henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (11/17/88)
Cover photo is Discovery landing. Japan is facing a high probability that its current space budget, about $1.12G/yr, is not enough for the space station and the H-2 launcher and their other projects, once the big things move into peak funding periods. NASA got 10 proposals to use expended shuttle tanks in orbit. About half of them are passing the first cut and proceeding to detailed review. SDI's Relay Mirror and Laser Atmospheric Compensation Experiment payloads are likely to go into storage rather than being launched, when they are completed in spring. There will be no launcher available, SDI expects a budget that will limit its launches, and these two are low priority. Earlier this year, DoD proposed firing the Miracl infrared laser at White Sands at an orbiting US satellite [the now-useless Asat test target?] as an experiment in antisatellite weaponry. Senior USAF types vetoed the idea. Landsat data acquisition will be curtailed starting Nov 1, to the extent of shutting down the US ground stations (but not the foreign ones, which pay a fee for use of the satellites) and reducing acquisition through TDRS a lot. Congress appropriated only $9M for Landsat operations for FY89; the business-as-usual costs are about $26M/yr. Major coverage of Discovery's flight. NASA will study the "plume migration" that occurred on both SRBs on STS-26. It is believed to be unrelated to the SRB design changes. Discovery's Ku-band antenna, its link to the TDRS system, had a mechanical or electrical failure in its pointing system the second day up. Details not known yet. Discovery's flash evaporator, used for cooling the orbiter when the payload bay doors are closed and their radiators thus are useless, failed during orbital insertion. The F.E. boils water for cooling, and ice formation is suspected as the cause of the problem. To help thaw the ice, the orbiter was kept rather warm and the FE's heaters were left on. Several hours before reentry, several bursts of water were released into the FE to blow remaining ice out; this worked. The FE also had an oscillation problem of some sort during retrofire; it was reset and that cleared the problem. TDRS-C, deployed by Discovery, is undergoing checkout in Clarke orbit after some trouble in getting one of its big antenna booms deployed. The boom started to deploy on command, but then stopped. After 30 minutes in which nothing happened, a meeting was called to assess the problem; during the meeting, the boom freed itself and deployed, perhaps because of some minor thruster firings around that time. Later there was a minor delay, unrelated, when thrusters failed to fire after a change of control station at White Sands; this turned out to be due to a procedural error on the ground. NASA hopes to launch Atlantis and its secret DoD payload [which I'd guessed to be an early-warning satellite, but which I've seen variously reported as an NSA snoopsat or a low-orbit spysat; the former is plausible but the latter is wrong, this one's using an IUS to reach Clarke orbit] by Nov 24; the official target is Nov 17 but this is considered optimistic. There was little damage to ground facilities from the Discovery launch, so the pacing items are orbiter readiness and Discovery post-flight analysis. The minor hardware problems experienced on Discovery will need looking at, and things are being delayed because workers without security clearances have limited access to the orbiter. Discovery is being prepared for ferrying back to KSC. The tires and new brakes behaved fine and showed only normal wear, despite a shorter landing roll than expected. There was minor tile damage, as usual. There was one nasty gouge, 19x8x1.5 inches, under the right wing, possibly due to a piece of cork insulation coming off the nose of an SRB during launch. Temperature measurements in this area during reentry showed nothing worse than 114F, no problem. First photo of the Soviet shuttle on the pad. (This is reproduced much better than the one in the NY Times, by the way.) It is slightly shorter than the US shuttle, has a two-part rudder, and has its OMS engines buried in its tail (since its main engines are on Energia and hence the tail is free for the OMS). Otherwise the orbiter is superficially similar to the US one. The new US orbiter is slightly ahead of schedule, which calls for delivery in April 1991 and first flight in Feb 1992. It is being built to about the same standard as Atlantis, but with a couple of improvements which are scheduled to be retrofitted to the other orbiters as well. It will have a drag chute, to be deployed on touchdown, which will shorten landing run and make life easier for the shuttle's somewhat-marginal brakes, landing gear, and tires. The other improvement is a new toilet, although design work on that is on hold until NASA sorts out what will be used on the space station -- there are hopes of using the same system for both. [Why not use the Skylab toilet? Unlike the Shuttle one, it worked.] DoD establishes tri-service Space Test Range organization to coordinate future military space tests. A primary objective is better management of space debris. This will essentially provide a permanent