TAW@SU-AI@sri-unix (09/08/82)
From: Tom Wadlow <TAW at SU-AI>
a059 0415 08 Sep 82
PM-Private Rocket,490
Space Rocket Launch Delayed Until Thursday
By PAUL RECER
AP Aerospace Writer
MATAGORDA ISLAND, Texas (AP) - Failure of a battery and a guidance
instrument forced officials of the first privately financed U.S. space
rocket to put a hold on its launch until Thursday.
Space Services Inc. of America announced the postponement Tuesday
night, just 12 hours before the planned 10 a.m. launch of the unmanned
Conestoga I rocket.
Mission director Donald K. Slayton, a former astronaut, said the
launch team first found a failed battery and then discovered a faulty
gyroscope - a guidance instrument - aboard the 37-foot-tall rocket
Tuesday.
He said the battery was replaced and that the gyroscope could also
be replaced by working through the night. But Slayton decided instead
on the postponement to give his 31-man launch team time to rest.
''The same guys that do the checking also do the repairs and they
are getting run down,'' said Slayton. ''We decided to fall back and
regroup so they could recharge their batteries.''
The Conestoga I rocket is built around the second stage of a
Minuteman missle. It is designed to make a 10 1/2-minute suborbital
flight to an altitude of 192 miles, then splash into the Gulf of
Mexico 321 miles from its island launch pad.
Space Services founder and board chairman David Hannah said launch
of the Conestoga is ''pivotal'' to success of the company. The Houston
real estate investor said the launch must be successful for Space
Services to go on with plans to assemble a launch system capable of
putting satellites into orbit.
Space Services purchased the Minuteman stage in the Conestoga for
$365,000 and the entire launch operation is costing about $2.5
million. It is being financed by 57 investors.
The Conestoga I is to carry a dummy payload to a point above the
Earth where it will separate from the rocket engine, go into a rapid
spin and dump 400 pounds of water. The water will fall as a cloud of
ice crystals, Slayton said.
The maneuvers are to demonstrate the company's ability to assemble
and launch a spacecraft, Slayton said. Such maneuvers must also be
performed during the launch of an orbital satellite, he said.
Hannah, during an earlier news conference, said Space Services ''was
on trial'' in the Conestoga project because of the failure last year
of another rocket system.
The Houston company paid for the assembly of a liquid-fueled rocket
and was preparing to launch it from another Matagorda Island pad when
the vehicle exploded during a pre-launch test. The rocket, called
Percheon, disintegrated in a fireball that rose 200 feet.
Hannah said the accident set the company's goals back by more than
six months and forced selection of another launch team and of another
type of rocket, the simpler solid-fueled engine of the Minuteman I.
He predicted if the Conestoga launch is successful, his company
could have a satellite launching system operating by 1984 with up to
one launch a month thereafter. But he added no customer has signed a
contract with the company.
ap-ny-09-08 0715EDT
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