Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: space news from 22 Sept AW&ST Message-ID: <7254@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Sat, 25-Oct-86 20:54:21 EDT Article-I.D.: utzoo.7254 Posted: Sat Oct 25 20:54:21 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Oct-86 20:54:21 EDT Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 141 Federal Express, which has both Ariane and Titan launch reservations already, will issue a public request for proposals for launch services in October. Bidding will be open to all; interest from the Chinese is expected, also possibly other new suppliers. NASA is preparing to release new transcripts of prelaunch conversations among the Challenger crew. The tape is about an hour long, starting at the time the crew entered the orbiter. There are some references to cold weather, but nothing relevant to the launch decision. The recording was not transcribed and released before because it provided no accident-relevant information, and such conversations are normally confidential in deference to crew privacy. NASA space-station management recommends a redesigned station for launch starting in 1993, focussing initially on a single crossbeam with manned modules at the center and solar panels on the ends. Many systems planned for external mounting on the "dual keel" station will now be inside enlarged "resource nodes" connecting the manned modules, to reduce EVA requirements. Extensive external structure resembling that of the "dual keel" station might eventually evolve out of the initial configuration. The redesign will probably delay attachment of the ESA lab module, and possibly the Japanese module. The Canadian servicing facility might also be affected. There are few assembly sequences that *don't* delay arrival of the international components. The international partners might get increased privileges in the US module group in compensation, although doing this could make US users unhappy. Europe and Japan are pushing to get their modules up as early as possible. The redesign endorsed a crew escape module as desirable, but didn't make it a formal part of the configuration. The intent here is probably an attempt to separate the expensive escape module from the already-tight budget. The redesign will have a useful man-tended capability by the fifth assembly flight (early 1994?) and will be permanently manned by the seventh or eighth (mid 1994?). Full assembly of the previous configuration could have taken 31 launches over eight years. The key changes that Fletcher might adopt are: - Revision of assembly sequence to defer EVA until later missions. - Change from the dual-keel configuration to the single-boom configuration, at least for the first three years of operations. Automatic deployment of the trusswork by robots is suggested as preferable to astronaut assembly. The transverse boom may have disadvantages, such as pointing constraints for instruments. - Shortening of the pressurized modules to fit them better to reduced shuttle lift limits. - Emphasis on deployed rather than assembled utilities, again to reduce EVA. - Use of expendables during assembly. This would probably require an automated rendezvous and docking system, such as the Soviets have. The polar platform may also need redesign to fly on the Titan 4, if there won't be any polar Shuttle launches for a while. - Basing the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle in space during assembly, to give more payload on shuttle flights. The OMV could also provide stationkeeping and reboost during early assembly, before the station can do these for itself. The review group found that shuttle launch rates will be a problem, given that there will still be a backlog of missions from the launch hiatus. A four-orbiter fleet is considered marginal in the circumstances. Atlas E successfully launches NOAA weather satellite from Vandenberg Sept 17, first successful US civilian satellite launch since shuttle 61C on Jan 12. The satellite, NOAA-10, replaces the aging NOAA-6, which was called back into service after NOAA-8 failed in orbit late last year. It also restores Sarsat capability that was lost when NOAA-8 failed; NOAA-6 was too old to have the search-and-rescue package. Launch was trouble-free when it finally went off. It had been delayed a total of about a year due to scheduling conflicts and problems with both satellite and booster. 12 Atlas E's remain in inventory, assigned to military and civilian weather satellites through about 1990. NOAA is concerned, however, that the USAF may stop using the Atlas E, putting all the overhead costs in NOAA's lap. NOAA is studying the cost of launching its satellites on Titan 2, just in case. New report on problems of radioactive space debris calls it a serious problem. There are about 50 reactors and isotope generators now in orbit, mostly from the Soviet military radar satellites. The Teledyne Brown report also says there is cause to worry about the possibility of one of those satellites being fragmented by a debris collision; most of them are in high-traffic orbital regions. The Soviets did speculate that the Cosmos 954 incident might have involved a debris collision. Another ominous item is that the only US reactor in orbit, the experimental SNAP-10A launched in 1965, has spawned pieces of debris on at least six occasions in the last seven years; nobody knows what the debris is or why it's being released. Launch failures are also a concern. The US has had two isotope generators go into the ocean after launch failures, one later recovered intact and the other believed to have survived intact. The Soviets have dropped two radar- satellite reactors into the Pacific from launch failures, also a Lunokhod with an isotope heat source. NASA delays rollout of Atlantis for weather-protection tests two weeks to Oct 7. This will be the first time a shuttle has been rolled out since 51L, and probably the last until launches resume. The main purpose is to check new weather-protection shields on Pad 39B. NASA also is taking advantage of the only time it will have a shuttle on the pad any time soon to run assorted other tests of pad procedures and facilities. The delay is because a jammed payload-changeout-room door must be repaired if some of the auxiliary tests are to be run, and because wind instrumentation for a hydrogen-trapping test must be in place before Atlantis returns to the VAB if that test is to be run. The door repair is taking longer than expected, and the wind-measuring gear won't be ready until mid-November. Among the auxiliary tests are a crew-escape simulation, to evaluate the escape procedures and train support crews on them. Doubts are being expressed that the shuttle will be ready to go in the first quarter of 1988. Testing and verification of the booster redesign is a problem area, although Truly says that the worst part of clearing the shuttle to fly again is the huge task of reviewing all the flight- critical items from scratch. One thing that would necessarily involve a major delay would be a vertical test firing of a full SRB. At the moment all full tests are to be horizontal, although there has been a strong recommendation for a new test stand at Morton Thiokol to permit testing under dynamic loads that the current stand can't provide. [Editorial for the week: I support the recommendation in "America: A Spacefaring Nation Again" that military shuttle launches using volunteer military crews should resume *immediately*, to meet immediate needs and keep the launch crews in practice. -- HS] House adopted and sent to the Senate an Administration-backed bill which extends US patent law to cover space activities about US space vehicles; essentially it makes a US space vehicle part of the US for patent purposes. Senate action this year is unlikely due to lack of time. Intelsat buys another Ariane for the third Intelsat 6, formerly contracted for the Shuttle. The first and second Intelsat 6's have already made the switch. Intelsat plans to self-insure launch of the first two Intelsat 6 comsats, and has cancelled partial launch insurance already obtained. Full coverage for $200M satellites was unobtainable, and the premiums for partial coverage were approaching the value of the coverage itself. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry