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To: TobagoJack who wrote (5811)	7/13/2001 12:29:40 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 74559

>>East Meets West With Double Star Paris - July 9 2001 A new phase in ESA-China scientific collaboration was officially given the green light today at ESA Headquarters in Paris with an historic agreement between ESA and the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) to develop a joint project known as 'Double Star'. ESA Director General Antonio Rodotà and Luan Enjie, Administrator of the CNSA, signed an official agreement that will enable European experiments to be flown on Chinese satellites for the first time. "This agreement marks a significant advance for international co-operation in the exploration and peaceful use of outer space," said Mr. Rodotà. "It is one of the most important landmarks in scientific collaboration since ESA and the People's Republic of China first agreed to exchange scientific information more than 20 years ago." "The Double Star programme will be just the first step in substantial cooperation between the Chinese National Space Administration and ESA" said Mr Luan Enjie. "The signing of today's agreement paves the way not only for reciprocal cooperation between scientists, but for the establishment of comprehensive cooperation between the two agencies." Double Star will follow in the footsteps of ESA's ground-breaking Cluster mission by studying the effects of the Sun on the Earth's environment. Conducting joint studies with Cluster and Double Star should increase the overall scientific return from both missions. A key aspect of ESA's participation in the Double Star project is the inclusion of 10 instruments that are identical to those currently flying on the four Cluster spacecraft. A further eight experiments will be provided by Chinese institutes. "We hope it will be possible to make coordinated measurements with both Cluster and Double Star." said Cluster Project Scientist Philippe Escoubet. "For example, we would hope to carry out a joint exploration of the magnetotail, a region where storms of high energy particles are generated. When these particles reach Earth, they can cause power cuts, damage satellites and disrupt communications." Six of the eleven Cluster principal investigators have agreed to provide flight spares or duplicates of the experiments that are currently revolutionising our understanding of near-Earth space. This reuse of Cluster instruments has a number of advantages for both European and Chinese scientists. "By flying experiments identical to those on Cluster, we can reduce costs and development time," explained Alberto Gianolio, ESA project manager for Double Star. "This will minimise risk and help us to ensure that we are able to meet the spacecraft development schedule." ESA has agreed to contribute 8 million euros to the Double Star programme. This funding will be used for refurbishment and pre-integration of the European instruments, acquisition of data for 4 hours per day and coordination of scientific operations. Double Star will be the first mission launched by China to explore the Earth's magnetosphere -- the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet. As its name suggests, Double Star will involve two satellites -- each designed, developed, launched and operated by the CNSA -- flying in complementary orbits around the Earth. This orbital configuration will enable scientists to obtain simultaneous data on the changing magnetic field and population of electrified particles in different regions of the magnetosphere. The duo is expected to be launched by Chinese Long March 2C rockets in December 2002 and March 2003. This schedule may enable them to operate alongside ESA's Cluster mission -- a mini-flotilla of four identical spacecraft launched into elliptical orbits around the Earth last summer. The 'equatorial' spacecraft (DSP-1) will be launched into an elliptical orbit of 550 x 60,000 km, inclined at 28.5 degrees to the equator. This will enable it to investigate Earth's huge magnetic tail, the region where particles are accelerated towards the planet's magnetic poles by a process known as reconnection. The 'polar' satellite (DSP-2) will concentrate on physical processes taking place over the planet's magnetic poles and the development of aurorae. It will have a 350 x 25,000 km orbit that takin it round the Earth once every 7.3 hours.<< spacedaily.com

To: TobagoJack who wrote (5811)	7/13/2001 12:37:19 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 74559

