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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 1108.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Canada funds Station studies OTTAWA Canada's National Research Council is to divert C$8-8 million ($6-5million) of its C$195 million ($145 million) 1985-86 space budget to Nasa Space Station project defini tion studies. Canadian participation in the $8,000 million US Space Station could total C$300- $600 million ($225-$450 mil lion), and is likely to centre on satellite servicing and check out using remote manipulator systems developed from the Shuttle Canadarm. The Canadian Government is to draw up a long-term stra tegic space plan by the end of this year. In the meantime an interim plan has been announced which allows for continued technical and economic assessment of two major Canadian programmes, M-Sat and Radarsat. M-Sat is a mobile satellite communications system for operation in the early 1990s to provide links with vehicles, ships, aircraft, and rural areas via relatively small and inex pensive terminals. Spar is working on M-Sat design and development using Europe's Olympus satellite bus. M-Sat is a joint venture by Telesat Canada, the Canadian De partment of Communications, Nasa, and a US satellite oper ator. Final approval later this year will depend on the avail ability of C$400 million ($300 million) in private Canadian financing. Telesat estimates that mobile satellite commu nications could be worth C$2,400 million ($1,800 million) over 15 years. The second programme is Radarsat, for which Spar re ceived an initial C$14 million ($11 million) design and development contract in January. Scheduled for launch into polar orbit in 1990, Radarsat will map Canada's mineral, forest, and agricultural resources using high-resolution synthetic- aperture radar. The pro gramme is expected to cost about C$530 million. Boeing models Station module This scale model of Boeing's proposed Space Station common pressurised module shows various possible laboratory and living-area configurations. Boeing and Martin Marietta are negotiating for competitive module definition and preliminary design contracts worth $24 million. Voyager views Uranus PASADENA Nasa's Voyager 2 outer-planet probe, en route to a rendez vous with Uranus is January 1986, is some 480 million kilo metres from its target and is returning images with resolu tions better than any ground- based views. Launched in August 1977, Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter in July 1979 and Saturn in August 1981. After Uranus the probe will encounter Nep tune in August 1989, before leaving the Solar System. Threat to BAe platform PARIS ~ According to unofficial sour ces in Europe, France is considering taking a 15 per cent share in funding Euro pean Space Agency Phase B space platform project defini tion studies. This will equal Britain's contribution and endanger British Aerospace's hopes of leading development of the platform. The polar-orbiting space platform is one of the contributions ESA is consid ering making to the US Space Station, in addition to the German-led Columbus pres surised module complex. Orbited by Shuttle, the un manned platform would provide orbit, power, data- transmission, and other services for interchangeable payloads. Satellite situation report GREENBELT ~ Nasa's Goddard Spaceflight Centre, in its latest survey of all objects in space, states that on December 31 last year there were 1,476 spacecraft in orbit plus 3,932 pieces of debris, such as spent rocket stages and payload shrouds. The total number of decayed craft and debris comes to 10,078. However, there are many thousands of pieces of debris too small to be tracked, resulting from accidental and deliberate explosions. More than 3,200 spacecraft have been launched since Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and the oldest still in orbit is Vanguard 1, launched on March 17, 1958, which is now in a 3,896km by 656km orbit with an inclination of 34.3°. It weighs just 31b. 14 SPACESHOTS Nasa's Gamma Ray Obser vatory, to be launched by Shuttle in 1988, will be able to be refuelled in orbit thanks to a coupling being developed by Fairchild Control Systems under a $1-8 million Nasa contract. The standard coupling will be able to handle hydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide, triclorotrofluoroethane, water and monomethyl-hydrazine, and nitrogen and helium gases. Telesat Canada is offering customers video scrambling and descrambling via its Anik satellites for a one-year trial period ending in mid-March 1986. Video scrambling is expected to appeal to those users requiring secure trans mission, for example private teleconferencing. Soviet satellites Cosmos 1632, 1633, and 1634, orbited on March 1, 5, and 14 respectively, were probably launched from Plesetsk on military missions, 1632 by A2 booster for photo-reconnais sance, 1633 by F2 for electronic-intelligence/ocean- ographic operations, and 1634 by Cl booster. In 1984 the Soviet Union conducted 97 launches, placing at least 114 craft in orbit or in deep space, compared with 22 for the USA. Intelsat VA-F10 was launched by Atlas-Centaur from Cape Canaveral on March 22, the first in a series of five improved spacecraft built by a Ford Aerospace-led international consortium for Intelsat, the international telecommunications satellite organisation. There are eight Intelsat Vs already in orbit, and this latest craft will be used as a backup for the Atlantic Ocean primary satellite. Japan's National Space Development Agency will spend $89-2 million in 1985 on development of the H-2 launch vehicle, $25-2 million on the ERS-1 Earth resources satellite, and $0-4 million on the GMS-4 geostationary weather satellite. The Agency will also spend $12-8 million studying Japanese partici pation in the US Space Station, and $44 million on its first materials processing test programme. FLIGHT International, 13 April 1985
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