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Uranus satellite denied Moon status

Pasadena, Calif.- A space rock just 25 miles across has failed to win recognition as the 21st moon of the planet Uranus. The object was seen for the first and only time in 1999, when University of Arizona, Tucson astronomer Erich Karkoschka spied it in a series of 300 images taken of Uranus by the Voyager 2 spacecraft 13 years earlier. The object was given the provisional name of S/1986 U 10. However, the International Astronomical Union, the sole group charged with naming new solar system objects such as moons, has passed over the would-be moon. The IAU wants a Hubble Space Telescope image of the object before it is satisfied the rock actually exists, according to The Planetary Society, a space exploration advocacy group.

Uranus has 20 confirmed moons that all take their names from characters in the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. There are 90 known moons in the solar system, excluding the handful that orbit asteroids. Saturn has the most, with 30 moons.

Visit : http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/uranus.html

Six Russian Communication Satellites Launched

As a major achievement, 6 new communication satellites were launched from Pletesk Cosmodrome, pad LC32, at 0324 UTC on December 28. Three of the satellites, Kosmos 2384, 2385 and 2386 are military Strela-3 spacecraft, while the other 3 Gonets D1 spacecraft are for Rosaviakosmos. The Gonets satellites were launched into a 1400 km (756 nmi) orbit, inclined at 82.6 degrees, while the Kosmos/Strela satellites were placed into a 1415 km (764 nmi) orbit, also inclined at 82.6 degrees.

The Gonets D1 satellites will join the six operating "store and forward" communication satellites. The nine Gonets satellites will stay in orbit until 2004, servicing thousands of subscribers.

The cylindrical 225 kg (496 lbm) spacecraft are 0.8 m (31.5 in) in diameter and 1.6 m (63 in) long, and are covered with solar cells. They have an extended boom for gravity stabilization and a cone antenna. AKO Polyot builds the satellites for NPO PM. The Gonets D1 bus is a derivative of the Strela 3 bus, without the military transponders. The Gonets system is sometimes referred to as the Courier system in western sources, though Gonets translates from Russian into English as messenger, Strela translates as arrow.

This is most likely the last launch of 2001. There were 57 successful launches out of 59 launch attempts during 2001. A Taurus launch attempt in September failed to reach orbit, and an Ariane 5 launch in July stranded two satellites in the wrong orbit, though the Artemis satellite, using its own propulsion did reach its planned GEO orbit, though with a reduced life. The year 1963 was the last year with fewer launches, when there were 55 launches out of 70 launch attempts.

Sydney devastated by Wild Fires

Sydney,- Tearful residents salvaged what they could from their charred homes on Friday as officials feared dozens of forest fires raging across Australia's most populous state could escalate and burn out of control for days.

More than 4,400 people have been evacuated and at least 150 homes and thousands of acres of forest and farmland have been blackened by more than 100 fires, many of which were apparently lit deliberately. Three teen-age boys and two men have been arrested for allegedly starting a number of blazes, but police said other arsonists remain at large. The maximum penalties for arson are 25 years in prison if death results and 14 years in prison otherwise.

They called for calm after meteorologists predicted that strong dry winds, plummeting humidity and soaring temperatures would return to strengthen the fires. Koperberg, the state's top firefighter, said that so far there have been no fatalities or serious injuries.

GIS in the service of cancer patient

Paris, Aventis Pharma, the pharmaceutical company of Aventis, integrates in its portals ZoomCancer.com and Avantoux.com the location-centric solutions of Maporama, the European leader in online cartography and geocentric information.

Within the ZoomCancer.com website - the premier portal for Francophone cancer specialists and their patients, Internet users now can locate a physician, a hospital, a radiotherapist,… in France and in other three European countries (Switzerland, Belgium, and UK). Maporama then provides an exhaustive listing of found physicians with their contact details. The user may also define a search radius to list only the closest addresses.

Aventis Pharma has also integrated Maporama's geocentric functionalities in its website Avantoux.com - premier medical Internet portal dedicated to the symptom of cough. Within a section reserved to the members of this portal, Maporama provides an online facility allowing for the localisation of medical professionals.

Maporama's content is accessible from any Internet-enabled device, including regular PCs, WAP cell phones, as well as set-top-boxes that allow for surfing the Web on an ordinary TV screen. Maporama's multi-platform compatibility illustrates its effort to offer the most complete and most comprehensible geocentric products. Maporama offers a number of exclusive functionalities, such as multi-modal itineraries that combine different transportation modes (e.g. tube + on foot) in one travel sheet

Visit : http://www.aventispharma.fr/ , http://www.maporama.com/

First Satellite Images of Earth From QuickBird

Washington -- The highest-resolution, commercially available imagery of Earth is streaming out of space courtesy of DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite. The satellite was lofted on October 18, 2001 and circles the Earth in a 280-mile (450-kilometer) Sun-synchronous orbit. That spacecraft track around the planet yields a consistent revisit fly-over of the same spot year-round.

A show-off sampling of QuickBird's high-resolution imagery was made public December 17. The satellite has progressed halfway through the verification and calibration period. Full commercial operations are slated to begin in July 2002. Operated by DigitalGlobe, the QuickBird satellite was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation of Boulder, Colorado.

Visit : www.SPACE.com

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