Lets take a look at French Guiana

Source: Reuters ()

By Laurent Marot

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - An Ariane-5 rocket
blasted off from French Guiana on Friday putting into orbit
telecommunications satellites for Africa and North America,
space officials said.

The rocket was launched from Europe’s space base in Kourou,
on the northeast coast of South America, at 6:41 p.m. (9:41
p.m. British time).

Originally scheduled for launch on Thursday, the mission
was delayed for 24 hours on account of a technical problem.

Twenty-seven minutes after lift-off the rocket placed into
a preliminary orbit RASCOM-QAF1, a telecoms satellite designed
to provide service across Africa.

RASCOM, a 3.2 tonne (7,000 lb) satellite for the Regional
African Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM), is
slated to serve the rural African market overlooked by major
commercial operators.

“(RASCOM-QAF1) will contribute to bridging the digital
divide within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the
world,” Faraj Elamari, RASCOM chief executive said after the
launch.

“This will result in savings of several hundreds of million
of dollars now paid annually to outside of Africa,”
he added.

RASCOM was built by the Franco-Italian consortium Thales
Alenia Space in a turnkey contract.  Continued…

Source: Reuters UK ()

By Laurent Marot

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - An Ariane-5 rocket
blasted off from French Guiana on Friday putting into orbit
telecommunications satellites for Africa and North America,
space officials said.

The rocket was launched from Europe’s space base in Kourou,
on the northeast coast of South America, at 6:41 p.m. (4:41
p.m. EDT).

Originally scheduled for launch on Thursday, the mission
was delayed for 24 hours on account of a technical problem.

Twenty-seven minutes after lift-off the rocket placed into
a preliminary orbit RASCOM-QAF1, a telecoms satellite designed
to provide service across Africa.

RASCOM, a 3.2 tonne (7,000 lb) satellite for the Regional
African Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM), is
slated to serve the rural African market overlooked by major
commercial operators.

“(RASCOM-QAF1) will contribute to bridging the digital
divide within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the
world,” Faraj Elamari, RASCOM chief executive said after the
launch.

“This will result in savings of several hundreds of million
of dollars now paid annually to operators outside of Africa,”
he added.

RASCOM was by the Franco-Italian consortium Thales
Alenia Space (TCFP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) in a turnkey contract.  Continued…

Source: ArabianBusiness.com ()

RascomstarQAF, a pan-African satellite services operator, has launched its first satellite, Rascom-QAF1, as part of its plan to provide telecom services to rural areas in Africa, inter-city and international phone links, satellite TV and internet services.

The satellite, which was launched via an Arian 5 GS rocket from a launch site in French Guiana, was built by Thales Alenia Space and has an expected lifespan of 15 years.

RascomstarQAF has plans to launch a second satellite, Rascom-QAF2, although it has yet to announce a timeframe for the launch.

Source: Reuters UK ()

By Laurent Marot

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - An Ariane-5 rocket
blasted off from French Guiana on Friday putting into orbit
telecommunications satellites for Africa and North America,
space officials said.

The rocket was launched from Europe’s space base in Kourou,
on the northeast coast of South America, at 6:41 p.m. (4:41
p.m. EDT).

Originally scheduled for launch on Thursday, the mission
was delayed for 24 hours on account of a technical problem.

Twenty-seven minutes after lift-off the rocket placed into
a preliminary orbit RASCOM-QAF1, a telecoms satellite designed
to provide service across Africa.

RASCOM, a 3.2 tonne (7,000 lb) satellite for the Regional
African Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM), is
slated to serve the rural African market overlooked by major
commercial operators.

“(RASCOM-QAF1) will contribute to bridging the digital
divide within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the
world,” Faraj Elamari, RASCOM chief executive said after the
launch.

“This will result in savings of several hundreds of million
of dollars now paid annually to operators outside of Africa,”
he added.

