henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (02/16/89)
[Okay, so I'm a bit behind. To quote from a thoroughly obscure publication that's got an even worse case of the lates... "Please send all complaints regarding our publishing schedule to: The Shitcan PO Box 2001 Everytown USA" Between absences and illness, it's been a busy winter.] The cover is an excellent color photograph of a spacesuit with a maneuvering unit attached. The markings on the sleeve say CCCP. Japanese construction company buys 15% share in the Cape York Space Agency (a private firm despite the name). Hercules finishes first of its filament-wound Titan 4 SRBs. Japan will probably put manned spaceflight on hold for a few years due to the budget impact of existing programs like the H-2. Fuss over possible impropriety in ASRM bidding, part of one proposal has gone missing. Investigation underway, schedule not expected to slip. NASA drops plans for a second Solar Max repair mission: NASA management has decided that the shuttle manifest is too full in the near future (Solar Max will reenter in 1990-91 if not reboosted) and the $28M cost is too high. Postmortem on the Atlantis mission. The payload's solar arrays initially refused to deploy, although the problem was cleared up quickly. Tiles on Atlantis's belly were inspected with the Canadarm's cameras due to concern about possible tile damage; some damage but nothing disastrous. Debris that damaged the tiles does not seem to have come from the SRBs, with speculation focusing on the external tank, which was nearly five years old -- the oldest yet flown. There is some concern about emergency aborts from high-inclination launches like that of STS-27. A multiple-engine-failure abort could have dumped the external tank into Eastern Europe or the USSR. Oops: technician stumbles and damages first-stage exhaust nozzle of the IUS meant for Discovery's next launch. A replacement first-stage motor has been pulled from USAF inventory, and schedule is not expected to slip. Magellan launch still on schedule for late April despite electronics problems. An elastomer compound used for mounting electronic components turns out to expand when heated or exposed to some cleaning solvents, and this has cracked solder joints. The fix is to eliminate the elastomer and mount the components directly on the boards, but this and the cleaning necessary after the battery fire have eaten up most of the safety margin in the schedule. The launch window is April 28 through May 23, with the next window in May 1991. French/Soviet Mir mission encounters minor problems due to crowding -- six men in Mir is cramped. Chretien complains about the Physalie microgravity physiology experiment, saying it is too complex for the time available, and that the cosmonauts feel like lab animals. "If there was a window that opened on Mir, I think I'd throw Physalie out of the station." The scientists on the ground comment that clearly such experiments want someone with laboratory training, rather than a military pilot, aloft. Soviets sell advertising contracts for the French/Soviet mission, to the concern of the French. "...we are against our cosmonaut looking like a race car driver." Glavcosmos may compete against Soyuzkarta in commercial sales of earth-resources data. Soyuzkarta sells images only in film form, and Glavcosmos has responsibility for several satellites that could return images as digital data, the form preferred by most Western customers. Details on the autolanding system used by Buran, basically a multiple distance-measuring system (similar to the US military Tacan) for the approach and a microwave scanning-beam system (similar to the new MLS system starting to enter service for international civil aviation) for the landing. There appears to be concern in some quarters within the Soviet space program that too much international cooperation might dilute the USSR's own capabilities. Soviets and US talk about Mars missions. Soviets propose adding surface meteorological packages to Mars Observer; US thinks this too costly. US proposes adding a mapping spectrometer (bumped from Mars Observer) to one of the Soviet 1994 Mars orbiters; Soviets will explore the idea. The Soviet 1994 mission will be launched by Proton, as there isn't enough time left to put together an Energia-scale payload. ESA decides that the Titan-probe part of Cassini will be its next major science mission. [This may be a mistake, since it relies on the US funding the orbiter part.] Soviets say the pace of their program will be determined by mission needs and their ability to master the technology. "We have time on our side... We don't face deadline pressure in having to develop one element or another... if the first flight of Buran had failed, it would have been a setback but it would not have meant that our manned space program came to a halt..." Soviets will build at least three shuttle orbiters; three is considered enough for the "initial phase of operations". They are very pleased with Buran's precise automatic landing in a significant crosswind. A second flight will not be decided on until tile damage is assessed; so far it looks minor. The Soviet orbiters are not capable of docking with Mir, but Mir's successor is planned to remedy this. Docking mechanisms are under study. Mir, with expansion modules, will be in service for some time, so there is no pressure on the engineers to freeze the next one's configuration quickly. The first major Mir expansion module will launch in April; it will contain more gyros, an electrolytic oxygen system, a lavatory and shower, and a large airlock with MMUs. The MMU is vaguely similar to the US one overall, but different in detail. It will be used with an improved EVA suit. Soviets unveil An-225 Mria, a stretched (in both directions -- fuselage stretch and longer wings with one more engine on each side) An-124 Ruslan. It will be by far the world's biggest transport aircraft, and one major mission for it is hauling Energia components. It has mounting points for external payloads on top, and twin vertical tails for stability while carrying large external loads. Picture of the Kaliningrad space operations center's shuttle control room. -- The Earth is our mother; | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology our nine months are up. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu