🚀 go-pugleaf

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