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From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from July 17 AW&ST
Message-ID: <1989Aug21.022319.22222@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 89 02:23:19 GMT

Cover is the first Titan 4 launch.

Apollo-11 editorial, more or less correctly predicting what Bush was going
to say, and urging action rather than talk.  "Undertakings of this scale
are never going to get any cheaper.  The time to start is now... History
shows clearly that great nations move forward with bold decision, not a
preoccupation with bean counting."  Dick Truly has observed that manned
exploration programs cannot bubble up from the bottom -- they must be
started from the top.  Truly says he recently reviewed Wernher von Braun's
original post-Apollo plan, and that if NASA funding had remained stable
instead of declining, the US would be operating a manned lunar base and
a space station and would have crews en route to Mars.  "Where are the
US space visionaries of comparable stature today?"

Panamsat and Intelsat, among others, plan to bid for lease of the C-band
transponders on TDRS-3 and -4.  The original intent was for Western Union
to use them, but the commercial deal collapsed and TDRS's commercial relay
capabilities have never been used.

The team responsible for picking the British Mir astronaut is sorting
through 11000+ applications, with more still arriving.  Final selection
of astronaut and backup will happen by October.

Yet Another Major Review of the space station is underway, to give Truly
and his new subordinates a fresh look.  The Langley team doing the review
is also identifying elements that could be delayed if funding is inadequate.

Some officials reported to be annoyed that Quayle's top-secret assessment of
a new space initiative has not involved the Space Council itself.  The
Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Mismanagement
and Beancounting are particularly miffed that they weren't allowed to
mess it up.

It is reported that the great lunar/Mars plan assumes not only the space
station, but also Shuttle-C and two more shuttle orbiters.

House budget proposal includes $1G+ cut to NASA funding, $400M from space
station.

International Astronautical Federation moves its 1989 annual congress, in
October, from Beijing to Malaga (Spain), for obvious reasons.

Last Ariane 3 successfully launches ESA's heavy comsat Olympus July 11.

Pictures of the secret Soviet laser facility at Sary Shagan, taken by
touring US scientists.  The scientists say the facility does not appear
to have operational antisatellite capabilities, the Pentagon's claims
notwithstanding.

Early Voyager pictures of Neptune from 57Mmi, with cloud features fairly
prominent.

Two more rats abandon ship, er excuse me, two more senior NASA officials
resign due to worries about the impending federal law that makes trouble
for retiring federal officials going to work for government contractors.
This time it's the director of Ames and the associate admin for space
operations.

First Titan 4 launched June 14, about eight months behind schedule.  [Ah,
those reliable and timely expendables!]  Titan managers say the complexity
of getting the new booster off was underestimated, notably the problems of
handling the extra-large SRBs and the 8900-lb payload fairing.  Mods to
the pad also took longer than expected.  Other complications included
a lineup for IUSes, masses of new paperwork, bad weather, and the lack of
a "pathfinder" dummy vehicle to get bugs out of support facilities ahead
of time.

The USAF is now taking a fresh look at long-term improvements to Titan
launch facilities, with weather protection at the pad high on the list.

One of the two first-stage engines on the first Titan 4 malfunctioned
partway up, gimballing hard over and staying there, but the other engine
compensated automatically and the payload ended up precisely where it was
supposed to be.  (Payload was a missile-warning satellite on an IUS.)
An internal fuel leak in the malfunctioning engine is suspected.

Team led by France's Matra gets contract for Spain's Hispasat broadcast
and communications satellite project, two birds plus support.  This is
the second contract that will be based on the Matra/BAe "Eurostar" bus,
which has also been selected by the Locstar people [who are, I believe,
Geostar's European cousins].  Hispasat will do TV broadcast to Spain
and the Canaries, plus TV distribution links between Spain and Latin
America and government communications in Spain.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu