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UPDATE 
Week ending July 23, 2000
+++ First pair of Cluster II spacecraft in orbit +++ German research satellite Champ launched +++ Hamburg airport partly privatized +++ Lufthansa has good first half +++ Avro RJX order from BA subsidiary +++ News in brief +++

First pair of Cluster II spacecraft in orbit
Zwei von vier Cluster-Satelliten in der Umlaufbahn

The European Space Agency's Cluster II mission to explore the magnetosphere is now under way after successful launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 16. At 14.39 CEST, a Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle provided by the French-Russian Starsem consortium lifted off with FM 6 and FM 7, the first pair of Cluster II satellites. Approximately 90 minutes into the mission, the rocket's Fregat fourth stage fired for a second time to insert the spacecraft into a 240 km - 18,000 km parking orbit. A few minutes later, the ground station in Kiruna, Sweden, acquired the two spacecraft and started to receive telemetry, confirming that the satellites had sucessfully separated from the Fregat and that they were now flying independently.
The winner of ESA's "Name The Cluster Quartet" competition was announced on July 16, during a special launch event for the media at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. After an exhaustive examination of more than 5,000 entries from all 15 ESA member states, ESA's director af manned sapceflight operations Professor Bonnet selected the winning entry from a shortlist recommended by the international jury. The lucky winner is Raymond Cotton of Bristol, who suggested the names of four dances - RUMBA, SALSA, SAMBA and TANGO - for the individual satellites of the Cluster quartet. The spacecraft will now be named as follows: FM 5 - Rumba, FM 6 - Salsa, FM 7 - Samba, FM 8 - Tango.

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German research satellite Champ launched
Deutscher Forschungssatellit Champ gestartet

On Saturday, July 15, 2000, at 2.00 p.m. (CET), a Cosmos booster launched the German research satellite Champ from the Russian launch site Plesetsk, 800 kilometers north of Moscow. The research satellite is based on the innovative satellite concept "Flexbus" which was developed by Astrium in Friedrichshafen. Champ (Challenging Minisatellite Payload) will provide data on the composition, structure and dynamics of the solid planet, its oceans and atmosphere as well as the surrounding envelope of charged particles and magnetic fields. On its orbital track, Champ will orbit the Earth every 93 minutes. The route will be exactly over the poles. Similar to a globe on an axis, the Earth will rotate below its orbit, thus enabling a precise measurement.
One of the mission objectives is to further develop the existing gravity model of the Earth. This enables exact measurements of the mass changes on the Earth's surface - for instance, by assumed polar ice melting. Exact magnetic field measurement also gives an insight into the Earth's interior. Thus, geophysicists hope for a more in-depth investigation of the driving force of continental drifts.
The research satellite Champ is a project of the geophysical research center in Potsdam (GFZ) and the German aerospace center (DLR). Jena Optronik GmbH, a subsidiary of Europe's new aerospace company Astrium, a joint venture of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and BAE System, was responsible for building the satellite.

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Hamburg airport partly privatized
Teilprivatisierung des Flughafens Hamburg

In a decision reached on July 18th, 2000, the Senate of the City of Hamburg has approved of a deal under which a 36% stake in Flughafen Hamburg GmbH (FHG), the Hamburg Airport operating company, is to be sold at a price of 540 million DM. The buyer is the HOCHTIEF AirPort GmbH and Aer Rianta International consortium, which also holds an option to purchase a further 13% of the shares. These can be taken in two tranches of four and nine per cent until 2007. The City of Hamburg will remain Hamburg Airport's major shareholder in the long run. Hamburg Airport's executive board stated: "We welcome today's decision by the Senate, which successfully concludes a very careful, meticulously carried out selection procedure. We look forward to working together with a partner with such wide international experience, and we warmly welcome our new shareholder to the Hamburg Airport group. At the same time, we also wish to express our sincere gratitude to our former shareholders, the Federal Republic of Germany (26 per cent) and the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein (10 per cent), for their long-standing commitment to Hamburg Airport."

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Lufthansa has good first half
Gutes Halbjahresergebnis der Lufthansa

Lufthansa reached new peaks in the first six months of the year. From January to June 2000, a 22.7 million passengers flew with the airlines in the Group, an increase on the same term last year of 7.4 per cent. Of the total passenger count, Lufthansa German Airlines carried 20 million (up by 6.4 per cent) and Lufthansa CityLine 2.7 million (up by 15.8 per cent). Exceptionally well-filled aircraft lifted the seat load factor by 1.2 percentage points to a record 73.1 per cent. The cargo business also ended the first half on a positive note: Lufthansa Cargo transported 878,701 tonnes of cargo and mail - an increase of 3.9 per cent on the previous year's level. Utilisation rose to a notable 67.5 per cent (plus 0.5 percentage points). The improved figures in passenger and cargo traffic raised the Group's overall performance to a new plane: The overall load factor was up year-on-year by 0.7 percentage points to a peak 70.8 per cent. All the 7.8 per cent increase in total capacity, in terms of tonne-kilometres, was sold in the marketplace. Sales rose by 8.9 per cent. First-half business figures for the Lufthansa Group will be published on August 23, 2000.

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Avro RJX order from BA subsidiary
BA-Tochter bestellt Avro RJX

BAE SYSTEMS Regional Aircraft has announced a firm contract for six Avro RJ100 airliners and the placing of options for six new Avro RJX100s for British Airways' London Gatwick-based subsidiary, CityFlyer Express. The firm order is valued at $180 million. The list price for the combined order and options is valued at approximately $360 million.The six firm Avro RJ100 airliners will be delivered between November 2000 and April 2001, bolstering CityFlyer's Avro RJ100 jet fleet to sixteen aircraft. The latest Avro RJ100s will be used to progressively replace ATR42 and ATR72 turboprops on growing routes and a number of new routes are also under evaluation. Currently, CityFlyer serves 15 European and UK destinations from London Gatwick. CityFlyer Express becomes the second customer to place options on the newly-launched Avro RJX and the first existing RJ customer to place options for the new RJX variant. Firm sales of the BAe 146/Avro RJ/Avro RJX family now total 381 aircraft. Once confirmed, the six RJX100 options will bring this total to 387 aircraft. The new Honeywell AS977-powered Avro RJX is scheduled to enter service in September 2001 and two test aircraft are well advanced on the final assembly line at BAE SYSTEMS Woodford, Manchester facility.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

