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AmmoniaSat; Grumman lands Scaled Composites

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Written by staff writer

Friday, 27 July 2007

AmmoniaSat

On Monday, July 23, International Space Station astronauts completed a 7-hour spacewalk by hurtling a refrigerator-size ammonia reservoir at the Earth, according to NASA.

Positioning himself on the end of the space station’s robotic arm, Flight Engineer Clay Anderson jettisoned the Early Ammonia Servicer by shoving it opposite of the station’s direction of travel.

Launched in 2001 to provide spare coolant in case of a leak at the ISS, the tank was never needed and had exceeded its life expectancy.

The 1,400-lb tank is expected to orbit Earth for about one year in a decaying orbit, then burn up in the atmosphere. The verdict is still out on whether it will be visible from the ground when it burns.

Grumman lands Scaled Composites

Northrop Grumman Corp. has bought Scaled Composites, the creators of SpaceShipOne and developers of the SpaceShipTwo craft, which is meant to be the basis for Virgin Galactic’s planned sub-orbital commercial space service, according to a recent space.com report.The sale is expected to close in August. There is no word yet on how the sale might affect Virgin Galactic’s plans for SpaceShipTwo.

SpaceShipTwo is being designed to carry two pilots and six passengers. It would be the first private commercial passenger spacecraft.

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