🚀 go-pugleaf

The Astro ultraviolet/X-ray telescope payload has slipped four months,
to March 1990, on the new shuttle manifest.  It was originally set to
go immediately after Challenger in 1986, but is now #11 in the queue
because of DoD and planetary-science priorities.

First extended-duration shuttle mission set for March 1992, the first US
Microgravity Lab mission (Spacelab aboard Columbia).  It is planned to
run 9-12 days, against the current norm of 5-7.

NASA is looking at mounting a shuttle wheel and strut assembly on its
Convair 990 testbed aircraft to run more realistic tests on the shuttle
landing gear.

White House will approve limited use of Long March by US satellites,
given assurances on technology transfer, a limit of four commercial
launches per year, and Chinese willingness to talk about pricing policy.

German aerospace firms have begun basic technology work for the proposed
Sanger two-stage spaceplane, with special emphasis on propulsion for the
lower stage (a large Mach 5-6 hypersonic aircraft).

Titan blows it again.  Titan 34D launch from the Cape Sept 2 goes fine
until the Transtage upper stage fails to re-ignite for the apogee
maneuver.  The payload, believed to be a Vortex snoopsat which would
deploy a large antenna for communications eavesdropping from Clarke
orbit, is considered a writeoff.  The Vortex (nee Chalet) satellites
currently in orbit are aging and in bad shape.  The Transtage failure
may have been a broken feed line or a minor structural failure that
damaged crucial components.  USAF Sec. Aldridge has egg on his face,
since about 30 minutes after the launch he cited it as a shining
example of "robust, flexible launch capability".

Titan 2 launch from Vandenberg Sept 5 successful, deploying multiple
satellites -- probably a US Navy "White Cloud" ship-tracking cluster --
into polar orbit.  One minor blemish:  the first stage oxidizer tank
appears to have ruptured after (note, *after*) staging.  This has
happened occasionally before; it does not affect the second stage or
the launch.  It is thought to be due to shock waves from second-stage
ignition.  [I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember that the Titan
is a bit unusual in that the second stage ignites just *before* stage
separation, so the first stage really gets hit hard.]

Soyuz TM-5 lands safely, nearly a day behind schedule, after equipment
problems abort the first two attempts at retrofire.  The crew left
Mir on Sept 6, and then ejected their orbital module to prepare for
retrofire.  (This commits them to retrofire, since the orbital module
carries the docking system.)  The problem appears to have been stray
sunlight in a horizon sensor used to determine whether the Soyuz is
oriented correctly for retrofire.  This shut the engines down sixty
seconds into the first attempt.  The engines restarted automatically
seven minutes later [not clear why the delay], but the crew then shut
them down after only 3 seconds to avoid landing in China.  Another
attempt, three hours later, failed due to use of the wrong reentry
program, one meant for another mission.  It's not clear why that
happened.  The crew spent nearly a day waiting for the right orbital
position for a third try; they had oxygen for 48 hours, although things
were a bit cramped.  When ground controllers asked about food, the
cosmonauts said food was not a problem but they were worried about the
waste disposal system [which probably means there wasn't one aboard].
The third attempt, about 0400 Moscow time on the 7th, succeeded.

Formal signing of the Space Station agreement set for Sept 29.  ESA
is not entirely happy, but says at least it's a better deal than
Spacelab was.  Canada gets 3% use of the whole station in return for
providing the servicing equipment.  Europe and Japan each get 51%
of their own laboratory modules.  The US gets all else.  Station
resources, like power and crew time, go first to basic necessities
for keeping the station functioning; after that, the US gets about
70%, Europe and Japan each 13%, and Canada 3%.  The partners may
buy or trade resource use from each other.  Each nation pays for
maintaining its user hardware, plus a portion of "common" costs (divided
the same way as resources), plus fees for any use of the shuttle and
the TDRS network.  All partners provide astronauts, to be certified
and grouped into crews by NASA.  Astronauts do not work exclusively
on their own partner's equipment:  they all work on all areas of the
station, although there are provisions for protecting secret or
proprietary work.  Consensus management will be attempted, but NASA
resolves disputes, with appeal processes terminating in the White House.
The station plan continues to assume use of the shuttle for assembly
and resupply, but partners will be allowed to use their own launchers
and the US will supply necessary interface information.  Similarly,
TDRS is the base communications system but Europe can use its own
relay network [currently being thought about] if it wants.

China launchs a weather satellite into polar orbit from a new launch
site south of Beijing.

The Phobos 1 Mars probe is out of contact due to an erroneous ground
command that caused loss of attitude control; its antenna lock on
Earth is broken and it is feared lost.  NASA's Deep Space Network cannot
assist, because it is not yet ready for L-band operations and that's
the band the Phobos probes use.  (DSN is being equipped with L band
to help receive data from the Phobos missions.)  If the probe is tumbling,
as is thought likely, it has largely lost solar power, and its batteries
will only last two days.  [It has now been written off.]

Ariane launches two US comsats Sept 8.

Rockwell is examining the LOX valves that showed sluggish operation
during the shuttle flight-readiness firing.

