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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Nov 5 AW&ST
Message-ID: <1990Dec11.055832.24321@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 05:58:32 GMT

OSC and Hercules get the 1990 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for
Pegasus.

House+Senate endorse USAF/NASA proposal for a joint buy of four IUSes,
for a small cost saving.

Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies studies a recoverable spacecraft
to carry a 300kg payload into orbit for two weeks, using existing boosters.

Orbital Sciences posts its first after-tax profit, with five Pegasus launches
sold to date (all to DARPA).

First Inmarsat 2 launched, by Delta from the Cape, Oct 30.  This was the
200th Delta.

House/Senate appropriations funding for Milstar, which directed a major
re-orientation to tactical needs, also criticized the Pentagon for the
lack of a comprehensive DoD comsat plan and asked that one be produced
as part of next year's budget.

Details of the five categories into which SDI funding is now split.  Of
particular note is that the "Phase 1" category is required to cover all
Brilliant Pebbles work.  [Evidently Congress is not buying SDIO's claim
that Brilliant Pebbles is the answer to everything, including defense
against limited attacks.]  The Pentagon cannot move more than 10% of a
category's funding around without Congressional approval.

Hatch-repair spacewalk on Mir fails.  This is considered annoying but
not disastrous.

Story on SDIO's single-stage-to-orbit project.  The basic objective of
the project is to demonstrate an SSTO vehicle, in a suborbital flight,
in 1994.  The assumption is that current technology (including materials
developed for the X-30) is sufficient to make a non-airbreathing SSTO
spacecraft practical.  In August, small study contracts (circa $3M each)
went to Boeing, General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, and Rockwell, for
reports on basic designs and critical technologies by mid-Dec.  After
six months of "risk reduction", investigating said technologies, two
companies will be picked to build prototypes for 1994 flight.  An
operational vehicle could fly 2-3 years after that.

The SSTO companies have been asked to look at all three combinations of
takeoff and landing:  vertical/vertical, vertical/horizontal, and
horizontal/horizontal.  Some takeoff assistance, e.g. trolleys or catapults,
is allowed if needed.  Delivery of Brilliant Pebbles interceptors was
suggested as a model mission, but the contractors have wide latitude to
define payload, performance, fleet size, launch rate, and ground facilities.
Other hypothetical missions include space-station resupply and maintaining
two astronauts in orbit for a four-day mission.  Man-rating is required,
preferably with a 14.7psi cabin atmosphere and flight-crew escape systems.
Another major objective is survival of a single engine failure at any time.
The key objective is "aircraft operations", with a turnaround time of 7-10
days with at most 350 man-days of effort.  "If you can't reduce turnaround,
you might as well buy more [expendable launch vehicles]."

SDIO and industry insist that this is not another "paper program", like the
SSTO studies to date.  The objective is a vehicle, not a report.  It is a
bit unclear, however, why SDIO is doing this, given that it seems only
marginally related to missile defense.  The popular theory is that if the
early work looks good and money is available, the project will probably
be transferred to another organization for implementation, with SDIO involved
in getting things going because it is the one major organization with no
vested interest in existing launchers.

Atlantis launch "postponed indefinitely" due to secret problems with its
military payload.  The delay looks to be a week or so; apparently the
problems were not actually serious, but the bird had to be pulled out
of the payload bay for fixes.

The nature of the delay in the Titan IV launch, now set to go shortly
after Atlantis, has been revealed:  lining in a duct providing payload
cooling air flaked off and was blown into the payload fairing, which
had to be removed for cleaning.  The spacecraft itself was not affected.

First international conference on waverider aircraft, which fly on a
hypersonic shockwave.  There is great interest in using such designs for
more sophisticated versions of aerobraking, such as using the atmosphere
of Mars or Venus to make drastic changes in probe trajectory, more than
could be achieved by orthodox gravity assists.  [You can use aerodynamic
lift to hold the spacecraft *down*, rather than having to rely on the
relatively feeble gravitational field of Mars or Venus, making a much
tighter turn around the planet possible.]  There is beginning to be real
progress again, after very little effort in the 70s and early 80s.  The
major problem areas are basic aerodynamics -- no waverider has actually
flown, at least not that has been admitted -- and heat-transfer technology.
Various research projects are now being proposed, including launching a
test vehicle from a reentering shuttle orbiter.
-- 
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry