dietz%USC-CSE@ECLA.ECLnet (02/07/84)
Well, now they've lost two satellites and a balloon (the spacewalk seems to be going well, though). The satellites used identical PAM's, with fuel from the same batch. This seems to be a problem with the shuttle: since satellites are launched in groups if problems are found with one you can't easily fix the others without bringing them back to Earth and lanuching again -- very expensive. One news story I heard suggested the PAM nozzles shattered. Could the PAM failures have been caused by damage inflicted during the shuttle launch? I wonder -- maybe the vibrations were very bad in the payload bay this time. Were the satellites stored at the rear end of the cargo bay? This would be very bad news for the shuttle program (and very goods for Ariane). The use of a balloon for a radar target was pretty stupid. Why not just use a radar corner reflector? The Westar (at least) seems to be in a low elliptical orbit, reachable from the shuttle. Unfortunately, no one imagined that the satellites could end up in such orbits, so neither satellite has an adaptor for repairmen to grab onto (like Solar Max does). As a result, they can't be despun safely to be put back into the shuttle. I've heard future satellites will have such devices, which should help reduce insurance rates. Some other shuttle problems (not related to this flight): recall that UV telescope on the Spacelab mission? It failed completely. One theory on why it failed was interference from the surface glow detected on forward facing shuttle surfaces, possibly caused by the interaction of high velocity oxygen atoms with the shuttle. There is some concern that this glow will make the Space Telescope useless in low orbits (in orbits the shuttle can reach).
lincoln@eosp1.UUCP (Dick Lincoln) (02/09/84)
One of the largest potential problems from the successive failures of this mission - the last being another failure of the "arm" - is the encouragement given to the European consortium alternative to satellite launching: a conventional rocket approach. Last I heard their launching price would be no more than ours - possibly less, although it is hard to know how much subsidy is in either price. The Euro version is advertised to move larger payloads into synchronous orbit, as well. Even so, a lack of satellite launch customers probably won't affect the Shuttle program much: there's too much US military interest in it for that.
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (02/10/84)
And, the damn toilets didn't work right again. We can put a man on the moon, but.......
al@ames-lm.UUCP (Al Globus) (02/21/84)
Encouraging the European space program is not a problem, it's an advantage. As far as losing satellites is concerned, Ariane dumped a couple into the Atlantic not too long ago.