Space station bumps Europe's Cluster 2 launch BY STEVEN YOUNG SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: July 2, 2000
Both major missions were scheduled for launch from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 12. Cluster 2 on a Starsem Soyuz and the station's Zvezda living quarters aboard a Proton. "We cannot do both on the same day," said Franco Bonacina at ESA Headquarters in Paris. "We are announcing a new launch date."
The four drum-shaped Cluster 2 satellites will fly in formation to study the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magentic field in unprecedented detail. The Cluster 2 mission was assembled after the first quartet of Cluster spacecraft were destroyed when Europe's Ariane 5 rocket exploded on its maiden flight. |
Video vault Animation depicts the launch of a pair of Cluster 2 satellites aboard a Starsem Soyuz equipped with a Fregat upper stage. PLAY (352k, 30sec QuickTime file) Download QuickTime 4 software to view this file. |
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