version of the ad-hoc systems set up for each military test in the past. Anticlimax: Cosmos 1900's emergency on-board systems were triggered Oct 1, perhaps by the beginning of noticeable air-drag heating, and boosted its reactor safely into high orbit. ESA approves $6.8M to reactivate Giotto early in 1990 so it can be checked out for possible use in another comet flyby. Major article on Japan's spaceplane plans. There are three major efforts underway: the Hope small unmanned spaceplane for launch on the H-2 as early as 1996, a longer-term (2006?) manned vehicle possibly similar to the US aerospace plane, and a general effort on advanced propulsion methods. This doesn't all necessarily have funding approval yet. Major article on NOAA-11, the polar-orbit metsat launched Sept 24. It will replace NOAA-9, which is aging and of limited use. NOAA-11 payloads include an ozone instrument, new to the NOAA series, and a Cospas/Sarsat payload to replace the one on NOAA-9. There is one earlier NOAA satellite in mothballs, which will be refurbished for launch next. It was ready for launch before it was needed, and its successor was the first NOAA with Sarsat, so it was bypassed to get Sarsat hardware up quickly. Money has been tight for NOAA of late, and refurbishing it will be cheaper than building a new satellite. The refurbishing process may add a Sarsat package; there are no plans for adding an ozone instrument, but it would not function properly in the intended orbit anyway, so if Sarsat can be added, this would be a fully-functional satellite. Cospas/Sarsat, since its inception with the first Cospas payload on a Soviet satellite in 1982, has saved 1149 lives, mostly at sea and from aircraft accidents. With four satellites active, distress signals are detected within an average of two hours most anywhere in the northern hemisphere. Southern-hemisphere coverage is sparse because the current hardware requires the satellite to be within range of the emergency transmitter and a Cospas/Sarsat ground station simultaneously, and there are few ground stations in the south. A new 406-MHz system, slowly coming into service, is specifically designed for the satellite system: it has better range and frequency stability, carries encoded identification (and, if known, exact position), should be accurate to within 2-5 km (against the existing system's 20 km), and most important, is processed on board the satellite and recorded for retransmission when within range of a ground station. This will give global coverage. Canada provides the transponders and France the receiver/processor units for US satellites; the Soviet hardware is all their own. A new Cospas/Sarsat agreement was signed July 1 to continue the system for 15 years with automatic 5-year renewals thereafter. Japan loses one: a small hypersonic flight-test model of one of Japan's spaceplane concepts was lost at sea after an equipment failure aborted a test launch from a balloon. NASA accelerates studies on a shuttle replacement, hoping for a new-start budget item by the mid-90s. There are two efforts underway, one for evolutionary change and one for a fresh start. The evolutionary approach is looking favored, as it exploits existing experience. The revolutionary approach could use a lot of the ALS technology effort, but that is starting to lag because DoD isn't keen on funding it soon. Hopes are for formal development of one approach to start in 1995, to fly around 2005. The evolutionary studies, aimed at building new hardware based on existing designs with major modifications, will look at better SRBs, a crew-escape module, better main engines, liquid boosters, and flyback boosters that would replace the external tank as well. [In other words, they're trying to build the shuttle we should have had in the first place.] The fresh- start folks are looking at a fully-reusable design with a flyback booster, an orbiter carrying fuel, and a payload housing on top of the orbiter to "simplify interfaces"; a partially-reusable design with a flyback booster carrying an expendable stage with an orbiter on top; an expendable approach with orbiter atop large expendable booster [alas for the Saturn V, just what the doctor ordered]; and air-breathing rocket systems derived from the Aerospace Plane. Letter from Karl Sanders, observing that Pegasus resembles a concept briefly studied by Temco (now the T in LTV) 30 years ago; they found the same general advantages. -- Sendmail is a bug, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology not a feature. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
paulf@Jessica.stanford.edu (Paul Flaherty) (11/18/88)
In article <1988Nov17.052317.25865@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >Discovery's Ku-band antenna, its link to the TDRS system, had a mechanical >or electrical failure in its pointing system the second day up. Details >not known yet. "Dave, we have a problem with the tu35b antenna pointing unit." >[Why not use the Skylab toilet? Unlike the Shuttle one, it >worked.] As I recall, and if you'll pardon the expression, the Skylab biffie was a royal pain in the ass... -=Paul Flaherty, N9FZX | "Engineer: A machine for converting beer ->paulf@shasta.Stanford.EDU | into blueprints."
