Space Daily articles from December 2005

Space Daily archives from December 2005

New Model Protects Wetlands Of The Future.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN, La., Nov. 29 (SPX) -- In the latest issue of Restoration Ecology, researchers describe a new model for coastal development. Using survey data conducted in Lake Pontchartrain, LA, they created a...

Discovery And Competitiveness Keywords In Europe's Space Programme.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BERLIN, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- Objectives and priorities for Europe in space will soon be discussed at a Ministerial meeting in Berlin. On December 5 and 6, the Ministers in charge of space activities within the 17 Member...

Scientists Find Possible Birth Of Tiniest Known Solar System.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers GREENBELT, Md., Nov. 30 (SPX) -- Scientists using a combination of ground-based and orbiting telescopes have discovered a failed star, less than one-hundredth the mass of the Sun, possibly in the process of forming a...

Left-Handed Metamaterials Hold Promise Of Cheaper Mobile Phones And GPS, With Enhanced Performance.
December 1, 2005... Byline: PAMPLONA, SPAIN (SPX) NOV 30, 2005 IN HIS PHD THESIS THE PAMPLONA ENGINEER FRANCISCO FALCONE LANAS, Has put forward various structures, Dec. 1 (SPX) -- Photonic crystal devices The research undertaken by Francisco Falcone in...

Hubble Takes Most Detailed Image Yet Of Crab Nebula.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BALTIMORE, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- A new Hubble image - among the largest ever produced with the Earth-orbiting observatory - gives the most detailed view so far of the entire Crab Nebula. The Crab is arguably the single...

NSF Funds Probe Of The Quintessence Of Surprise.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers LOS ANGELES C, Calif., Nov. 29 (SPX) -- We ignore some sudden noises, while others make us take action. We turn our eyes to look at some moving things -- but not all. Why? A new theory and experimental evidence...

Silenced Gene In Flatworm Shows Role In Regeneration.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 28 (SPX) -- Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry...

MicroRNAs Have Shaped The Evolution Of The Majority Of Mammalian Genes.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 29 (SPX) -- RNA continues to shed its reputation as DNA's faithful sidekick. Now, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member David Bartel have found that a class of small RNAs called...

Trip Into Moon Orbit May Cost Tourists $100 Million.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- A flight to the Moon may cost space tourists $100 million, a senior official of the Russian Space Agency said Tuesday, reports RIA Novosti. "A project for a flight around the Moon really...

Readying For The Ninth International Mars Society Convention.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- The Mars Society was founded to further the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. The International Mars Society convention presents a unique opportunity for those interested in...

NASA Rover Helps Reveal Possible Secrets Of Martian Life.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 30 (SPX) -- Life may have had a tough time getting started in the ancient environment that left its mark in the Martian rock layers examined by NASA's Opportunity rover. The most thorough...

Northrop Grumman Receives Joint Stars Upgrade Contract Worth $532M.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MELBOURNE, Fla., Nov. 29 (SPX) -- The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a five-year, $532 million contract for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) System Improvement Program to...

Harris Awarded $4.8M Contract For Multiband Manpack And Handheld Radios.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 28 (SPX) -- Harris has been awarded a $4.8 million contract from the U.S. Central Command Air Force (USCENTAF) for Falcon III AN/PRC-152 multiband handheld and Falcon II AN/VRC-103 vehicular...

IAI Introduces Concept Of Operations Research And Analysis Lab.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 28 (SPX) -- Today at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Israel Aircraft Industries' MAGNET Center, IAI's NCW Division, introduced its Concept of...

BAE Systems Awarded Integrated Battle Command Contract By DARPA.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BURLINGTON, Mass., Nov. 28 (SPX) -- BAE Systems has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for Phase 1 of the Integrated Battle Command (IBC) Program. The IBC Program will provide...

New NASA Advisory Council Holds Inaugural Meeting.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- Two former Apollo astronauts joined 22 other experts in the first meeting of the newly restructured NASA Advisory Council, a group of eminent U.S. citizens organized to provide guidance...

