2007

October 27, 2007 - BUCHAREST
Mission 2 video available on YouTube.

October 26, 2007 - BUCHAREST
ARCA featured on "Magazin Aeronautic", No.10. The article is focused on Mission2 as well as on other team achivements during the past years.

October 24, 2007 – RM. VALCEA
Dumitru Popescu interviewed on Spacefellowship. He is talking about ARCA`s future plans and private suborbital activities. You can read the interview here and discuss this on forum.

October 17, 2007 - RM. VALCEA
Mission3 scheduled for May 2008. Flight data and launch location not yet disclosed. The launch will be made from the sea with the help of a large marine platform designed at ARCA in the past year. The marine platform is under construction.

October 16, 2007 - BUCHAREST
ARCA wins 3 governmental contracts of 1.6 mil Euro (2.3 mil$) to develop a high altitude balloon for scientific platforms, a low cost unmanned air launched suborbital vehicle and a VTOL experimental vehicle during the National Research Program competition.

September 28, 2007 - RM. VALCEA
Mission2 Flight pictures and data available here. Images in short time.

September 25, 2007 - CAPE MIDIA
SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT!
Mission2 flight of STABILO1B vehicle was launched today at 08:30 local time from Cape Midia Air Force Launch Site. More images and info in short time.

September 21, 2007 - CAPE MIDIA
Mission2 flight canceled due to bad weather. Today was extremely cloudy and the wind exceeded 8m/s. The wind speed limit for the solar balloon is less than 4m/s. Next launch attempt on September 25 at 08:00 local time.

September 14, 2007 - RM. VALCEA
The first launch day of Mission2, scheduled for September 20, was canceled due to military maneuvers close to the launch site area. The first launch attempt for Mission2 rescheduled for September 21 at 08:00 local time.

September 5, 2007 - RM. VALCEA
The first launch attempt for Mission2 will take place on September 20 at 08:00 local time, from Cape Midia - Air Force Launch Site. If the weather will not be suitable for launch, the team will stay on the launch site during the next 10 days waiting for good weather.

August 20, 2007 - SUCEAVA
STABILO-1B vehicle will transport an amateur radio equipment, as additional payload. This equipment consist of a radio transmitter intended to be used for testing the radio waves propagation at high altitude and is made by a group of ham radio operators and scientists from Suceava County. The call sign of this beacon will be YO8KGU/AM and will operate in the 2 meters amateur radio band.

August 19, 2007 - RM.VALCEA
Mission2 will be launched between September 17-October 1 from Cape Midia - Air Force Launch Site, depending of weather. STABILO1B, a special version of the STABILO vehicle, designed for high altitude manned flights (above 100km), will be used as the second stage for Mission2. A new type of high performance engine was considered. Configuration: recovery compartment at the top - crew cabin - fuel tank - rocket engine.

The vehicle will fly above the sea for about two hours. The cruise altitude was set at 16.100 m-FL528 (a potential target at maximum 20.600m). The orange color is used for easy recovery from the sea. Check this site periodically for additional news regarding this flight.

July 28, 2007 – RM. VALCEA
We are deeply sorry for the accident that happened at Scaled during an oxidizer flow test, two days ago. Our thoughts are going to the team members of Scaled, former Ansari X Prize Competitor and winner of this competition.

July 28, 2007 – RM. VALCEA
Mission2 flight of the STABILO 1B vehicle was rescheduled for September 2007. More in short time.

May 22-25 – SIBIU - The European Capital of Culture
The event “Conrad Haas-Sibiu’s pioneer of Astronautics”, gathered a series of national and foreign specialists in the field of astronautics. Among them Air Force G-ral. Florin Zaganescu, author of a series of great books published in the past decades and Prof. Ioan Radu, one of the world pioneers in building and launching past centuries rocket replicas. He was a rocket models world champion establishing a series of world records. Dumitru Popescu presented the latest developments at ARCA.

May 21, 2007 – RM. VALCEA
ARCA President, Dumitru Popescu will participate to the conference “Conrad Haas-Sibiu’s pioneer of Astronautics”. The event will take place in Sibiu - The European Capital of Culture - May 22-25. Popescu will speak Thursday at 14:00 GMT about the influence of the Austrian-Romanian rocket pioneer in modern astronautics.

March 26, 2007 - SUCEAVA
During the Mission2 flight of the STABILO-1B vehicle, the solar balloon will carry an amateur radio equipment, as additional payload. This equipment consist of a radio transmitter intended to be used for testing the radio waves propagation at high altitude and is made by a group of ham radio operators and scientists from Suceava County. The call sign of this beacon will be YO8KGU/AM and will operate in the 2 meters amateur radio band.

March 26, 2007 - RM. VALCEA
This month our team was relocated in a new build facility. This lead to delays for the scheduled Mission 2 flight. The rescheduled flight will be announced soon.

February 19, 2007 - BUCHAREST
Mission1 live video (7.5Mb) available for download.

February 19, 2007 - RM.VALCEA
STABILO flight program is now available (550kb-pdf)
“The STABILO program was initiated at the end of 2005 and it will end in 2009. Basicaly, we will have two flights on each year. Right now we see for the STABILO system three main objectives:
- to teach us how to develop a reliable space tourism system
- to help EU not to loose contact with US advances on manned suborbital flight (Let's be honest: Europe is once again far behind US on manned spaceflight)
- to brake records, especially altitude records...I will say more on this after the following flight." - Dumitru Popescu, ARCA President

February 9, 2007 – RM.VALCEA
· The assembly process of the STABILO-1B spaceship for the Mission2 flight, is almost completed. The carrier balloon, five times bigger than the one used on Mission1 flight, will enter into fabrication at the middle of February. The new flight procedures will involve, beside the carrier balloon, two smaller balloons. In this situation we estimate a true air show.
· ARCA is building a new assembly hangar for the STABILO vehicle. The facility will be operational at the end of February and it will be equipped with environmental control.
· More than 90 journalists announced their intention to participate at Mission2 flight. We estimate to break the previous record of 90 journalists at Demonstrator2B flight in September 2004.
· At the end of February ARCA will publish a document regarding the STABILO flight program that will end in 2009.

January 15, 2007 – RM.VALCEA
The Mission2 flight was scheduled for March 2007. More data about this flight:
Flight: Mission 2
Program: STABILO - The European Private Manned Space Program
Programmed date: March 2007
Flight category: unmanned
Vehicle configuration:
Complete first stage (carrier balloon) + complete STABILO-1B vehicle
Objectives:
1. In flight test of the complete first stage (the carrier balloon)
+ the complete STABILO-1B vehicle during the climbing sequence and
at the operational launch altitude of +20.000m
2. In flight test of the reentry procedures and recovery hardware: the drogue tri sonic parachute, main and reserve parachutes.

More News from    2010     2009    2008    2006    2005    2004    2003    2002