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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0097.PDF
ilililBI FLIGHT International, 14 January 1978 '.•':. :.•. -.." :•• •• . •.'•'• - •••.;•': ' •'•.' . . .•.....- • .•' ..'. 131 Money shortage delays Shuttle PRESSURE from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is forcing Nasa's Shuttle officials to re examine production plans for the remaining four Orbiters. The first vehicle, Orbiter 101, was completed in September 1976 and last year made five free-flight glide tests. Orbiter 102, the next vehicle on the line, was to have been de livered to the Kennedy Space Centre next August, but funding shortages may delay this move. In an effort to maintain a smooth production flow, Nasa has already had to transfer $68 million earmarked for Fiscal Year 1977 (July 1977-June 1978) into next year's budget. Even so, there will still not be enough money to sustain the original schedule. Orbiter 102 will probably not be delivered to Cape Canaveral before October next year, a delay of at least two months, and this may put back until June/July 1979 or later the first manned orbital test flight. Even if Nasa can meet the originally scheduled March 1979 date for this mission, further financial difficulties looming in 1979 are threatening to delay the start of de velopment and operational flights. Moreover; unexpected technical problems with Orbiter's main propulsion system, coupled with modifications to the vehicle's hydraulic system and difficulties with production of the thermal-insulation tiles, have cost the agency more than $120 million. The SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine) began develop ment tests in May 1975, and to date four units have accumulated nearly 20min of burn time. A fire in Engine 004 on September 8 temporarily threatened to delay the test schedule. It was the second such incident last year: on March 24 the high-pressure oxygen turbopump in Engine 003 leaked hot gases from the turbine to liquid oxygen in the pump. The Engine 004 fire also originated in the high-pressure oxygen turbopump and was found to have been caused by thrust bearings breaking up under unexpected asymmetric stress. The high-pressure oxygen turbopump is powered by hot gases from one of two pre-burners and operates at more than 29,000 r.p.m., providing gaseous oxygen at 4,6001b/sq in. The oxygen is delivered to the injector assembly for transfer to the main chamber, where it combines with hydrogen in the combustion process. By DAVID BAKER Nasa, finding itself short of money to absorb cost in creases in the development estimates, is now considering a change in the Orbiter delivery schedule. Instead of re furbishing Orbiter 101 for operational space missions by July 1981, making it the second vehicle to qualify for orbital flight, programme managers are looking at the possibility of upgrading the Structural Test Article (STA) to flight status. The STA is currently being assembled alongside Orbiter 102 at Rockwell's Palmdale facility. It is structurally identical to production Orbiters and will be used for load and structural fatigue tests from early next year to May 1979. The STA will now be tested to 120 per cent of the Orbiter's design load instead of the 140 per cent originally planned, permitting its use as the second flight vehicle from mid-1981. Orbdters 103 and 104 will be about six months late entering service—first flights are now expected in June and December 1983 respectively—because of the need to transfer about $100 million in the 19.78 budget from assembly and production to development and test activities. If the plan to upgrade the STA is implemented, Vehicle 101 will begin life as the fifth operational Orbiter in January 1985. Nasa expects to save about $100 million by refurbishing the STA as the second Orbiter and Vehicle 101 as the fifth. If however Orbiter 101 becomes the second flight vehicle, subsequent Orbiters will be much delayed. A final decision is expected within a month or so, but most Nasa officials see the current wave of budget cuts by the Carter administration as leaving them with little alternative. As it is, Nasa expects the final Shuttle re search and development cost to be 7 per cent higher than the 1971 estimates. Payloads for the six Shuttle development flights, begin ning in the second quarter of 1979, are also affected by the cuts. Plans for Fiscal Year 1979 have had to be revised in the light of an OMB ruling on allocations for space science and applications, and this has changed the flight schedules planned for the first few years. The Orbital Flight Test (OFT) plan is now as follows: Mission 1 (March 1979) The Shuttle will carry no payload on its very first flight into space, but extensive instrumenta- The Teleoperator Retrieval System is a new Shuttle "add-on" being schemed by Martin Marietta under the direction of Nasa's Marshall Centre. It will be used to survey, stabilise and manoeuvre payloads in low Earth orbit. As the name suggests, it will be controlled by astronauts from inside the Shuttle Orbiter, using television and a remote command system. A preliminary design review leading to full-scale development is scheduled for March tion will be fitted to check the vehicle and its equipment. Mission 2 (July 1979) Minimum-weight, pallet-mounted Earth-resources' payload funded by Nasa Office' of Space and Terrestrial Applications (formerly Office of Applica tions). Mission 3 (September 1979) Payload yet to be selected, but this first test of the extendable-arm manipulator will probably be managed by Office of Space Sciences. Mission 4 (December 1979) First test of SSUS-A (Solid Spinning Upper Stage with Atlas-Centaur-class payload capability to synchronous orbit). The pallet-mounted experiment payload will probably be managed by Office of Space Sciences. Mission 5 (February 1980) Recently confirmed as a mission to the vicinity of the Skylab space station, abandoned after three successful visits by US astronauts between May 1973 and February 1974. A Teleoperator
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