spacetoday.net: News briefs: April 12

Posted: Sat, Apr 13, 2002, 11:58 AM ET (1558 GMT)

The European Space Agency and the French government signed an agreement this week that guarantees ESA's access to the Guiana Space Center in Kourou. The agreement, which runs trough 2006, replaces a similar one that expired at the end of 2001.
Many near-Earth asteroids may be binary asteroids created by the Earth's own gravity, according to research published in the latest issue of the journal Science. Astronomers found that 16 percent of asteroids with orbits near the Earth's are binaries: two bodies orbiting a common center of mass. Astronomers believe that when a loosely-bound asteroid passes near the Earth, the planet's gravity splits the asteroid into two.
Arianespace has won a contract to launch the iPStar communications satellite for Thai firm Shin Satellite PCL. The launch is scheduled for an Ariane 5 in late 2003. The German space agency DLR announced Friday that Astrium will build its TerraSAR-X radar remote sensing satellite. The spacecraft will be launched in mid-2005 on a Russian Dnepr booster.