United Technologies drops out of the new-SRB competition; the RFP has
finally been released, and certain clauses could require the winning
contractor to make major investments out of its own money in some
circumstances.

Geostar increases capitalization to $80M with stock offering to Sony
and other investors.  Geostar says this will bring it to profitability.

NATO signs for a Delta 2 launch for the NATO 4A military comsat.
McDonnell Douglas signs deal with NASA for use of facilities at the
Cape and Goddard to support Delta launches.

Japan launches one-stage sounding-rocket test model of the H-2 booster.

Courtney Stadd, ex-director of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation,
urges next administration not to start yet another review of space policy;
setting priorities and goals is urgent.  He says "this business of trying
to trickle up to the Oval Office assessments of where the nation ought to
go" doesn't work; leadership is needed.  He opposes full cost recovery for
the shuttle, saying it is needed to provide experience in space activity
and establish the existence of commercial opportunities.  He is concerned
that issues of risk management and foreign competition for commercial
launchers are still unsettled, two years after the basic policies were set.
Government use of commercial launchers will be especially important in
4-5 years, when the satellite backlog starts to taper off.  He has changed
his mind and now supports the Congressional launch-insurance approach
(government takes over after a specific liability ceiling) rather than
the White House one (absolute limit on liability), citing government
insurance aid to foreign competitors and use of launch facilities that
the companies have no input to.  He says commercial operators would
undoubtedly prefer a commercial launch facility which didn't have very
expensive government payloads and launchers nearby; he says Kourou is
a good example.

Heavily-flawed SRB joints pass Aug 18 test firing completely.  NASA and
Morton Thiokol originally didn't want to run this test, since the flaws
were far beyond anything realistic, but a failure would nevertheless
have caused major political problems.  Fortunately, it all worked.

NASA has put plans to use the pre-Challenger booster segments on hold.
The oxidizer shortage is not looking as bad as was thought.  The old
plan, of burning out some or all of them to make the casings available
for re-use (only one end was changed in the redesign, and the "bad ends"
can still be used in the factory joints in mid-segment, which have no
leak problems) is back on track.  NASA would like to spend a small
amount of money on a bunch of minor production changes, like qualifying
second sources for more of the parts, but there is concern that the
ASRM program may interfere with funding for this.  There is considerable
sentiment that the small payload increase from ASRM is not worth the
money, which should be spent on Shuttle-C instead.  [I am of two minds
about this.  On the one hand, I tend to agree:  since NASA has managed
to frame ASRM in terms that prohibit really radical redesign, like a
jointless SRB, I doubt that it's worth it.  On the other hand, I would
*really* like to see Morton Thiokol out of the SRB business -- they
deserve to get their tails kicked from here to the Moon, not to go on
getting lucrative contracts into the next century.  I'd have preferred
to see NASA put top priority on qualifying a second source, and a THIRD
source, for SRBs, and then ban M-T from all NASA programs forever.]

G. Gubanov, chief designer of Energia, says a heavylift derivative of
Energia will be needed "to organize industrial production in space,
research the moon... and to organize an international expedition to
Mars".  [Lord God of Undershorts, as if Energia wasn't heavy enough
to start with...  Probably he's thinking of going from four strap-ons
to six or eight, which would be perfectly practical if you move the
payload from the back to the top.]  He says Energia development work
is now focusing on long-term bulk production.  He says they are using
a "specially modified heavy aircraft" to carry the Energia core,
8m by 40m, from the plant to Baikonur.  The Soviets displayed a model
of such an aircraft, carrying a huge cargo pod resembling the Energia
core, at the 1987 Paris airshow.  The payload is nearly three times
the diameter of the fuselage.  [Now *that* must be something to see;
never mind this wimpy business of carrying a little shuttle orbiter!]
He says there are plans for both different upper stages and different
numbers of strap-ons for the existing Energia.  [Okay, so he *wasn't*
talking about just more strap-ons.  Lordy.]  He says Energia/shuttle
can do a survivable abort even with a strap-on failure or core-engine
failure in flight.  He says maximum launch mass can go as high as
2400 metric tons, 20% higher than Western observers believed.  It can
put 18 tons in Clarke orbit, 32 into a lunar trajectory, and up to
28 into Mars or Venus trajectory.  The first launch was from the pad
used for static firings, several miles from the *main* Energia/shuttle
launch complex.

[There is only one spacefaring nation on Earth.  And it looks like
they're going to keep their lead.  Either start praying for one of the
more ambitious US private-launch firms to hit it lucky, or start
learning Russian.]

A striking photo from a NASA/USAF/UMinnesota sounding-rocket experiment:
an actual picture of electrons spiraling in the Earth's magnetic field
at high altitude.  "We know that beams spiral like this, but to actually
see it for the first time is a remarkable thing."  The pictures were
strictly an accident:  the equipment, including a low-light-level camera
intended for other purposes entirely, continued functioning after its
main work was done, and the beam became visible just before reentry.
-- 
The Earth is our mother.        |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
Our nine months are up.         |uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu