🚀 go-pugleaf

Asiasat is in trouble -- the Bush administration's embargo on shipment of
high technology to China prevents its Hughes-built satellite from being
launched on Long March next April.  Asiasat is lobbying for an exception.

Partial restoration of Aerospace Plane funds is now likely, although it
is likely that there will be some reduction and some resulting schedule
slip.

Interior Dept.'s Bureau of Land Management is evaluating Geostar for
tracking its aircraft.  BLM aircraft do much flying at low altitudes
in wild areas, and crew safety is a major concern.  Existing schemes
involving frequent manual position reporting are very cumbersome.
Six aircraft and two helicopters have been equipped with Geostar hardware
for a two-year trial, and so far it is working very well.

Locstar [I think this is the European side of Geostar] chooses Matra to
build two satellites for European location and messaging services.

Insat, the Indian comsat scheduled for launch June 29, is badly damaged
when a 75-lb hoist hook falls 30 ft onto it.  Although the satellite
was loaded with fuel, there was no explosion and nobody was hurt.  The
USAF, India, and McDonnell Douglas (the launch contractor) are assessing
the damage, but several months of repairs will probably be needed and it
is possible that the satellite may be a writeoff.  The launcher will
probably be used for the British BSB broadcast satellite, which is also
in line for a Delta launch.

Ariane 5 development program will probably slip several months and perhaps
longer, because a US-built solid-fuel-mixing machine destined for Kourou
is being diverted to US solid-rocket manufacturer Hercules to replace a
mixer damaged in an accident early this year.  The mixer was to reach
Kourou in early fall to be incorporated into the Ariane 5 SRB manufacturing
plant, along with another mixer to arrive late in the year.  Worse, the
second mixer may be delayed because the first one needs to be reworked to
fit Hercules's needs, and manpower is short.  The Europeans are Not Pleased,
and are urging the US to deliver the mixers as originally scheduled, saying
that Hercules has others.  "This could go down as another black day in
European-US space relations, and it comes at a time when Europe already
is questioning the reliability of the US as a partner..."

Story on NASA Lewis work on slush hydrogen as fuel for the Aerospace Plane.
Slush is the prime candidate for NASP fuel, as it is both denser than
liquid hydrogen and a better coolant.  Work so far indicates that there
are no impossible roadblocks, just a lot of technology development needed.
Major problems are efficient production of slush, measurement of solid-
liquid ratio for tank-capacity gauges and fuel-flow meters, and the choice
of tank-pressurization gas (hydrogen will tend to condense out, melting
the slush and interfering with pressurization, while helium is costly and
needs heavy, bulky pressure tanks; a mixed scheme, using a layer of helium
to separate hydrogen gas from the slush, is being investigated).

William Lenoir, ex-astronaut now in charge of the space station, urges
accelerating start of station assembly to get things moving.  The idea
has not yet been studied in depth.  Lenoir says the station is likely
to shrink a bit if funding continues tight, and he's not sure that the
20 shuttle flights allotted to station construction are enough, but
identifying such problems and sorting them out is currently his first
priority.  He says the idea of switching to solar-dynamic power has
been rejected:  the technology has not been as thoroughly proven as
he'd like, there was a distinct risk of schedule slips, and it would
cost more in a time of tight funding.  It is still an option for a later
upgrade.

Senate authorizing committee gives NASA full funding for CRAF and Cassini,
on condition that NASA establish a firm cost-control plan, to include
cancellation of CRAF if cost limits are exceeded.

NASA astronaut David Griggs, scheduled to fly a shuttle mission late this
year [not sure which one], dies in a flying accident in Arkansas.

Photo of a model of a Tupolev proposal for a hypersonic transport, on
show at the Paris air show.  [Interestingly enough, the aft fuselage has
a flat top with no central fin -- meant to carry a spaceplane on top??]

Pratt&Whitney propulsion people working on the Aerospace Plane say that
most everyone agrees that some rocket propulsion will be needed for the
final boost into orbit, and that all three airframe contractors include
one in their designs.

General Dynamics starts preparing an Atlas-Centaur for launch from the
Cape, carrying a Navy comsat.  This will be the last expendable launch
under NASA authority.  The satellite is the one that was scheduled to
go up two years ago when the Centaur's hydrogen tank was destroyed in
a pad accident.

NASA prepares for antinuclear protestors to object to the Galileo launch
carrying isotope power units.  The "Florida Coalition for Peace and
Justice" is claiming "...it only takes one Challenger-type explosion
and launch or one Chernobyl accident in space to destroy life on our
fragile planet...", and that solar power would be a practical substitute.
(Both false -- such isotope generators have reentered and disintegrated
before without significant ill effect, and solar power is unworkable for
outer-solar-system missions, especially in Jupiter's high-radiation
environment.)  A more moderate group, the "Committee to Bridge the Gap",
although it opposes space nuclear power in general and believes there
are some risks in the Galileo launch, has given Galileo its blessing on
the grounds that the benefits outweigh the minor risks.  NASA says the
worst case would be a reentry during one of Galileo's Earth flybys; this
would be more likely to disperse the plutonium-238 in the isotope packs
than a launch accident.  The CtBtG expresses some doubts about the numbers
in the safety assessments, although it says NASA has done a good job on
the test program for the generators.  The White House must approve the
launch of the generators before Galileo can go up.

Voyager discovers a large dark spot on Neptune, which (on reexamination
of older pictures) has been there since at least January.  The spot is
comparable to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, in proportion to the planet.
-- 
1961-1969: 8 years of Apollo.  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1969-1989: 20 years of nothing.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu