PARIS, FRANCE–(Marketwire - June 20, 2007) - Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast has awarded contracts totalling $12.7 million US to six companies on the island of Ireland. The announcement was made today at the Paris Airshow where Bombardier and some of the suppliers are participating.

Contracts, valued at just under $10 million US over a three-year period, have been signed with five existing Northern Ireland-based suppliers. The companies, confirmed as John Huddleston Engineering, Greyabbey; Dontaur Engineering Ltd., Ballymena; J.W. Kane Precision Engineering Ltd., Portadown; Moyola Precision Engineering, Castledawson; and Maydown Precision Engineering Ltd., Londonderry, will now supply components for the Bombardier Q400, CRJ700/900, Learjet 45 and Challenger 300 aircraft programmes. continue reading...

MERRITT ISLAND, FL — (MARKET WIRE) — April 30, 2007 — KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Italy’s SPACELAND group, which organized the world’s first non-governmental zero gravity research flight in 2005, broke its own record for the oldest microgravity test subject when it flew 93-year-old Cesare Massano aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s (ZERO-G) G-FORCE ONE on April 28 from the Kennedy Space Center.Led by SPACELAND’s zero gravity veteran Doct. Eng. Carlo Viberti, a former European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut office engineer who also coordinated the ESA technology experiments on board the Russian space station MIR, the microgravity research and education flight focused on the oldest man to ever experience weightlessness. Mr. Massano, from SPACELAND’s headquarter town of Torino (Italy), served as test subject for Info-Communications Technology (ICT), biomedical and bioengineering experiments, with a special focus on monitoring and understanding cardiac behavioral patterns in elderly people under increased G-force conditions. The SPACELAND team of scientists and engineers used tele-medicine tools, webcam-controlled human computer interfaces as well as non-invasive acupuncture techniques to test and counteract space motion sickness. Started in 2005 with the world’s first disabled woman flying weightless for SPACELAND ICT experiments, the historic research flight program included participation from several VIPs including the Italian Parliament Dignitary Honorable Marco Airaghi.

NASA and Space Florida supports the SPACELAND research and educational flights, which have been organized by assembling the experimental hardware necessary, and training the selected candidates at SPACELAND’s training camp in the Alps (2,000 meters above sea level) within the 2006 Winter Olympic territory of Piemonte (Italy). continue reading...

SAN JOSE, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — April 03, 2007 — Representing a milestone for both the aerospace and embedded industries, LynuxWorks, Inc., a world leader in embedded software, today announced it has been selected to provide the real-time operating system (RTOS) for the European Space Agency’s Galileo project, a civilian-controlled global navigation system. This validates LynuxWorks’ unique approach to safety-critical systems and builds on the company’s two decades of innovation and leadership in embedded and real-time technologies. As part of the core element of the Galileo system, LynxOS-178, the first and only commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) RTOS to receive Reusable Software Component (RSC) acceptance for reusability from the FAA for DO-178B certification, will provide enhanced capabilities for communications across various devices and operating systems both on the ground and in space.The European Galileo global navigation satellite system is designed to provide an unprecedented degree of accuracy (determining location down to the meter) and not only will have guaranteed availability, but also will be compatible with the world’s other two positioning systems, GPS and Russia’s GLONASS. Galileo will be used for location-based services, as well as in situations where safety is critical, such as running trains and landing airplanes, and in search and rescue operations.

LynxOS-178 will be used in the critical Galileo Mission Segments (GMS), which lies at the heart of the system. The GMS is a network of Earth-based stations that monitor signals from the satellites and transmit navigation data to the satellites. LynxOS-178 offers unmatched openness in development platforms for safety-critical systems, offering support for both Pentium and PowerPC processors, both of which will be used in the overall Galileo project. LynxOS-178 showcases LynuxWorks’ long-standing commitment to broad support of open and industry standards, including POSIX compliance, ARINC 653 conformance and full support for C++ applications. continue reading...

X-ray images taken from a new international spacecraft show that the sun’s magnetic field is much more turbulent than scientists knew, NASA reported Wednesday. continue reading...

WASHINGTON, March 1 /PRNewswire/ — Arianespace announced today that it will launch the SPACEWAY 3 communications satellite for HughesAn Ariane 5 launch vehicle will deliver SPACEWAY 3 to Geostationary Transfer Orbit from Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, in August of 2007.

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) will operate the all Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite as part of its new broadband satellite network that will provide multimedia services throughout North America. Its unique design incorporates on-board switching and spot beams, which will enable on-demand services. Built by Boeing Satellites Systems, Inc., SPACEWAY 3 will weigh approximately 6 000 kg at lift-off. continue reading...

Space exploration is no longer a US-USSR affair:

A European spacecraft executed a close flyby of Mars on Sunday, a crucial maneuver in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet. continue reading...