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (11/19/88)
Aviation Leak apparently was either misinformed or disinformed earlier, and is now saying that the STS-27 payload is in fact a low-orbit spysat, presumably a KH-12. (I suppose it's possible, actually, that DoD in fact switched payloads for some reason.) -- Sendmail is a bug, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology not a feature. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
karn@ka9q.bellcore.com (Phil Karn) (11/20/88)
I suggest a very simple test to help determine whether the STS-27 payload is a photoreconnaissance spacecraft in the KH-11/KH-12 category, or an ELINT (electronic intelligence) spacecraft in the Vortex/Chalet/Magnum class. Carefully watch the launch to determine the flight azimuth. This sets the orbital inclination. If the payload is an ELINT bird, it will be going to geostationary orbit and this requires the smallest possible starting inclination, given by a due-east launch. On the other hand, a photoreconnaissance bird works best in high inclination orbits, so they will be going for the most northerly launch that safety permits. One early indication of the launch azimuth is the roll manuever. Standard procedure is for the orbiter to fly heads-down. Since the orbiter starts with its top facing southward, a 90 degree roll will indicate an easterly launch and a geostationary payload. A larger roll angle will indicate a higher inclination. Phil
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (11/22/88)
In article <11880@bellcore.bellcore.com> karn@ka9q.bellcore.com.UUCP (Phil Karn) writes: > I suggest a very simple test to help determine whether the STS-27 payload is > a photoreconnaissance spacecraft in the KH-11/KH-12 category, or an ELINT > (electronic intelligence) spacecraft in the Vortex/Chalet/Magnum class. > Carefully watch the launch to determine the flight azimuth. Doesn't DOD (or whoever) know this? Wouldn't they put it up in a deliberately misleading or generic way, at the expense of using more fuel in the satellite to get it where they really want it? ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (12/04/90)
Asiasat to decide on buying a second satellite by year end. An orbital slot is already reserved. The hope is to have Asiasat 2 in orbit by 1993, as Asiasat 1 was fully booked much more quickly than expected. Second shuttle carrier completes structural changes and goes to Texas for painting. [AW&ST called it the "third", which is wrong.] SL-16 (Zenit) booster explodes on the pad at Baikonur Oct 4. The first stage, which is also used as the strap-on booster for Energia, failed. [The Soviets have sworn up and down that the problem will be sorted out before Cape York starts buying Zenits.] USAF and NASA approve Palmdale as the site for the X-30 headquarters. If X-30 construction ever goes ahead, it's likely to be at Palmdale. OTA report on space debris warns that action is needed or low orbit may become increasingly dangerous to use within a decade. Instruments capable of surveying the debris population down to about 1cm -- roughly the largest that it is easy to shield against -- are urgently needed, as current radars give up at about 15cm. OTA also says that a number of common beliefs about space debris are wrong, such as the notion that the Soviets cause most of it (the US is about equally to blame), and the notion that it is growing because of higher launch rates (world launch rates have been flat since about 1965 [when the Soviets hit their stride]). Discovery launches Ulysses successfully. Launch was 12 minutes late due to a short weather hold and minor technical problems. The only problem during ascent was an indication that the primary controller for the flash evaporator system might be failing; the crew switched to the backup controller with no problems, and the alarm was later found to be false. There were no hydrogen leaks. There were a few protestors at the KSC gates upset about the plutonium aboard, but Washington courts refused to stop the launch in a ruling Oct 5. Ulysses departed at 34,130mph, the fastest Earth escape velocity ever used. It crossed the Moon's orbit seven hours after upper-stage ignition. Columbia returned to VAB from pad 39B Oct 9 due to high winds, after being moved from pad 39A to free that pad for Atlantis. (Pad 39A has some secure communications equipment that 39B lacks.) Both Columbia and Atlantis will go out to the pads as soon as winds abate. The Atlantis launch will be the last "secure mode" shuttle launch, as the USAF shifts its major payloads to Titan IV. It is possible that later military flights may carry secret experiments, but the flights as a whole will not be secret, and they will not be common either. Third Titan IV launch is still not back on the