Alcatel Alenia Space-Built AMC-23 Ready To Be Integrated On Proton Rocket.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- Twenty four months after the signature of the contract, Alcatel Alenia Space - the prime contractor - announced that the AMC-23 communications satellite is ready to be integrated...

COM DEV Announces Completion Of EMS Acquisition.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, Nov. 30 (SPX) -- COM DEV International confirmed Monday that the transaction announced November 22 to purchase certain assets of the former EMS Space & Technologies Division has now closed. ...

Intrepid Solar Spacecraft Celebrates 10th Anniversary.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers GREENBELT, Md., Nov. 30 (SPX) -- The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft celebrates its 10th anniversary on December 2. The SOHO mission, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency,...

New Antibody Shows Promise As Cure For Anthrax.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 29 (SPX) -- A new anthrax antibody engineered by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin protects and defends against inhalation anthrax without the use of antibiotics and other more...

Crystal Sponges Excel At Sopping Up CO2.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 1 (SPX) -- Since the Industrial Revolution, levels of carbon dioxide - a major contributor to the greenhouse effect - have been on the rise, prompting scientists to search for ways of...

Aerosonde Successfully Completes Weatherscout GUAM Trials.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NORMAN, Okla., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Aerosonde North America is pleased to announce the success of the recent deployment of Aerosonde meteorological observation aircraft to the US Air Force (USAF) in Guam during October...

First Galileo Satellite Travels From ESTEC To Launch Site.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- GIOVE A, the first Galileo satellite, departed from ESA's ESTEC test centre in The Netherlands on Tuesday morning (29 November), bound for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan....

Distinct Brain Regions Specialized For Faces And Bodies.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 1 (SPX) -- Are you tempted to trade in last year's digital camera for a newer model with even more megapixels? Researchers who make images of the human brain have the same obsession with...

ISRO Proposes INSAT 4E Multimedia Mobile SBand Satellite Mission.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- The Indian Union Cabinet Thursday gave its approval to undertake the design, development and launch of GSAT-6 / INSAT-4E, a multi-media mobile satellite system, at a total estimated cost of...

ISRO To Launch 10 Satellites In Four Years.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- The Indian Space Research Organization is planning to launch 10-12 satellites in the coming four years, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan informed the Rajya...

India And Russia To Sign Four Treaties On Defence And Space.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MOSCOW, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Taking their strategic partnership to a new high, India and Russia will sign four key agreements on space and defence cooperation during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit...

Planned December 8 ISS Spacewalk Postponed.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MOSCOW, Dec. 1 (SPX) -- Russian space agency officials Thursday postponed a scheduled Dec. 8 spacewalk by the Russian-American crew of the International Space Station. "The extravehicular activity of Valery Tokarev...

First Brazilian Rocket Launched From Esrange.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ESRANGE, Sweden, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- The Texus-EML sounding rocket, jointly funded by ESA and DLR, was successfully launched Thursday, at 09.04 UT, from Esrange, on the Brazilian rocket motor, VSB-30, that was used for...

No Safe Ground For Life To Stand On During Largest Mass Extinction.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers LONDON, Dec. 1 (SPX) -- The world's largest mass extinction was probably caused by poisonous volcanic gas, according to research published Thursday. The research, published in the journal Geology, reveals vital...

First In Flight Results Onboard Texus Sounding Rocket.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers KIRUNA, Sweden, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- The IMPRESS project saw the first launch of an experimental payload, the Electromagnetic Levitator, onboard an ESA/DLR-funded Texus 42 sounding rocket, from the Esrange launch site near...

UniStates New Hybrid Composites Provides Strength OnDemand.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- UniStates has announced new hybrid composites that use dual systems to carry heavier loads with less material. Unlike ordinary composites, these new hybrid composites have load-bearing...

CNES Signs Coop Agreements With Austrian FFG On Pleiades And Corot Programs.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PARIS, Russia, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- On November 22 the president of CNES, Yannick d'Escatha, and the two directors of Austria's FFG (The Austrian Research Center) signed cooperation agreements relating to the Pleiades and...

Tialinx Awarded By DARPA To Develop RF Beamforming Chip For Gigabit Wireless Apps.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- TiaLinx, a developer of Wafer Scale Antenna Arrays, has announced that it has received a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the Defense Advanced Research...

Alcoa To Produce Aluminum Castings For Tactical Tomahawk Missile Program.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PITTSBURGH, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Alcoa has announced that its Alcoa Forged Products and Aluminum Castings business has signed a five-year contract with Klune Industries, a supplier of finish-machined parts to prime...

The Next Shuttle Book Review.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MARION, Iowa, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Dave Ketchledge, a high powered rocketry hobbyist, has written and e-published a new book, titled The Next Shuttle, devoted to the history of prototypes of the Shuttle, that details the...

Aeroflex Offers New UT200SpW02 SpaceWire Protocol Handler.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PLAINVIEW, N.Y., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- SpaceWire is a standard governing serial communication between satellite components. The protocol is selfmanaging and provides a high speed, low power serial interface while offering a...

Cornell Astronomers Investigate Cosmic Forces That Produce New Galaxies.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ITHACA, N.Y., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- When galaxies collide (as our galaxy, the Milky Way, eventually will with the nearby Andromeda galaxy), what happens to matter that gets spun off in the collision's wake? With help...

Astronomers Find Most Stable Optical Clock In Heavens.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers FORT DAVIS, Texas, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- After 31 years of tracking the light- output of a burnt-out star from telescopes at McDonald Observatory, astronomer S.O. Kepler of Brazil's Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do...

Integrasys Demonstrates Satmotion Pocket Low Cost VSAT Line Up System.
December 4, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NOORWIJK, The Netherlands, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Integrasys performed a demonstration of the Satmotion Pocket low cost vsat line-up system, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, during the SatLabs Group meeting...

Bright Highlands And Dark Plains.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- This is a perspective view of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan near the Huygens probe landing site that includes the bright-dark boundary between the bright highlands and lower dark...

Trade Imbalance Shifts US Carbon Emissions To China, Boosts Global Total.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 4 (SPX) -- The growth of Chinese imports in the U.S. economy boosted the total emissions of carbon dioxide (a primary greenhouse gas) from the two countries by over 700 million metric tons between...

Tropical Atlantic Cooling And African Deforestation Correlate To Drought.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Against the backdrop of the Montreal Summit on global climate being held this week, an article on African droughts and monsoons, by a University of California, Santa Barbara...

Oxygen in Ancient Atmosphere Rose Gradually To Modern Levels.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 3 (SPX) -- The history of life on Earth is closely linked to the appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere. The current scientific consensus holds that significant amounts of oxygen first appeared...

Poison + Water = Hydrogen. New Microbial Genome Shows How.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 3 (SPX) -- Take a pot of scalding water, remove all the oxygen, mix in a bit of poisonous carbon monoxide, and add a pinch of hydrogen gas. It sounds like a recipe for a witch's brew. It may be,...

Space Radar Advances And Application.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PARIS, Dec. 5 (SPX) -- Two images from a radar satellite are often a lot better than one. These orbiting sensors see through wind, rain and darkness and have another unique strength: combine two or more radar images...

Mitsubishi Electric To Supply ISRO With Provide Lithium Ion Battery For INSAT.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers TOKYO, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Mitsubishi Electric has signed a contract with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to develop and manufacture a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery for the INSAT satellite series, the Indian...

Weekend Of Light Duties Ahead Of Busy Science Week.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers HOUSTON, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- In the third month of a six-month mission, the International Space Station Expedition 12 crew worked this week on science experiments, maintenance and the setup of hardware for future...

Long Distances Measured With Picometer Accuracy.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers GAITHERSBURG, MD, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- A new laser-based method for measuring millimeter distances more accurately than ever before--with an uncertainty of 10 picometers (trillionths of a meter)--has been developed and...

India Awaits Approval For Chandrayan Lunar Mission.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MUMBAI, India, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- India is awaiting clearance from the Bush administration for finalising an American payload on top of India's first ever unmanned moon mission, Chandrayan, Indian Space Research...

