Sep 14 2001
From The Space Library
The Russian Space Agency launched a module of the ISS designed to expand the space station’s size and provide other capabilities. The module, called Docking Compartment One (DC-1) or Pirs (Russian for pier), launched at 11:44 p.m. (UT), on a Soyuz-U rocket, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A cargo craft called Progress M-SO1 would transport the module to the ISS. The Russian Space Agency intended the DC-1 to provide additional stowage space for the ISS, an airlock for spacewalks, and an additional docking port for future Soyuz and Progress vehicles. The 8,000-pound (3,600-kilogram), 16-foot-long (4.9-meter-long) module would increase the total mass of the space station to 303,500 pounds (138,000 kilograms). (Puttkamer, “Space Flight 2001”; Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 575, 1 October 2001, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx575.html (accessed 14 November 2008).
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta allowed privately owned and operated aircraft to use the nation’s airspace as part of a phased restoration of the national airspace system. However, the Department of Transportation would allow this category of aircraft~often referred to as general aviation~to resume flights only if they complied with certain restrictions. For example, general aviation flights would have to operate according to the Instrument Flight Rules, which required certified pilots to operate under direction from air traffic controllers subsequent to filing specific flight plans with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In addition, the Department of Transportation would not permit general aviation flights to fly within 25 nautical miles of New York City or Washington, DC. (FAA, “Secretary Mineta Re-opens Skies to General Aviation,” news release DOT 97-01, 14 September 2001, http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsid= 5432 (accessed 28 January 2010).
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