henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/28/88)
Senate committee asks GAO to expand on an earlier report on Morton Thiokol,
especially in light of recent accidents there. "Do significant and
potentially serious problems with quality control and safety still exist
at the Morton Thiokol Wasatch facility?"
ESA and NASA more or less sort out their difficulties over Space Station
cooperation, and ESA station people get their station-staff badges back
(they had been revoked in December, blocking ESA access to NASA facilities).
Japan remains a holdout.
Asat program finally abandoned during latest budget cuts, after repeated
Congressional bans on testing it. Remaining three missiles mothballed.
Advanced Launch System is hitting budget problems, and its future is
uncertain. SDI, its big backer, can't afford to pursue it alone given
budget constraints. It may turn into a USAF technology program.
Various SDI space projects suffer from budget cuts, notably the Zenith
Star chemical-laser satellite.
NASA seeks $11.48G FY89 budget, including space station (delayed a year
but still running), AXAF new start (Fletcher convinced the White House
to reverse its no-new-starts-this-year policy), Pathfinder technology
development, start on an improved SRB, start on long-duration orbiter
work, more expendables, large increases in Shuttle, and a modest boost
in the Civilian Space Technology Initiative's near-term programs.
[Mind you, NASA isn't going to *get* $11.48G.]
Reagan space policy released Feb 11. Calls for more coordination between
agencies. Rejects Kennedy-style commitment to a big new goal. Removes
10-m resolution limit on civilian imaging satellites, *but* calls for
case-by-case review based on "commercial and national security implications".
[Translation, the government is still in control, but it's no longer going
to make the rules explicit. Sigh.] Calls for trying to get some of the
space-station money from private sources. [Rotsa ruck.]
Reagan commercial space initiative, released Feb 11, pushes government
support of private space efforts, orders NASA to immediately lease
something like ISF (Space Industries is obvious favorite, since it's got
a long head start on design, but other companies are interested, notably
Fairchild [with its old Leasecraft proposal], some of the station bidders,
and MBB-Erno [which built the Spacelab modules for ESA, but would have to
team with a US company to meet US-only rules]; the expense of bidding,
plus reluctance to join a shaky partnership with the government, may mean
that only Space Industries bids, however) (Fletcher says NASA has
"reoriented its thinking" and reversed its earlier opposition to the idea),
endorses Spacehab's efforts to build a shuttle-cabin extender by ordering
NASA to do its best to give Spacehab launch opportunities (which is the
only government supoprt Spacehab wants at present), orders NASA to provide
expended shuttle external tanks at no cost to "all feasible US commercial
and nonprofit endeavors" (NASA expects substantial demand for the tanks,
but insists that recipients have their act together on either keeping them
in orbit or providing controlled reentry).
Liability limits for commercial launches will be delayed because Congress
and administration disagree on approach. Congress wants government to
assume liability above a ceiling. Administration wants an absolute cap
on indirect damages (e.g. pain and suffering) per person affected; such
a radical reform in liability principles is unlikely to win favor with
Congress, especially a Democrat-controlled Congress. One positive note:
the government has decided that if an accident is the government's fault,
the government will not hold commercial firms liable; previous policy said
that the firms were liable regardless! [One would think that these rules
were designed to discourage commercial launch firms, wouldn't one? Just
an accident, of course :-), even though they were set up by the USAF,
which is even more hostile to private spaceflight than NASA is -- which
is saying something!]
[Micro-editorial: In retrospect, it was clearly a mistake to give the USAF
primary responsibility for US military spaceflight. The US Navy, which has
a long history of being charged with supporting commercial sea users, would
have been a much better choice.]
SDI will add more funding to a sounding-rocket particle-beam experiment
in the wake of the budget-cutting cancellation of the shuttle Neutral
Particle Beam project.
Bad luck for the Soviets, a double dose this time. Cosmos 1906, an imaging
satellite working for the new Soyuzkarta marketing organization, fails and
has to be blown up to prevent it making an uncontrolled reentry and possibly
falling into US hands. And the Proton fourth-stage separation system fails
on a navsat launch, third Proton failure in last year or so.
SDI unveils plans for a robotic satellite servicer, possibly consisting of
a telerobotic "maintenance garage" plus a copy of NASA's Orbital Maneuvering
Vehicle to tow satellites in. Actually, it would probably have two OMVs,
and might also have a tanker module for an OMV to carry for refuelling
satellites; SDI is talking to NASA, since NASA has its own tanker ideas.
High-resolution radar images of Venus released by USSR. Old data (1983),
but new release, some of it much enhanced from earlier releases.
[Next item is from Flight International, 30 Jan issue]
British Aerospace is cautiously optimistic about Hotol's future. Engine
work has solved some possible problems. Details remain secret, and no
serious interest from other nations is likely until this changes, but
Rolls-Royce has released a vague schematic of the engine. It's a rocket
engine with a feed for atmospheric air, which is compressed after being
run through a "sophisticated" liquid-hydrogen heat exchanger to cool it.
Looks like the hydrogen used to cool the air spins the turbine for the
compressor and is then dumped, rather than going into the rocket.
[And these are from the 23 Jan issue]
Leonov says the Soviet shuttle will fly unmanned this year and manned
next year. Second Energia flight expected Feb-March. Leonov says
two modules will be added to Mir this year. A crew will visit Salyut 7
"at the end of the century" to examine it for long-term effects of
space.
Victor Blagov (dep chief manned spaceflight) says Mir 2 is under development
for Energia launch, and that a Manned Maneuvering Unit (the Soviets call it
a "jet bicycle", actually!) will fly this summer.
Space medicine expert Oleg Gazenko says that Romanenko's one-year flight
supplies adequate information to assess biological effects of a three-year
Mars mission, and there is no real need for longer simulation flights.
He was depressed, homesick, and argumentative towards the end of the
flight; apparently he has a history of being temperamental in space.
West German company Kayser Threde is to fly materials-processing experiments
aboard Soviet unmanned satellites between 1989 and 1992, first such Western
customer.
--
"Noalias must go. This is | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
non-negotiable." --DMR | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henryjtk@mordor.s1.gov (Jordan Kare) (04/01/88)
In article <1988Mar28.002506.12135@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > >[Micro-editorial: In retrospect, it was clearly a mistake to give the USAF >primary responsibility for US military spaceflight. The US Navy, which has >a long history of being charged with supporting commercial sea users, would >have been a much better choice.] Not to mention, as a Navy friend of mine points out, that the Navy has vastly more experience with closed life-support systems and other aspects of long-term survival in hostile environments -- other than needing to get used to zero-g, any submarine crewperson would feel right at home in a space station.... >Bad luck for the Soviets, a double dose this time. Cosmos 1906, an imaging >satellite working for the new Soyuzkarta marketing organization, fails and >has to be blown up to prevent it making an uncontrolled reentry and possibly >falling into US hands. Or onto US heads :-) (or is that :-( ?) >"Noalias must go. This is | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology >non-negotiable." --DMR | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry Jordin Kare jtk@mordor.UUCP jtk@mordor.s1.gov