@S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC.ARPA:ARG@SU-AI.ARPA (09/29/85)
From: Ron Goldman <ARG@su-ai.arpa>
Government Turning Over Landsat Surveying Satellites To Private Firm
By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is turning over its money-losing
Landsat earth-monitoring satellite system to a private company and
throwing in a $250 million subsidy.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said Friday the federal funding
to Earth Observation Satellite Co., also known as Eosat, will be
phased out over a five-year period.
''During the phase-out period, the company will receive a maximum of
$250 million to build and operate two new satellites and to provide a
new ground service and data processing system for the new
spacecraft,'' the department said.
Landsat photographs, taken from an altitude of more than 400 miles,
have been sold by the government since 1972 to crop forecasters, oil
prospectors, mining companies, forest managers and state and foreign
governments.
''The American people have invested more than $1 billion in this
system and we hope to see this investment capitalized into private
sector jobs and opportunities here and overseas,'' Baldrige said in a
statement.
The government has lost millions of dollars on the operation, and
there has been pressure to turn it over to private enterprise. Two
satellites are operating currently, Landsat 4 and Landsat 5. The
latter is running out of steering propellant and plans are being made
to refuel it, using the space shuttle.
Eosat will find foreign competition almost as soon as it takes over
the system. A French-based company, Spot Image, plans to launch a
rival satellite in November with the Ariane rocket. Japan also has an
earth-sensing satellite in the works.
Eosat, a joint venture of RCA and Hughes Aircraft Co., will operate
the two existing satellites.
In 1983, the administration proposed to turn over Landsat and
government operated weather satellites to private operators. Congress
embraced the Landsat idea, but balked at letting the weather
satellites go.
Last year, the congressional Office of Technology Assessment warned
that Landsat's international free flow of information might be
jeopardized by a transfer. Eosat's contract states that the data be
marketed on ''a non-discriminatory basis.''
In March, David Stockman, then director of the White House Office of
Management and Budget, balked at terms being worked out with Eosat
and passed word to Senate Republicans that no subsidy would be
forthcoming.
Stockman complained that the contract didn't require Eosat to put up
enough of its own money at the outset, and he expressed doubt the
company would find a viable market for its pictures.
America's Fourth Space Shuttle Set For Maiden Launch
By HOWARD BENEDICT
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Atlantis, the fourth and possibly last
space shuttle, makes its debut Thursday on a secrecy-shrouded
military mission that reportedly will launch two satellites built to
withstand nuclear assault.
The Air Force has said Atlantis and its five-man crew will be
launched sometime between 10:20 a.m. and 1:20 p.m. EDT Thursday. The
precise time will be disclosed nine minutes before the planned
liftoff.
Throughout the flight, even less public information will be
forthcoming from the Pentagon than was the case during the first
all-classified Defense Department mission last January.
Even the length of the flight is a secret, but the landing will be
announced 24 hours in advance.
Officials decline to reveal any details about the payload, but the
Federation of American Scientists, citing public sources, reported
last month the shuttle's cargo bay contains two Defense Satellite
Communications System satellites, the advanced model known as DSCS-3.
DSCS-3 satellites are designed to be jam-proof, have been shielded
against the electromagnetic effects of nuclear explosions and have a
special transponder over which the president could transmit emergency
messages to nuclear forces.
The Defense Department does not classify DSCS-3 satellites as
secret, but as a matter of principal and precedent it has decided to
place a secrecy label on most military flights of the shuttle.
Officials said this policy will make it more difficult for Soviet spy
ships that regularly operate off Cape Canaveral to monitor the launch
and to learn the nature of any mission.
Reporters were denied the pre-launch interviews and news conferences
that are normally available with NASA shuttle crews, and they will
not be able to monitor space-to-ground communications.
On the January flight, the Air Force issued a statement every eight
hours which said everything was going well aboard the shuttle
Discovery. Those will be dropped on the upcoming flight. There will
be announcements, however, if serious trouble develops.
The commander of the 21st shuttle mission is Air Force Col. Karol
Bobko. The others are Air Force Lt. Col. Ronald J. Grabe, Marine Maj.
David C. Hilmers, Army Lt. Col. Robert C. Stewart and Air Force Maj.
William A. Pailes.
Atlantis is joining Columbia, Challenger and Discovery in the
nation's fleet of space planes. It is the last one planned, although
some congressmen have been pressing for a fifth vehicle to handle
what they believe will be a heavy launch schedule in the 1990s when
NASA constructs a permanent space station and the Pentagon has
extensive plans for the reusable ships.
Documents in the public record disclose the DSCS-3 satellite is a
vast improvement over the now-operational DSCS-2 series, that it has
a six-channel communications transponder and measures 81-by-77-inches
with a solar panel wingspan of 38 feet.
DSCS-3 provides superhigh-frequency communications for secure voice
and high-data-rate transmissions. A specially designed antenna with
electronically steerable beams is an anti-jamming feature, and it is
the first military communications satellite built with materials
designed to protect against the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear
blast that an enemy might aim at it.
The Pentagon plans to launch four DSCS-3 satellites into stationary
orbits 22,300 miles up to provide global coverage for ships, planes
and ground troops of all services. Troops in the field will be able
to communicate with the satellites through portable antennas only 33
inches in diameter. Two spare satellites also will be placed in
space.
AP-NY-09-28-85 1238EDT
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