soyuz taxi flight without a third, paying passenger "would be an inadmissible luxury", indicating that they would be more willing to work out a deal with Bass. A MirCorp official told SPACE.com that it planned to issue a statement about Bass's efforts early next week.
- NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center issued study contracts late Friday to four companies to study options for commercial "alternative access" to ISS. The 12-month contracts will be used to explore concepts for cargo vehicles that could transfer supplies to the station as an alternative to existing spacecraft. The four companies winning contracts, averaging $2.5-3 million each, were Andrews Space and Technology, Boeing, Constellation Services International, and Lockheed Martin.
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