Can NMD work? Tune in tomorrow - the US will launch the first test in over a year. >>First intercept test in over a year launches new US missile defense push WASHINGTON (AFP) Jul 13, 2001 A broad new US push on missile defenses gets underway in earnest Saturday with a test over the Pacific that will attempt for the first time in over a year to hit a missile with a missile. The 100 million dollar test will virtually duplicate the last attempted interception in July 2000, which ended in failure, convincing then president Bill Clinton that the controversial National Missile Defense (NMD) system was unfit to deploy. The program's immediate future no longer rides on the success or failure of the test Saturday, however. President George W. Bush's administration made it clear this week that it intends to accelerate testing and development not only of the ground-based NMD system but a broad spectrum of sea, air and space based interceptors and lasers. "We are in a race against time -- and we are starting from behind," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. Nevertheless, the test result is sure to play into a still-unsettled debate here and abroad over missile defense -- its technical feasibility, cost and impact on arms control and relations with other countries. "If this test fails, it will have a major impact on the administration and the credibility of the US president," said Joseph Cirincone, an arms control expert and critic of the missile defense program at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. "It will have an impact immediately on his budget and plans for missile defense but it also will affect his overall defense and foreign policy because the administration has made missile defense the centerpiece of their policies," he said. A battle already looms in Congress over the big increases in the defense budget proposed by the administration in part to pay for missile defense. The Pentagon is seeking 8.3 billion dollars in 2002 for missile defense programs, a 57 percent increase over the previous year, and some key Democrats have threatened to oppose the increase because of the administration's determination to shelve the 1972 ABM treaty with Moscow. "Are we going to shift from a system that has been reliable for 30 years -- a combination of deterrence and treaty obligations particularly with Russia -- to something here that is not going to be 100 percent effective and may indeed be destabilizing?" asked Senator Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat. Two of three previous intercept attempts have failed, and this fourth test has been delayed for months for fine tuning while the new administration decided how it would approach missile defense. Despite the repeated failures, the system of ground-based interceptors being tested Saturday is the most advanced in the development process, having been the focus of the previous administration's national missile defense program. Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, the director of the Pentagon's missile defense programs, said the system was "an engineering challenge rather than an invention challenge." It relies on a network of early warning satellites, radars, and a computerized command and control system to detect, track and target an incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles. An interceptor missile is then launched into space where it releases an "exoatmospheric kill vehicle," in effect a killer satellite that guides itself into a pulverizing collision with the missile's warhead. If all goes according to schedule, a modified Minuteman missile will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California over the Pacific sometime between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm (0200 GMT and 0600 GMT Sunday). The interceptor missile is supposed to be fired from Kwajalein atoll less than 30 minutes later. While Pentagon officials have tried to lower expectations of success, critics have sought to minimize the significance of a successful interception. "They have spent a long time doing everything possible to make this a successful test. The whole test series is already designed to be as simple as possible. They should be able to do this," said Cirincone.<< spacedaily.com

To: TobagoJack who wrote (5811)	7/13/2001 12:46:05 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 74559

And, no, the Russians are NOT happy - <<Russia slams US acceleration of missile program MOSCOW (AFP) Jul 13, 2001 Senior Russian officials reacted angrily Friday to the US decision to accelerate its controversial missile defence plan, with a presidential aide warning it would unleash a new arms race. Igor Sergeyev, former defence minister and adviser to President Vladimir Putin on strategic defence, said Washington had ignored European opposition to the missile plan and was heading towards nuclear "hegemony." "Unfortunately, all our predictions are coming true," Sergeyev was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. "None of the arguments which we put forward during our consultations with the American side have stopped them trying to achieve hegemony in strategic defence," he said. Sergeyev added: "In effect, globalisation is turning into Americanisation." US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz announced on Wednesday that the Pentagon is speeding up development of the new missile system, bringing it into conflict with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) much sooner than expected. Sergeyev, who before being made defence minister was head of Russia's ballistic missile forces, went on: "The US is starting to put into effect the so-called doctrine of unilateral deterrence." If the US withdraws from the ABM treaty which it signed with Moscow, "in effect, the world will enter a new arms race," he told Interfax. "The issue is nothing to do with bilateral relations between Russian and the United States. It is to do with the fact that the world will be living under new conditions, where all the non-proliferation agreements will have been torn up." "This is not our will, it is the will of the US," said Sergeyev, adding however that it was not too late for Washington to "take a balanced decision" on missile defence. There was anger too in Russia's foreign ministry where unnamed officials said that if Washington withdraws from the ABM treaty, the "cornerstone" of global stability will have been wrecked. One diplomat poured scorn on US claims it would pull out of the treaty without breaking its terms. "How can you leave without violating the treaty?" he told Interfax. "It reminds me of the joke about being 'nearly pregnant.'" Another official said Moscow would issue an official reaction to Wolfovitz's announcement shortly, after it had sought further details from the Pentagon. Speaking at a Senate armed services committee hearing, Wolfowitz stressed that the United States would try to reach an agreement with Russia on a new security arrangement that moved beyond the ABM treaty. "We would prefer a cooperative outcome and we are optimistic that such an outcome is possible," he said. But he conceded that missile defense testing and development activity would inevitably bump up against ABM treaty restrictions. Russian opposition to the US missile defence scheme is supported by China and a number of European Union states led by France. Putin has already warned that Russia was prepared to retaliate by deploying multiple warheads on its latest generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles should Washington abandon that ABM. Pentagon officials said that construction will begin next year on test sites in Alaska for interceptor missiles that could provide an interim missile defense capability in 2004-2006.<< spacedaily.com I especially liked this bit: "In effect, globalisation is turning into Americanisation." I mean, like duh, Igor, get a clue. Let's all join hands, drink a Coke, and sing "We are the world." You WILL be assimilated.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (5811)	7/13/2001 1:49:06 PM
From: LV	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

“A big journey starts with the first step” or something like that - who said that? <g> Yes, NMD may not be practical yet, but unless we start we will never get there. As you said, it is OK as a venue for government fiscal sink. We can’t do much more for consumer demand, nothing for the supply side, so this may be THE answer out of our doldrums. Unlike war, there is no associated misery, and it could be almost as effective as a fiscal stimulus. Another alternative is a huge space project, but NMD seems to be more emotionally in tune with current administration. And it will keep bright minds busy and out of trouble <g>.