Airbus Industrie, IBM and Dassault Systemes have announced that Airbus has signed a memorandum of agreement by which Airbus intends to purchase Dassault Systemes and IBM CATIA and ENOVIAVPM, as major software for Aircraft development and manufacturing within Airbus. Pursuant to this initial seven-year agreement, over 2500 seats will be deployed within Airbus to support the development of the A3XX. CATIA will be used for the product creation and simulation. ENOVIAVPM will be used to provide an integrated design through manufacturing solutions and to establish the link with the PDM system used by Airbus. As far as digital factory software is concerned, Airbus is also considering the use of DELMIA software. The use of IBM and Dassault Systemes software throughout the Airbus extended enterprise, will largely contribute to the complete integration of the digital aircraft development.
+++
MD Helicopters has selected Kaman Aerospace to supply composite rotor blade systems for MDHI's popular MD Explorer helicopter. The multi-year contract, including options, has a potential value of $75 million to Kaman. The five-bladed rotor system sets will be manufactured at Kaman Aerospace facilities here and delivered to MD Helicopters' assembly plant in Mesa. The agreement calls for Kaman to supply rotor systems at a rate of one shipset each week with deliveries expected to begin in the first half of 2001. This is MDHI's second major award to Kaman. In April, Kaman was selected as the sole supplier of fuselages for MDHI's entire line of single-engine MD 500 and MD 600 Series helicopters. That multi-year program has a potential value of $100 million. Work on the fuselages is being performed at Kaman's Moosup, Conn., plant, and at facilities in Jacksonville, Fla.
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A Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, CA, was successfully launched early on July 17 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, FL. This was the fourth successful launch of the new-generation replenishment spacecraft, designated GPS IIR. The Company will supply 16 more of these satellites to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA, over the next five years. The satellite launched this morning is officially known as GPS IIR-5, and will join 27 other operational GPS satellites now on orbit. This satellite will improve global coverage and will increase the overall health of the GPS constellation. The Global Positioning System allows any user equipped with a GPS receiver to determine velocity and worldwide position - latitude, longitude and altitude - within a few meters. Both position data and velocity are given at a precise reference time. Although originally designed as a guidance and navigational tool for the military, GPS has proven beneficial in the fields of transportation, surveying, as well as search and rescue operations, and has created a tremendous demand in new commercial and civil markets.
+++
Boeing recently installed the propulsion system for its short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator aircraft in less than four hours, the second time in three months the team installed a JSF propulsion system quickly and without incident. Each of the Boeing X-32B and X-32A demonstrators now carry their flight-rated propulsion systems. Pratt & Whitney engines power both aircraft, which will make their first flights this year. Rolls-Royce makes the vertical lift and attitude-control system components necessary for the X-32B to perform STOVL operations.
+++
Bombardier Aerospace recently delivered CRJ Serial Number 400 to St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Airlines. The milestone delivery comes less than eight years after the first aircraft of its type entered service with launch European customer, Lufthansa CityLine in November 1992. At the outset of the program, launched in March 1989, Bombardier officials outlined plans for the first 50-passenger regional jet designed specifically for airline service. Development costs would be around $275 million (Cdn.) based on a 400 aircraft program. What was initially greeted with some degree of skepticism in the marketplace pioneered a startlingly dynamic niche market and became the quietest roaring success ever in the regional aircraft industry. Today, with Serial Number 400 delivered, the company has a total orderbook of 1,400 CRJ aircraft models delivered, ordered and optioned. Bombardier has also designed and launched a 70-passenger stretched version, the CRJ700 Series, which is set to enter service early next year and has plans on the drawing board for a further stretched entry in the 90-seat category, the CRJ900.
+++
A major order from another Mideast head of state further strengthens the leading position of Lufthansa Technik (LHT) in the outfitting and comprehensive servicing of VIP aircraft in sizes up to that of the Boeing 747-400. Under a first-of-its-kind all-inclusive program involving a volume of services valued at nearly 300 million dollars the new VIP customer will be looking to Lufthansa Technik not only for completing his customized aircraft's cabin. In this turnkey project LHT will also be providing full support in procure-ment of the aircraft, in writing its system specifications, supervising its construction at the manufacturer's plant and ensuring the implementation of modifications. LHT will likewise be responsible for final acceptance of the plane and for conducting its test flights. In addition, it will be helping to prepare the customer's operational home base.
+++
On July 15, at 12:00 GMT (14:00 Central European Summer Time), the Italian mini-satellite MITA was launched from the Plesetsk Space Centre, some 800 km north-west of Moscow, on a Russian Cosmos launcher. Owned by the Italian space agency (ASI) and developed by Carlo Gavazzi with contributions from many other Italian companies, MITA has two tasks to perform: in a circular orbit at 450 km altitude, the mini satellite will carry a cosmic particle detector, while its platform will be tested for the first time as a vehicle for future scientific missions. MITA also carries the MTS-AOMS payload (MicroTechSensor for Attitude and Orbit Measurement System), developed by Astrium in the framework of ESA's Technology Flight Opportunity trial programme. With the Technology Flight Opportunity scheme, funded by its General Studies Programme, ESA intends to provide access to space for European industry's technology products needing in-orbit demonstration to enhance their competitiveness on the space market.
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In an effort to entice others to follow suit, Lufthansa Cargo has announced rate increases of seven to 12 per cent for October. Yields in the air cargo business have been very depressed recently, especially on the transatlantic markets as well as on Asian routes.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen sind weiter abrufbar:

*July 16, 2000 *July 9, 2000

*June 25, 2000 *June 18, 2000 *June 11, 2000 *June 4, 2000

*May 28, 2000 *May 21, 2000 *May 14, 2000 *May 7, 2000

*April 30, 2000 *April 16, 2000 *April 9, 2000 *April 2, 2000

*January to March 2000 *January to December 1999 *January to December 1998 *January to December 1997 *September to December 1996

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