Spirit Making Progress In Climb Down Columbia Hills.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Spirit is healthy and making good progress downhill. The short-term goal is to drive toward couple of interesting features dubbed "Comanche" and "Miami." A decision on which target to...

NASA Announces Planetary Science Vehicle Competition.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SANTA MARIA, Calif., Dec. 5 (SPX) -- NASA's Centennial Challenges program office, in collaboration with the California Space Education and Workforce Institute, Santa Maria, Calif., announced the Planetary Unmanned...

Shimmering Colours Which Change With Temperature.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers POTSDAM, Germany, Dec. 4 (SPX) -- Nail polish and expensive cars can nowadays shimmer in many colours, thanks to progress in the field of colloid chemistry, the chemistry of small particles. The bright colours in...

Intelsat And APT Satellite To Serve Asia Pacific.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers HONG KONG, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Intelsat and APT Satellite have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to work together using their combined satellite fleets. In a signing ceremony at the Island Shangri-La Hotel here,...

MSV Strengthens IP Position In Europe.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers RESTON, Va., Dec. 1 (SPX) -- Mobile Satellite Ventures have (MSV) announced that the European Patent Office issued a landmark patent to MSV, patent EP 1 350 344 B1, corresponding to U.S. patent 6,859,652 B2, which was...

Designing The Missions Of The Future.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NOORDWIJK, Netherlands, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Action station, an asteroid is threatening our planet! The menace is real and a rapid response must be found. At ESA's Technical Centre in the Netherlands, engineers believe...

Northrop Grumman Establishes New Space Exploration Organization.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Northrop Grumman has created an organization dedicated to developing and executing the company's growing list of space exploration opportunities with NASA. The new Space...

Kazakhstan Predicts Major Developments For Its Space Program.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec. 4 (SPX) -- Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, Danial Akhmetov, during a visit to the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation at Korolev near Moscow last week, announced that the Republic will further...

Earthquake 'Pulses' Could Predict Tsunami Impact.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CORVALLIS, Ore., Dec. 3 (SPX) -- The magnitude 9.2 earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December of 2004 originated just off the coast of northern Sumatra, but an "energy pulse" - an...

Boeing A160 Hummingbird Completes Flight Test.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CHICAGO, Dec. 2 (SPX) -- Boeing has announced the A160 Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft made its first test flight from an airfield near Victorville, Calif., Nov. 30. "This flight - the first with a six cylinder Subaru...

What Is A Cloud.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- All through the ages, humans have dreamily gazed at those shape-shifting cotton-balls floating gently across the sky-the clouds. Atmospheric scientists-Earth's professional...

Warming Could Free Far More Carbon From High Arctic Soil.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SEATTLE, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Scientists studying the effects of carbon on climate warming are very likely underestimating, by a vast amount, how much soil carbon is available in the high Arctic to be released into the...

ESA's Integral and XMM-Newton missions extended.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PARIS, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- ESA's Science Programme Committee has extended operations of the highly successful astronomical observatories Integral and XMM-Newton for four years, until 16 December 2010 and 31 March 2010...

Unprecedented View Of Upper Atmosphere Created By NASA Scientists.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers GREENBELT, Md., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Scientists from NASA and the National Science Foundation have discovered a way to combine ground and space observations to create an unprecedented view of upper atmosphere disturbances...

Orbital Awarded 300 Bus Fleet Management Deal By Californian Foothill Transit.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers DULLES, VA, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Orbital Sciences has announced that its Transportation Management Systems division (Orbital TMS) has been awarded an $11.7 million contract by Foothill Transit of West Covina, California....

Satellites Capture Gravity Map Of Tides Under Antarctic Ice Shelves.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Ohio State University scientists have used minute fluctuations in gravity to produce the best map yet of ocean tides that flow beneath two large Antarctic ice shelves. They did it...

New Maps Reveal True Extent Of Human Footprint On Earth.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- As global populations swell, farmers are cultivating more and more land in a desperate bid to keep pace with the ever-intensifying needs of humans. As a result, agricultural activity...