Cape range schedule. A mid-Sept launch attempt was scrubbed due to SRB nozzle problems, and then further problems, details not released, developed. HST scientists, notably the ESA ones, urge NASA to put a high priority on dealing with the mirror problems for all instruments, not just for JPL's WFPC. In particular, ESA's Faint Object Camera needs fixing even worse. A panel is working on possible HST fixes, including some fairly wild ideas, like sending an astronaut down HST's barrel to replace "a mirror" [presumably the secondary], or bringing hardware [the FOC?] inside a Spacehab module so the astronauts can make repairs in a shirtsleeve environment. ESA sends clear warning signals: Ulysses notwithstanding, NASA had better get its act together on the space station soon, or the Europeans may decide to forget about participating. Next spring, ESA makes major decisions about Hermes and the Columbus free-flyer and station module. The station module just might get de-emphasized, delayed, or dumped if things aren't on track by then. "We need to have a clearer picture, a much clearer picture about where the US is going with the station..." Europeans are starting to suggest that if Europe is going to be involved in Moon/Mars, perhaps that project should be run by a multinational organization with the US just another member nation, rather than in command. In any case, "we will not start giving serious consideration to SEI until the space station program is on solid ground". Pictures of the bottom of Puget Sound, taken by the Soviet Almaz radarsat. Wolfgang Wild, head of DARA [the German space agency], calls for serious stretchout of Hermes and Columbus, on the grounds that the current budgets and schedules are seriously unrealistic. Many ESA people are voicing quiet agreement. Wild says that German reunification will not alter Germany's active support for spaceflight, but there will be some small changes in direction: less funding for microgravity research, a sharp increase in Earth-observation work, generally level funding for science and exploration in general, a push to have industry fund more of the work on commercially-promising comsat and navsat systems, and continuing modest manned spaceflight (including a German cosmohaut on Mir in 1992 and the German "Spacelab D2" shuttle mission the same year). Wild says reunification does not affect Germany's status within ESA: East Germany has become part of the Federal Republic Of Germany, which was and still is an ESA member. However, Germany's contribution to ESA's "mandatory program" funding will rise slightly because that funding is based on GNP. Rocketdyne tests a new design, with new lubricants, for the SSME high-pressure fuel turbopump. The hope is that this will boost pump life to 20 flights. Current life is, well, poor: the pumps are rated at four flights maximum, and none has actually flown more than three. Postmortem on the latest H-2 engine fire says the high-pressure oxygen pump exploded. NASDA engineers are trying to sort out whether major redesign will be needed. [Looks like I was right when I predicted that they'd regret using the SSME-like engine cycle.] Soviets say that a "crane-type manipulator" will be installed on Mir for use in major EVA work. Its first job will be to help in moving a pair of large solar arrays from Kristall to Kvant 1, a 40m move for two 500kg masses. The move will occur next year. The arrays are designed for such moves, and can be retracted to their stowed position for easier handling. Letter from the External Relations directory of NASDA, saying that limits on photography during AW&ST's visit to Tanegashima were due to safety regulations related to the engine test then being readied, not to desire to limit technology transfer. AW&ST replies that this reason/excuse was not mentioned at the time. -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo) (12/05/90)
In article <1990Dec4.052154.19233@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > >Wolfgang Wild, head of DARA [the German space agency], calls for serious >stretchout of Hermes and Columbus, on the grounds that the current budgets >and schedules are seriously unrealistic. >... Apologies in advance for blatant nationalism: I'm glad the Europeans are mimicking our failures as well as our successes. Ariane had us scared for a few years. :-) >Letter from the External Relations directory of NASDA, saying that limits >on photography during AW&ST's visit to Tanegashima were due to safety >regulations related to the engine test then being readied, not to desire >to limit technology transfer. AW&ST replies that this reason/excuse was >not mentioned at the time. Gosh, now we know what caused the H2 failure. Somebody wasn't careful with the auto-focus. :-) :-) :-) Nick Szabo szabo@sequent.com