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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 2403.PDF
464 FLIGHT International, 13 August 1977 The Eurosatellite association of companies is to build an Ariane-class experimental direct tele vision satellite known alternatively as the Heavy Satellite, H-Sat or the Heavy Platform (see news item). It is based upon a family of proposals by Aerospatiale over the past year or so, known as Phebus (Polyvalent, or multi-role, Heavy Bus). Apart from direct television at medium and high power levels, this satellite is also suitable for high-density communications at 20GHz, and will use electrical propulsion for attitude control lite was Mesh, which at one time appeared set to win because it put in the lowest tender. But Eurosatellite under-bid its competitors after ESA asked for a reconsideration of pro posals. Both groups put up "highly competent" proposals. The award, achieves a satisfactory balance of communications - satellite work in Europe, with Mesh responsible for OTS, Marats and ECS (the Euro pean Communications Satellite) and Eurosatellite for the new spacecraft. Had the contract gone to Mesh, Ger many's space industry in particular would have been badly unbalanced. Erno, already prime contractor to ESA for Spacelab, would have got another big slice of work, while MBB, with its new space facility at Ottobrunn, would have got nothing. The total value of H-Sat is 60 mil lion AU (about $72 million), cover ing the satellite itself and its payload, to be built separately by AEG/Tcle- funken. • At its July 27 meeting ESA's joint communications satellite board also unblocked 6 million AU to finance further work on the ECS programme in anticipation of a decision at the beginning of October. Spacecraft commander Fred Haise, left, and co-pilot Gordon Fullerton prepare for the first separation of the 747 Shuttle Orbiter combination, due on August 12. Following take-off at 8 a.m. local time the combination was climbing to 28,000ft as it flew the 84 x 21 mile racetrack course. The drop was planned to take'place 8 miles abeam of the runway at Edwards AFB and facing downwind, and during the approach a practice flare was planned, with the landing occurring Smin after release at I80kt Francis Gary Powers FEW Government servants can have caused their employers so much public embarrassment through failure to execute a task as did Francis Gary Powers, who was put on a show-trial in Russia after being shot down over Soviet territory in May 1960. Powers died when his helicopter, belonging to a Los Angeles television company, crashed on a forest-fire assignment in California on August 1. He was 49. The U-2 incident had both political and military significance. On the one hand it gave Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev an opportunity to humiliate America in the eyes of the world, a move which undoubtedly postponed the ending of the Cold War and led to the cancellation of a meeting planned between President Eisen hower and Mr Khruschev. On the other it signalled in spectacular fashion the demise of the high- altitude bomber or reconnaissance aeroplane, eclipsed by the first genera tion of surface-to-air missiles. Powers joined the USAF in October 1950 straight from college and after several postings was seconded to the Second Weather Observation Squad ron, which after completing its train ing in August 1956 was posted to Incirlik in Turkey, equipped with Lockheed U-2 high-altitude recon naissance aircraft. The job of the unit there was to report weather and also to keep an eye on Soviet rocket activities. On May 1, 1960, Powers was detailed to fly a reconnaissance mission taking him over the Soviet launch site at Tyuratam, now the huge manned spaceflight complex. For this he was detached to Peshawar in India, and was briefed to land at Bodo in Norway. The estimated flight time was 9hr to cover the 3,800 miles, of which 2,900 would be over the Soviet Union itself. Powers' aircraft was probably flying at about 68,000ft when it was hit in the tail by a missile; he ejected and was captured. The subsequent trial began on August 17, 1960, and went down in political history. Powers was exchanged on February 10, 1962, and for a short while afterwards took up a job with Lockheed testing U-2s at Burbank, California.
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