🚀 go-pugleaf

Construction of the mobile service tower for the Titan 4 pad at
Vandenberg may be delayed due to incorrect fasteners:  some of the
one-inch-dia. bolts are too small for the nuts, causing stripping
of threads.  Martin Marietta and the USAF are trying to decide what
to do.  [Uh, change bolt suppliers?]

NASA FY90 budget gets bipartisan support at its first Senate subcommittee
hearing.

Phobos 2 enters Mars orbit Jan 29.  [I'll skip the details, since we
all know that Phobos 2 is now dead.  They really should have launched
three of them.]

Discovery launch preparations continue, with replacement liquid-oxygen
pumps about to arrive at KSC.  Data from the #3 engine on Atlantis
shows that its cracked bearing was present at launch -- vibration levels
were higher than usual, although within operating limits for the engine.

Inmarsat decides to investigate using its satellites for land-mobile
communication, in addition to their maritime and aviation roles.

Test-firing of Pegasus third-stage engine is imminent [went fine].
The test will be run by a Pegasus flight computer in a blockhouse.
A second-stage motor firing will follow in late March, and a first-
stage motor in April.  Only one test of each motor will be done
before first flight.  Hercules has started construction on the
first flight motors.

The first Pegasus is still on schedule for launch in late July.
Scaled Composites [Rutan's company] has finished the top half of the
wing and is finishing the bottom half.  Subcontractors are starting
to deliver flight hardware.  A captive flight test on a B-52, using
an inert model now under construction, will occur in late June.
Two captive flight tests of the first Pegasus will be run before it
is launched.  Launch will be off Vandenberg.  Assuming success, the
second Pegasus goes up in September.

The B-52 being government-owned, OSC is evaluating proposals from a
number of aircraft cargo and leasing companies to provide either a
Lockheed Tristar or a Boeing 747 for commercial Pegasus launches;
OSC's studies showed these aircraft to be preferred.  A 747 would
carry Pegasus under its wing the same way the NASA B-52 will; a
Tristar would carry it under the belly, with Pegasus's tail sticking
up into the unpressurized cargo hold through a slot.  European and
Japanese companies, in addition to US ones, have offered aircraft
leases on "interesting" terms.
-- 
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu