Dec 10 1999
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(New page: Europe's new 746-ton (677,000-kilogram or 677-tonne) Ariane 5 rocket launched smoothly on its first mission, carrying the European Space Agency's 3.7-ton (3,400-kilogram or 3.4-ton...)
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Europe's new 746-ton (677,000-kilogram or 677-tonne) Ariane 5 rocket launched smoothly on its first mission, carrying the European Space Agency's 3.7-ton (3,400-kilogram or 3.4-tonne) X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) scientific satellite into orbit. In what France called an industry milestone and "hailed as proof of Europe's superiority in the commercial launch market," the powerful rocket lifted off at the opening of its launch window from Europe's facility in Kourou, French Guiana, depositing the satellite in orbit exactly on schedule, 29 minutes later. Jean-Marie Luton, chairperson of Arianespace, the France-based commercial space company that dominated the world's commercial satellite-launching market, remarked that, although the United States remained its most serious competitor and China was catching up quickly, "Europeans were still one step ahead." Arianespace intended the Ariane 5, twice as heavy and twice as powerful as the Ariane 4, to carry 10- to 12-ton (9,100- to 10,900-kilogram or 9.1- to 10.9-tonne) payloads by 2005, transporting space-exploration modules and serving the ISS. The XMM satellite was the largest scientific satellite ever built in Europe, equipped with three powerful telescopes, with 58 mirrors each, and "capable of observing everything from supernovas to the remains of exploded stars.”
A six-member team of Brown University scientists used data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor to examine six categories of evidence supporting the hypothesis that oceans once existed on Mars. The team, led by planetary geologist James W. Head III, published their findings in the journal Science. Primarily using altimetry data and images captured by Surveyor, the researchers had found that the border between two geologically dissimilar areas was nearly level in elevation, suggesting an ancient coastline. Furthermore, they found that the topography below the possible coastline was consistent with the effects of sedimentation and the volume of the hypothetical sea was within range of previous estimates of Martian water. A series of terraces running parallel to the supposed shoreline gave credence to the idea of receding water; low areas contained the appearance of possible mud cracks; and scars from impact craters suggested groundwater or ice near the surface.
At a scheduled 13 December ribbon-cutting ceremony, NASA announced the opening of FutureFlight Central (FFC) at Ames Research Center's Moffett Field in Mountain View, California. NASA had designed the two-story facility the world's first full-scale, virtual, airport control tower to test methods of solving, under realistic conditions and configurations, potential air and ground traffic problems at commercial airports. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration had jointly funded the US$10 million project. The design of FFC permitted "integration of tomorrow's technologies in a risk-free simulation of any airport, airfield, and tower-cab environment.”
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