henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/11/88)
NASA assessing new targets for CRAF; the slip from FY89 to FY90 (well,
maybe FY90) has probably postponed the launch several years, for lack
of good comet targets in the mid-1990s.
McDonnell-Douglas and Martin Marietta discussing a joint venture in the
USAF Medium Launch Vehicle competition, perhaps a McD-D Delta with a new MM
cryogenic upper stage. [They're dreaming, MLV is clearly an excuse to
throw some government business to General Dynamics's Atlas-Centaur.]
The space station will not be metric, for fear that it might affect safety
in an emergency when snap decisions are being made by ignorant astronauts
who have to convert metric units to archaic ones before thinking about them.
[AW&ST obviously did not word it quite that way...]
Among minor issues in Reagan's new space policy is development of a new
Space Debris Policy.
James Beggs, ex-NASA-admin, becomes chairman of Spacehab, which wants to
build privately-funded extender modules to enlarge the Shuttle's
pressurized volume. Spacehab does not want government money but does
want shuttle flight opportunities, which it so far hasn't got. It plans
to start bending metal this summer.
Latest NASA headache: the Long Duration Exposure Facility, long overdue
for retrieval by the shuttle, is decaying from orbit faster than expected.
NASA is trying to sort out a flight schedule that retrieves LDEF soon,
gets Magellan off to Venus on time, and gets SDI's Cirrus experiment up
early (which SDI badly wants). LDEF was intended to be picked up a year
after its deployment in 1984. NORAD predicts it will decay in mid-1990.
Many of LDEF's experiments have been ruined by now, since they weren't
meant for quite this long an exposure, but some will still yield useful
data, and LDEF itself is reusable. The problem is that LDEF needs most
of the shuttle cargo bay and its retrieval is difficult to combine with
another mission.
A Soviet radar image of Venus's surface, much more detailed than the ones
they've released before.
Andrew Stofan, NASA station boss, will leave for private industry.
Four bids are in for Intelsat 7, teams headed by GE, Matra/British Aerospace,
Hughes, and Ford Aerospace.
Western Union to sell its satellite system to Hughes, which will add the
three on-orbit satellites (and one yet to be launched) to its own system.
Hughes sues US for $1.2G, claiming patent infringement by government
satellite attitude-control systems. (This has actually been in the works
since 1971.)
Indonesia's Palapa B2R comsat will launch on Delta in 1990.
Military metsat launched successfully from Vandenberg Feb 2, after short
delays due to booster problems and weather.
House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology report says
Britain should double its space budget or forget the whole thing.
"[The current] level of spending gets the worst of all worlds -- too
much for real savings, too little for lasting achievement." Report
also stresses need for consistent policy and a stronger space agency,
and notes that government has refused to release the British National
Space Center's space plan while refusing to offer an alternative. Britain
should participate in ESA but should press for restraint in costly
programs duplicating those elsewhere. (In particular, Britain should
not participate in Hermes at all.) Increased cooperation with US
(military programs) and Canada (Radarsat etc.). Increased support
for Hotol, provided it continues to look feasible, also stressed.
NASA issues RFPs for project definition on AXAF, hardware develoment to
commence by end of year if funding comes through. [Picture of AXAF,
which actually could be mistaken for the Hubble telescope at first glance --
big tube with a sunshade lid at one end and solar arrays attached to the
middle.]
Report on microgravity from AIAA says US work is declining, not due to lack
of potential or interest but due to lack of flight opportunities. If this
goes on, the space station may not be useful for this work because none of
the necessary preliminaries will have been done. Several recommendations,
notably more funding, pressure on NASA to get going on a long-stay orbiter,
ISF, and Spacehab, and additional Spacelab missions.
Pratt & Whitney working on altitude-compensating rocket-nozzle concepts
for higher Earth-to-orbit performance, under small USAF contract. Several
possibilities, e.g. closeable vents in the nozzle side, to make nozzle
act short when outside pressure is high and long when it is low.
Full-scale component tests begin soon for Ariane 5's big oxyhydrogen engine.
Letter from Mark Huffstutler, Texas: "While the Mir space station orbits
overhead operating with the efficiency and occupancy rates rivaling a
Hilton Hotel and plans for a mission to Mars escalate, the US space program
cannot even put a man into orbit... At this rate, NASA will have to
contract with the Soviet Union to deliver our space station into orbit."
--
Those who do not understand Unix are | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly. | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry