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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0044.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Challenger's engines are healthy Orbiter Challenger's three main engines have passed their pre-flight medical. The engines completed a 20sec burn on December 18, demon strating Challenger's readi ness for flight. Post-burn inspection showed the engines to be in good health, but there was a hydrogen leak in the aft engine compartment. Nasa was still trying to locate the leak as we closed for press, but the difficulty appears to be a minor one. Launch of STS 6 is due on January 27. Nasa's first tracking and data relay satellite, TDRSS A, is due to enter Challenger on January 9. TDRSS A was moved to pad 39A in the last week of December. More crew forSTS7&8 Nasa has added an astronaut to its seventh and eighth Shuttle flights, bringing the crew on each mission to five. Dr Norman Thagard joins STS 7, and Dr William Thornton is added to STS 8. Both are mission specialists, and will gather more data on adaptation to weightlessness. Spaceshots... Astronaut Jack Swigert has died from cancer, aged 51. He was commander of Apollo 13, which suffered a narrow es cape when a liquid oxygen tank exploded. Australia has been offered the chance to fly an astronaut aboard Space Shuttle when it launches Aussat 1 or 2 in 1985. British Telecom is to allow its telephone competitor, Mercury, to provide private links via the Intelsat network. Mercury, which plans its own domestic telephone network, also has the option of oper ating a satellite ground- station. Provision of inter national links for the public remains British Telecom's preserve. Salyut 7: a cosmonaut's view These views of life aboard Salyut 7 have just been released by the Soviet Union. They were taken during August 1982, when Savitskaya, Popov, and Serebrov visited the orbiting laboratory. Long- stay occupants Ber- ezovoy and Lebedev returned to Earth last month, and Sal yut 7 is unmanned at the moment. Top Savitskaya is framed by the transfer hatch, in this view looking forward. Le bedev (right) and Berezovoy are help ing her prepare for astrophysical obser vations with the French-built Pira- mig. Centre From left to right, Ber ezovoy, Lebedev, and Savitskaya. Note the moving-map display at centre left, which would aid Earth ob servation. Bottom Looking aft inside Salyut 7, as the MKF6M camera is prepared for use. These views of Sal yut 7 convey some impression of the limited space avail able for living, eat ing, sleeping, and conducting experi ments. Lebedev and Berezovoy spent more than six months in the space station. A new crew is expected to travel to Salyut 7 soon, per haps this month 58 FLIGHT International, 8 January 1983 \
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