henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/09/90)
[Okay, I'm back, and trying to catch up once again... :-( ] NASA prepares new edition of a directory of suppliers etc. for commercial space activity... and wrestles with the problem of what to do about foreign companies that want to be included. Picture of shuttle SRBs rolling out to pad 39B, unaccompanied by an orbiter or tank! Looks really silly, with one SRB and the stub of another in the middle of the huge platform on top of the huge crawler. They are being moved out temporarily to clear a VAB bay for the rollback of Columbia. [As per my standard policy, I'll go light on things like the hydrogen leaks, which have been covered well in a more timely way.] Intelsat and NASA reach agreement on a salvage mission for Intelsat 6F3. NASA will charge about $100M for the mission to attach a new perigee motor to the stranded comsat. Intelsat will supply the motor and the related hardware. NASA likes the idea as a source of EVA experience and as public relations, the more so because it will be the first flight of Endeavour. (The mission will also deploy a Geostar navsat and retrieve ESA's Eureca free-flyer, to be deployed by a shuttle mission next year.) Tentative date is early 1992. More immediately, Intelsat will pay $200k to fly samples of solar-array materials on the orbiter's arm on the Ulysses mission this fall, to assess weathering of the satellite's solar panels from atomic oxygen in its two-year stay in low orbit. If the results are too negative, the salvage mission might be cancelled. If not, Endeavour will get as high as it can, probably about 315km, and 6F3 will be maneuvered down to meet it. An astronaut riding the arm will attach a grappling bar, the arm will grab the bird, and it will be maneuvered into the payload bay to attach it to the motor cradled there. After electrical and structural connections are made, the grappling bar will be removed and the satellite will be released as if it were being deployed after a shuttle launch. HST is having problems with the South Atlantic Anomaly scrambling its electronics and with vibration due to thermal expansion and contraction of its solar-array supports. The latter can be dealt with by software changes, although it will take some time to get it right. The SAA problems are in the memories of the fine-guidance sensors, which are apparently more radiation-sensitive than expected. Fortunately, the FGS memories are downloaded from the less sensitive memories of the telescope's general-purpose computers anyway, and doing that downloading much more frequently should [did] eliminate the problem. Second Titan 4 launched successfully June 8, carrying a spysat. The USAF, which is basing its whole space plan on T4, is happy. [Now that the USAF has its own launcher again, it has quietly forgotten its formerly-sacred rule that everything crucial had to be capable of going up on two different launchers.] There is some concern about the one-year delay between first and second launches, but this is being ascribed to routine teething troubles of a new launcher. Soviets once again succesfully troubleshoot their space-station hardware, as Kristall docks successfully to Mir on the second try. The center advertising section this month is on "US Space Leadership". A few pretty pictures. Notably, one of a model of a second-generation shuttle, with its engine section hinged down (!) to let a payload slide rearward out of a cargo bay. Insat 1D finally goes up, on a Delta June 12th, after a long schedule slip due to being damaged in a freak pad accident last year. This was the last Delta 1. Letter from Don Vogel: Not long ago, the White House and Vice President Dan Quayle were taking exception to the NASA schedule for Mars and Moon stations... "Let's look at the LLNL ideas on improving the schedules"... suggestions that NASA officials should get their imaginations into high gear... Now President Bush has set a 2019 date for a manned flight to Mars. Allowing for normal slippage, I wonder if I can survive to age 105... -- The 486 is to a modern CPU as a Jules | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology Verne reprint is to a modern SF novel. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) (08/11/90)
In article <1990Aug9.051409.16353@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > After electrical and structural connections are made, > the grappling bar will be removed and the satellite will be released > as if it were being deployed after a shuttle launch. I'm a bit confused. I've seen no mention of refueling the stranded satellite's maneuvering engines. I know they used a lot of fuel to stabilize the orbit, and given that fuel supply is often the limiting factor on the lifetime of such satellites I'd think they'd want to do something about that. Does anyone have any more information?
nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Nick Watkins) (08/24/90)
From article <1990Aug9.051409.16353@zoo.toronto.edu>, by henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer): > Second Titan 4 launched successfully June 8, carrying a spysat. The > USAF, which is basing its whole space plan on T4, is happy. [Now that > the USAF has its own launcher again, it has quietly forgotten its > formerly-sacred rule that everything crucial had to be capable of going > up on two different launchers.] There is some concern about the one-year > delay between first and second launches, but this is being ascribed to > routine teething troubles of a new launcher. I'm intrigued by said rule. What were backups for following ? KH 11 (Titan 3D then 34D) Chalet (Titan 3C then 34D) Rhyolite (Atlas Agena D) Navstar (Atlas then Delta II) DSP (Titan 3C then Titan 34D) DSCS (Titan 3C then 34D then Atlas II) Magnum (Shuttle). etc. N.B. Second launchers here are not backups, they are replacements. Nick -- Dr. Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND JANET: nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: nickw%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/30/90)
In article <3334@syma.sussex.ac.uk> nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Nick Watkins) writes: >> ... [Now that >> the USAF has its own launcher again, it has quietly forgotten its >> formerly-sacred rule that everything crucial had to be capable of going >> up on two different launchers.] ... >I'm intrigued by said rule. What were backups for following ? ... The rule was temporarily and selectively applied; its purpose was not to provide the USAF with a truly redundant launch capability, but to justify the Titan IV and get the USAF back into the launcher business. They'd never had such a rule before, and haven't since either. -- TCP/IP: handling tomorrow's loads today| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology OSI: handling yesterday's loads someday| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry