Rudder Actuator Blamed The flight of NASA's X-43A has been postponed, due to an incident with the rudder actuator on the booster. On Feb 11, during setup at Orbital Sciences Corporation for testing of the rudder and its actuator, an anomaly caused the actuator to go hard over and hit its mechanical stop, exceeding the torque to which the units were qualified. Although the actuator may still function normally, it will have to be replaced. A joint government/contractor incident investigation is under way to determine the cause and corrective actions. The stack, consisting of the X-43A and its modified Pegasus booster, will be air-launched by NASA's B-52 carrier aircraft at 40,000 feet altitude.

New X-Prize Design Joins The Pack

IL Aerospace Technologies (ILAT) has unveiled its new X Prize competition vehicle design now called "NEGEV" (formerly named NEGEV-5). This vehicle will be a self-sufficient reusable sub-orbital space craft capable of being launched and recovered anywhere in the world from land or sea without the need of runways, assist aircraft, costly installations or complicated procedures. The Negev 5 will be launched from ground level using ILAT's own fully reusable High- Altitude Launch Platform (HALP). The concept allows the vehicle to hitchhike a free ride on a large stratospheric balloon filled with helium to its intended rocket launch altitude of 25 Km (82K ft) above mean sea level.  ILAT is Israel's first entry in the X PRIZE Competition.

Successful Launch of Last Boeing IUS Deploys USAF Satellite

On the final mission for the program, a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) payload booster vehicle successfully deployed a U.S. Air Force Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite on Valenintes Day. The IUS-10 and its integrated payload, DSP-22, were launched aboard a Titan IV B rocket, which also flew with a Boeing-made fairing. Liftoff was at 1:50 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (FL). The Defense Support Program is a satellite surveillance system providing the United States and its allies with ballistic missile early warning and other information related to missile launches, surveillance and the detonation of nuclear weapons.