CHANDRAYAN LOST RADIO CONTACT

Bangalore, Aug 29 (IANS) Radio contact with India's first lunarcraft Chandrayaan-1 was abruptly lost early Saturday, the Indian space agency said.

'The contact was lost at 01.30 IST as the deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, received the data from the lunarcraft during the previous orbit up to 00.25 IST,' according to an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) statement here.

The space scientists are reviewing the telemetry data to analyse the health of the spacecraft's sub-systems.

Chandrayaan was launched Oct 22, 2008 from India's only spaceport Sriharikota, about 90 km from northeast of Chennai, on board the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

'The spacecraft has completed 312 days in orbit, making over 3,400 orbits around the moon and providing large volume of data from sophisticated sensors like terrain mapping camera, hyper-spectral imager, moon mineralogy mapper and so on, meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission,' the statement added.

IATA UPDATE

Through June 2009:

Total international: -21.3% year-on-year;

Within Far East: -29.0%;

Within Middle East: -11.6%;

Within North America: -26.3%;

Within Southwest Pacific: -3.6%;

Within Europe: -31.3%;

Six months ended June 2009:

Total international: -20.7%;

Within Far East: -27.4%;

Within Middle East: -9.6%;

Within North America: -19.0%;

Within Southwest Pacific: -12.1%;

Within Europe: -28.3%.

IATA: “Notably the decline moderated in both premium and economy travel in June. The number of passengers travelling on economy tickets has shown signs of reaching a floor since March, but until June that seemed largely due to business travellers switching from premium to economy seats rather than any underlying stabilisation of demand.

In June numbers travelling on economy tickets fell by 5.5% compared to a larger 7.6% decline in May. The decline in premium travel numbers also moderated, from 23.6% in May to 21.3% in June. However, this improvement was not seen consistently across all geographical markets. Some key Asian markets saw a further deterioration in June.

Since economic conditions improved in many key Asian economies during the second quarter this further deterioration in air travel is likely due to continued concerns over influenza A (H1N1). But the issue now is that this stabilisation of passenger numbers is partly being achieved at the expense of much lower yields, as airlines seek to boost cash flow by making more cheaper seats available. Revenues from premium travel fell an estimated 33% in Q1 and 41% in Q2 and was still declining at a rate close to 40% in June,” IATA statement. 

CHINA

Its been tough doing business in China - what with nasty fare pricing and oil costs all "managed" by the state. Fuel hedging gains helped China Eastern make a profit in the 1H09 despite a 15.6% fall in revenue. The airline remains bullish for the second half, saying economic growth in China remained strong and that it would benefit from World Expo which is being held in Shanghai next year. Readers might interested to know China's growth is estimated to be over 8% this year - an amazing number given the state of the world and the size of China.

China Eastern is one of China’s big three and reported a net profit of Rmb984.7m, compared with a loss of Rmb175.3m in the same period last year. The airline made a Rmb2.79bn profit from fuel hedging in the first six months of this year after a rise in oil price, contrasting with a Rmb15.3bn loss last year on hedging that led to the airline receiving Rmb7bn in state aid. Without that hedge it would have been an awful picture.

China Eastern’s performance is similar to that of Cathay Pacific, which reported a profit for the first half thanks to fuel hedge gains despite falling revenues. Domestic traffic rose 27% (wow!) from the same period last year, largely due to the state bail-out, offsetting large falls in demand on its international and regional routes. Clearly China's stimulus is a lot more successful than the one in the US.

Sales on international and regional routes dropped 38.3% and 22.3% respectively. The global financial crisis also hit its cargo arm, where sales fell 44.7%. Clearly the positive results could be based on an iffy situation which can be knocked over easily. So the airline is not out of the woods. The overall market has to improve considerably for confidence to really kick in.

CARDS

A superb and high quality free greeting cards site with hundreds of electronic postcards on offer. As a bonus, this site also includes a range of free printable cards, which tend to make more of a hit than their electronic counterparts. and it offers cards for almost any occasion. Some of the categories here include: Birthdays, "Thank You", Congratulations, Funny, Graduation, etc.It is wonderfull site of cards ...nice variety of selections 

Bombardier sells more Q-400s
Bombardier announced today that it received a signed, firm order for five Q400 NextGen turboprops. The airline which placed the order requested to remain undisclosed at this time, and has also taken options on an additional five Q400 NextGen aircraft.
Based on the list price for the Q400NG, the firm order contract is valued at approximately $159m and could rise to $332m if the five options are exercised. The transaction announced today increases firm orders for Q400/Q400NG to 362, with 245 delivered as of April 30, 2009. Q400 and Q400NG are in service with, or have been ordered by, 30 operators around the world.
This is very encouraging for Bombardier given last year's aggravation with SAS. This airplane remains in many ways unique in its class. ATR does not seems to be able to catch up and capitalize on the fumbles.