henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (07/18/90)
Payload Systems Inc, whose recent activities have included flying a microgravity payload on Mir, is looking for its own microgravity aircraft. PSI has leased NASA's KC-135 for PSI customer use at times, but NASA's priorities and restrictions get in the way. White House and OMB [!!] are holding firm in trying to put NASA's 24% [!] budget increase off-limits to Congressional cuts. NASA and the Official of Commercial Space Transportation are feuding over next month's launch of CRRES on a commercial Atlas. NASA has been telling General Dynamics that this is a government launch and does not need an OCST launch license; OCST says NASA bought the launch from a commercial supplier and it is therefore a commercial launch. The latest development is a "Dear Admiral" letter from the deputy secretary of Transportation to Truly, filling him in on the rules for commercial launches [this is NASA's first]. NASA is now saying "we'll work it out" and suchlike. GD says they will do whatever the government wants [with an implication of "and we wish they'd make up their minds" :-)], but they are more concerned about the technical schedule than the paperwork. [Correctly so, as the launch date of June 23 has slipped.] Big article on the thermal-blanket problems with the Soyuz now on Mir [making, according to the Soviets, altogether too much fuss about a problem that is more a nuisance than a life-threatening disaster.] The thermal blankets are partly loose as a result of (probably) launch damage, and this is interfering with temperature control on the Soyuz and possibly also blocking the view of its horizon sensors. The Soyuz is still operational, and has been moved between docking ports as needed, but it is very cold unless Mir is reoriented (to the detriment of its solar-array output) to give the Soyuz maximum sunlight. The Soyuzes do tend to get cold once they are attached to Mir and powered down, but the loose blankets are worsening the problem. Equipment for a repair EVA is being sent up; the problem is that there are few handholds on the Soyuz, so a "ladder" will be extended from Mir for safe footing during repairs. Bush commits US to a Mars landing by 2019. [How daring and ambitious. :-(] Lockheed consortium awarded definitive contract for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor development and initial launches. First photos of China's secret Taiyuan polar-orbit launch facility. ESA decides that Hipparcos is working well and looks to have sufficient working life in its unintended orbit, so no Hipparcos 2 will be needed. Ariane flights will resume in July-August. The origin of the piece of cloth that blocked V36's water pipe is not yet known, although this water line underwent some unusual procedures including being removed and reinstalled several times during reworking. Investigations are continuing into an unrelated and relatively minor problem, a small fuel leak in one of V36's strap-on boosters. Consort 3 microgravity sounding-rocket launch successful at White Sands, some small consolation for Space Services Inc. after C2's failure. [Not enough, alas, to save SS from financial collapse.] HST fine-guidance sensors function properly for the first time, with first image expected shortly. [And the bad news shortly after that...] Feature article on the Astro-1 ultraviolet/X-ray astronomy mission. [Now seriously postponed due to shuttle delays and higher-priority payloads.] Letter from Lee Robert Caldwell, adding a note to AW&ST's coverage of the SDS and Jumpseat programs [secret military programs tapering off a few years ago]. Apparently there are two known variants of the Titan IIIB, the Titan 23/24 B/Agena-D and the Titan 33/34 B/Ascent Agena. The latter was used for SDS and Jumpseat, and no photograph of it has ever been published. LRC reports seeing a photograph of it during a visit to Norton AFB, where the leftover Titan 2s are in storage; he says it looks quite different from the 23/24, more like a 34D without SRBs. -- NFS: all the nice semantics of MSDOS, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology and its performance and security too. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry