henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (07/10/89)
Full-page ad for Pegasus, facing the editorial page. Editorial observing that commercial spaceflight in the US is starting to recover from its ills, but it's got a long way to go. Mostly, it needs stable government policy, plus government launcher buys done as commercial deals with minimum unnecessary paperwork. NASA to review astronaut-physiology data, with a specific eye on how capable shuttle pilots will be after a 2-4 week stay in space on an extended-duration orbiter. Another issue of long-stay shuttle missions is the need for more stowage space for food, clothing, and incidentals. Space Commerce Corp. files formal protest of NASA's decision to exclude it from commercial launch services bidding. SCC says it is 100% US-owned and should be allowed to compete, even though it proposes to use Soviet- built hardware. NASA interprets procurement rules to forbid other than US-built rockets, but SCC points out that (a) the contracts call for launch services, not hardware production, and (b) NASA has bought sounding-rocket launches using Canadian hardware in the recent past. Advisory panel warns the government that the government itself is the major customer for commercial space ventures in the near term, and care will be needed to keep the industry alive. Brazil's Avibras Aeroespacial and China's Great Wall Industries form joint venture specializing in comsat launching, tracking, and networking. China contributes launchers. Brazil contributes space-tracking experience, efficient international marketing (Avibras is a major weapons exporter), and equatorial launch sites. Brazil is developing its own launcher, but it is smaller than the Long March series and would not compete with them. NASA looks, once again, at scaling down the space station. The change of administrations in both the White House and NASA is likely to result in changes of plan. The station has been in financial trouble for some time and there are lingering technical problems as well: assembly sequence is tricky, the existing module designs are too heavy and their center of gravity may be too far forward for safe shuttle launch (although these issues are uncertain until equipment layout is fully settled, and there is also the complicating issue that the shuttle will [theoretically] be using the ASRM improved SRBs by the time station launches start), the microgravity people are concerned that the station may not give sufficiently clean free fall, and the latest review of the proposal to change to solar- dynamic power called [sigh] for more studies. The official position from the station program office is that the approved configuration is the only one that will be worked on until NASA HQ decides otherwise, and that the plans cannot be based on availability of the ASRM because it is not yet assured. Various radical possibilities are being informally looked at, including schedule stretches, a simpler design with some money diverted to building Shuttle-C to launch it, and renegotiating some of the complex and constraining agreements between NASA, Congress, and the White House (Truly is reported to be willing to take the flak of breaking or renegotiating agreements if they are too troublesome). Truly seems to be taking the position that scaling the station down is better than slipping its schedule, and one or the other is probably inevitable given the financial problems. He is also said to be insisting that the station be launchable, without question, on the shuttle. The international station partners are throughly unhappy about all of this. Galileo is in initial launch preparation at KSC. USAF assessing schedule impact of May 24 Delta launch failure, believed to be due to malfunctioning ground equipment. The engine controller lit the vernier engines successfully, but the LOX valve for the main engine refused to open and the controller shut things down. There was never any significant risk of explosion, and preparing for another try should take only a few days. The payload is another Navstar; the only change made since the last one (Feb 14) is some vibration-absorbing material to damp out strong vibration observed in the new payload fairing. NASA rejects the [inevitable] bid protest from Hercules over the award of the ASRM contract to Lockheed/Aerojet, clearing the way for contract negotiations. Magellan trajectory correction successful May 21. NASA putting major efforts into getting Columbia ready for a military launch July 31. Since NASA has already eliminated one planned DoD mission this year (originally in August) to clear the decks for Galileo, it badly wants to keep the remaining military launch on schedule. There is a lot left to be done, since Columbia had slipped badly behind in hardware updates applied to the other orbiters. Activity on Discovery and Atlantis has practically stopped so the whole workforce can be put on Columbia. [The following are from Spaceflight, May issue.] Tass reports that Soviet bureaucrats are trying to prosecute Sergei Krikalev for draft-dodging, given that he failed to report for army- reserve duty several months ago. Krikalev has been unable to report as requested because he has been in orbit aboard Mir. The Tass headline was "Space is no escape from dim-wit bureaucrats, cosmonaut learns." Agreement due to be signed April 14 for 1991 launch of a British astronaut to Mir. This will be a purely commercial launch, funded by a consortium of British companies, with no government funding... although the British government clearly approves, since a Cabinet Minister will attend the signing ceremony. It will cost about $10M. A short list of 5-10 candidates will go to Glavkosmos in September, and the Soviets will pick a prime and backup, who will both spend about a year in training (for emergency procedures and the basics of living on Mir) at Star City. -- $10 million equals 18 PM | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology (Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
bpendlet@esunix.UUCP (Bob Pendleton) (07/12/89)
From article <1989Jul10.044722.16489@utzoo.uucp>, by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer): > NASA rejects the [inevitable] bid protest from Hercules over the award > of the ASRM contract to Lockheed/Aerojet, clearing the way for contract > negotiations. The politics of this award are most interesting. Lockheed is a recognized and respected prime contractor and system integrator. Hercules is a recognized and respected sub contractor. Hercules was going to sub contract out the system integration to a recognized and respected company that is usually a prime contractor. NASA insisted that the prime contractor also be the system integrator, hence Lockheed got the bid. Another nice example of having to be a member of the club before you can join the club. While I'm saying nasty things about NASA let me point you all at an article entitled "After Thirty-two Months of CYA CHALLENGER- The Truth Slowly Outs" by Yale Jay Lubkin in the May, 1989, issue of Defense Science. If you believe that Challenger was destroyed by a frozen O ring find a copy of this article and read it. It quotes from Dr. Richard Feynman's book "What Do You Care What Other People Think" and then backs up Feynman's opinions. One great quotation from Dr. George Keyworth, President Reagan's science advisor, is "Of all the organizations that I have dealt with, some so wrapped up in their bureaucratic interests that they were certainly counter to the direction ... the country was going in. Some of them filled with incompetent people. Some of them outstanding. I have only seen one that lied. It was NASA. From the top to the bottom they lie.... The reason they lie, of course, is because they are wrapped up in a higher calling. In their eyes they are white lies. They tell lies in order to do what has to be done. Because in the end the result will be for the betterment of the public. So they are not lying from evil. But, nvertheless, they are lying." In my personal opinion those lies, told for what ever "good" reasons, have destroyed NASA in the minds of the public whose "betterment" was the reason for the lies. In plain english, you can't do business with a liar. Bob P. -- - Bob Pendleton, speaking only for myself. - UUCP Address: decwrl!esunix!bpendlet or utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet - - Reality is stranger than most can imagine.