RASCOM was by the Franco-Italian consortium Thales
Alenia Space (TCFP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) in a turnkey contract.  Continued…

Source: MiamiHerald.com ()

ORANJESTAD, Aruba — A suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway never mentioned her death in an online chat, his lawyer said Friday, contradicting Aruban prosecutors who called the comment key new evidence in the case.

The chat log fell far short of justifying the arrest of Deepak Kalpoe, one of three men seen with the American teen the night of her disappearance, said attorney Ronald Wix.

A court in the Dutch Caribbean island agreed and quickly released Kalpoe, along with brother Satish and a third suspect, Joran van der Sloot. Now, authorities should leave the three men alone, Wix told reporters.

The three suspects were seen leaving a bar with Holloway on the final night of her high school graduation trip to the island.

Aruban prosecutors detailed the chat log for the first time Thursday, saying it was a key clue that they hoped would break open the long-stalled investigation. The men did not speak with investigators while detained and a judge ordered their release for lack of evidence.

Upon their release, authorities said they had reached a dead end after two years of pursuing fruitless searches and leads, though they could still prosecute the men if they uncover evidence.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 1 dead, 6 injured in plane accident

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - A small plane crashed into the sea Friday near the Dominican Republic, killing one person and injuring six, authorities said.

The plane, a private tourist charter carrying Venezuelan citizens, had left Venezuela and was bound for the southeastern town of La Romana when it crashed around noon, said Pablo Polanco, a Dominican civil defense director.

Investigators do not know why the plane crashed, but suspect a mechanical problem because weather in the area was clear at the time, said Pedro Jimenez, spokesman the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.

Authorities said they are looking for the body an 80-year-old woman they …

Source: Earthtimes ()

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Source: PR Newswire (press release) ()

LONDON, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ — Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announces that
Mputa-4 well test operations have been completed and the data taken from
the well will now be integrated with the Kaiso-Tonya appraisal program well
data and the recently acquired 3D seismic.

Mputa-4 was production tested from a 5m interval at 944m for an
extended flow period of three days from November 21 to 24, 2007. The well
tested at rates of 950 to 1,100 bbls/day on a small 1/2″ choke and the oil
produced was a 31 degree API waxy sweet crude, consistent with that
encountered elsewhere in the Kaiso-Tonya Area. The well was then shut-in
for an extended 16-day pressure build-up period with downhole reservoir
pressure gauges installed.

The objective of the test was to enhance the understanding of the
lateral connectivity and geometry of the sandstone reservoir by analyzing
production and pressure trends. The pressure data indicated some depletion
over the test period and this data will now be integrated into the
subsurface evaluation along with an updated 3D seismic geological model to
refine reserve estimates and development planning assumptions ahead of the
anticipated sanction of the Early Production System in late Q1 2008.

Notes to Editors

Tullow is a leading independent oil & gas, exploration and production
group, quoted on the London and Irish Stock Exchanges (symbol: TLW) and is
a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The Group has interests in over 110
exploration and production licenses across 22 countries and focuses on four
core areas: Europe, Africa, South Asia and South America.

Tullow’s European interests are primarily focused on gas in the UK
Southern North Sea where it has significant interests in the
Caister-Murdoch System and the Thames-Hewett areas and operates over 70% of
its production.

In Africa, Tullow has exploration and production in Gabon, Cote
Congo (Brazzaville), Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea and a gas
field development in Namibia. Tullow also has …

Source: Globe and Mail ()

GALIBI, SURINAME — She looms close, lit by the moon. Her head reminds me of an old woman’s wrinkled face wrapped in a shawl. She’s one metre long, weighs about 150 kilograms and is moving fast.
It’s near midnight and I’m huddled with 15 strangers on a beach holding a tarp over our heads to stay out of the rain. Our guide points to a spot a few metres away and we throw off the tarp, hurrying closer. Suddenly no one cares that they’re getting drenched.
The giant green turtle doesn’t stop for us as she makes her way to the water, leaving behind a trail in the sand as wide as a tractor tire. The trail leads back to her nesting site at the edge of the jungle.
This is the Galibi Nature Reserve, one of only a handful of nesting sites for the endangered sea turtle worldwide. It’s located in the former Dutch colony of Suriname on South America’s northeast coast, a country wedged between Guyana and French Guiana.

