Word: rocketings
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...skies over California last week, a launch took place that broke all the rules. A diminutive rocket named Pegasus, built by a Virginia-based entrepreneurial firm called Orbital Sciences, dropped from under the wing of a B-52 and carried into orbit a small 200-kg (450-lb.) satellite, one of a new type of craft that promises to bring space history full circle. Called lightsats, the new payloads pack as much function into a few hundred kilograms as satellites many times their size. At $8 million a launch, they could open space to new military and industrial uses...
...Hubble telescope is finally going into orbit to give astronomers their clearest views of the universe. The Pegasus rocket launches a new era of petite payloads...
...surface missiles were fired during the Iran-Iraq war, among them 190 Al-Husayn missiles, with a range of 400 miles. Last December, Iraq test-fired two surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,240 miles. That same month, Iraq announced it had launched a 48-ton rocket capable of carrying satellites into space. If true, that means that Iraq is capable of putting ballistic missiles into space...
Both satellites were developed by state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries and were designed to be hurled into space by Israel's powerful rocket, the Shavit (Comet). I.A.I. is also working on a civilian communications satellite, called the Amos, which it hopes to send into orbit within two years...
...Martin Marietta and Ariane incidents may drive the already prohibitive cost of launch insurance even higher. Insurers typically charge up to 30% of the combined value of a satellite and rocket, which would have brought the premiums for last week's mission to nearly $50 million. Faced with that bill, Intelsat set up a self-insurance fund to absorb the cost of the failure...