Mars Rovers Continue To Explore And Amaze One Year Later.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- NASA's durable twin Mars rovers have successfully explored the surface of the mysterious red planet for a full Martian year (687 Earth days). Opportunity starts its second Martian...

Opportunity Tells A Hard Tale.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Life may have had a tough time getting started in the ancient environment that left its mark in the Martian rock layers examined by NASA's Opportunity rover. The most thorough...

Physicists Describe Strange New Fluid Like State Of Matter.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CHICAGO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- University of Chicago physicists have created a novel state of matter using nothing more than a container of loosely packed sand and a falling marble. They have found that the impacting marble...

Titania Nanoparticles Could Lead To Improved Sensors And Solar Energy.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Time evolution of the thermal properties during dehydration of sol-gel titania emulsions Nanostructured titania (TiO2) has been extensively studied as a very promising material for...

Raytheon Awarded Two Contracts To Support AEGIS Equipment.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers TEWKSBURY, Mass., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Raytheon has been awarded two sole source contracts by the U.S. Navy totaling $15.7 million for AEGIS equipment support. A $10.2 million performance based logistics contract...

FA18 Super Hornet Radar Delivers Multiple JDAMs On Target.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- The revolutionary APG-79 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar developed by Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) has scored another first. The system...

Alcatel To Build Chinasat 6B GEO Bird For ChinaSatcom.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PARIS, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Alcatel Alenia Space has announced that it has signed a contract with ChinaSatcom (China Satellite Communication Corporation) to design and manufacture the new-generation Chinasat 6B...

Rivers On Titan, One Of Saturn's Moons, Resemble Those On Earth.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Recent evidence from the Huygens Probe of the Cassini Mission suggests that Titan, the largest moon orbiting Saturn, is a world where rivers of liquid methane sculpt channels in...

Snow Is Cool Say Scientists.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- What would the Earth be like if one fine day all the snow melted away? Obviously, it would be a much warmer place. But what's interesting is how much warmer, says Stephen Vavrus, an...

Conexant's Satellite System Solution Powers New Humax Set-Top Box.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Conexant Systems has reported that Humax, an international manufacturer of digital satellite set-top boxes (STBs), has incorporated several of the company's chips in a new...

SAFOD Observatory Reveals New Insights Into The Earthquake Machine.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD)-the first underground observatory to provide physical samples and real-time seismological data from deep inside an active fault zone-is...

Fire Scout UAV Moving Closer To Production.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers SAN DIEGO, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Northrop Grumman has successfully conducted a critical design review of its MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the U.S. Navy. The review moves the program closer to...

Scientific Games Selects Gilat To Provide 3000 VSAT Terminals For Four State Lotteries.
December 6, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PETAH TIKVA, Israel, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- Gilat Satellite Networks has announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Spacenet, has been selected by Scientific Games International (SGI) to provide 3,000 Skystar Advantage VSAT...

ESO Signs Contract To Supply Antennas For Ground Based ALMA Project.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers GARCHING, Germany, Dec. 8 (SPX) -- ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, announced Wednesday that it has signed a contract with the consortium, led by Alcatel Alenia...

European Ministers Deliberate On Plan For Discovery And Competitiveness.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers PARIS, Dec. 8 (SPX) -- The Ministers responsible for space in the European Space Agency's 17 Member States and Canada Wednesday concluded a two-day meeting of ESA's ruling Council in Berlin by deciding on a coherent...

ESA Presents Space Solution To Montreal Forest Conference.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MONTREAL, Dec. 6 (SPX) -- As the future of Earth's forests moved up the agenda at the United Nations Climate Change Conference - negotiating a post-Kyoto strategy to combat global warming - ESA and its national...

Globalstar Receives US Govt Approval To Launch Spare Satellites.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Staff Writers MILPITAS, Calif., Dec. 8 (SPX) -- Globalstar confirmed Wednesday that it has received US State Department approval to proceed with its plans to procure launch services for up to eight spare satellites with launches...