Satellite News

In the second half of 2007, China will project its first satellite for monitoring environment and natural disasters, Xinhua news agency reported.

Belarus is expected to announce a tender for a new BelKa satellite to replace the one destroyed when a Dnepr rocket crashed in Kazakhstan in July.

The STEREO mission — two nearly identical spacecraft the size of golf carts — are scheduled to launch on 31 August aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Their observations will enable scientists to construct the first-everthree-dimensional views of the Sun.

NASA senior managers unanimously voted to launch the Space Shuttle Atlantis on 27 August, 2030 UTC. The STS-115 mission marks the restart of the construction of the International Space Station.