Four species nest here from January to August: green turtles, olive ridleys, hawksbills and leatherbacks. The reserve is the site of one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world.
For the eco-tourist, adventurer or traveller tired of paying big bucks for the same island beach vacation they got last year, Suriname, South America’s smallest country, is a fascinating alternative: Caribbean attitude with the Amazon thrown in for good measure.
I’ve spent five months working as a volunteer with HIV/AIDS youth groups in the capital city, Paramaribo, and before I leave, my Surinamese friends tell me that I must see Galibi. The place is a national treasure - even people who have never been there extol its white sandy beaches and mammoth turtles.
Paramaribo, whose historic inner city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is four hours from Galibi. The only way into the reserve or nearby villages is via the Marowijne River, …

Source: BBC News ()

By Jonathan Fildes

Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Europe’s ExoMars rover is scheduled to launch in 2013

Enlarge Image

The European Space Agency (Esa) has agreed to fund work on its flagship ExoMars mission despite not having final go-ahead from European ministers.

The agency has said it will commit 80 million euros to fund initial work to develop the Martian robot rover.

Starting work in 2008 is crucial if Esa is to launch ExoMars, which will search for signs of life, in 2013.

European governments will not make a decision to fund the one billion euro mission until November 2008.

“If we want to preserve the launch date in 2013 we cannot stop at all,” Jorge Vago, ExoMars project scientist, told BBC News.

“We need to start procuring long-lead items - the sort of stuff you order today and you get in one and a half years.”

The next available launch opportunity would be 2016.

Rocket choice

The mission has already been delayed by two years after the project was redesigned to be lofted by an Ariane 5 rather than Soyuz rocket.

EXOMARS MISSION CONCEPT

Set to leave Earth in 2013; primary aim is to search for life

Will launch on a heavy-lift Proton or Ariane 5 rocket

Vented landing bags allow for a larger payload

Rover will carry a 16.5kg ‘Pasteur’ instrument suite

30kg geophysics/environment static station also possible

This would study the weather and listen for ‘Marsquakes’

Concept to cost Esa states more than first estimates

Design boost for Mars roverSuccess for rover bag test

“The cost of delaying from 2011 to 2013 was 150 million euros,” said Vago. “So, if we delay to 2016 you can expect something in the order of that.” …

Source: International Herald Tribune ()

Today is Monday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2007. There are 7 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date.

1515 - King Henry VIII appoints Thomas Wolsey as chancellor of England.

1524 - Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, who discovered a sea route around Africa to India, dies in Cochin, India.

1798 - Britain and Russia sign alliance against France.

1800 - Plot is uncovered in Paris to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte.

1814 - United States and Britain sign Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending War of 1812.

1865 - Several veterans of the U.S. Confederate Army form a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, calling themselves the Ku Klux Klan.

1871 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera “Aida” has its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal.

1906 - Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden becomes the first American to broadcast a music program over the radio, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

1937 - Japanese troops capture Hangchow in China.

1942 - French administrator of North Africa, Admiral Jean Darlan, is assassinated in Algiers.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appoints Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.

1951 - Libya becomes an independent federation under King Idris I.

1953 - Train crashes into river at Tangiwai, New Zealand, killing 151 people.

1968 - U.S. Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve television broadcast.

1975 - The Soviet Union defends its support for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and rejects the U.S. demand to stop its involvement in the Angolan war.

1979 - An estimated 80,000 Soviet soldiers invade Afghanistan to oust Communist leader Hafizullah Amin and replace him with the pro-Moscow Babrak Karmal. The European Space Agency launches …