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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 3134.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Gibson to lead British Space Centre LONDON The long-awaited British National Space Centre was born in modest style at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on November 20. There was no announce ment of increased funding for space, over the current annual budget of about £100 million (about one fifth of France's expenditure), and the expected go-ahead for a proof of concept study of Hotol did not materialise. The brightest spot was the announcement by Geoffrey Pattie, Minister of State for Industry and Information Technology of the name of the BNSC's first director general. He is Dr Roy Gibson, co- founder and first director general of the European Space Agency in 1975. Gibson, who was responsible for ESA projects worth £500 million a year, left the agency in 1980 to pursue a career as consultant and director with several British and international space companies. He will be employed under a three-year contract at deputy secretary level. At the press conference, Pattie expressed regret at the lack of trumpet blowing there had been in the past about Britain's lead in space communications, and its management of the Giotto project to visit Halley's comet, and hoped that the BNSC would increase awareness of the nation's space activities by placing them on a higher profile. The BNSC will lead Britain's involvement with ESA. It will have an initial staff of about 30, and will be situated in the Millbank Tower in London. It will pool and co-ordinate the space activities of the DTI, Ministry of Defence, Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, the Science and Engineering Research Council, and the Natural Environment Re search Council. Dr Gibson's first brief is to present to Mr Pattie a British space policy. This, said the minister, will "weld together a co-ordinated central pro gramme, providing a sharper focus for the future five years of British space activities. It would take into account the needs of industry, scientists and other civil and defence users of space". Pattie empha sised that closer links with British industries will be forged: indeed, "industry involvement is expected". The minister stressed that increased space funding and further encouragement for Hotol will only come after the formation of a space policy, discussions with ESA on the Phase B studies of partici pation in the US Space Station, and further talks with British Aerospace, Rolls- Royce, and potential Euro pean partners in Hotol. The responsibility for the British Skynet 4 project, and for the Shuttle flights by two MoD personnel next year, will remain the ministry's, but will, said Pattie, contribute to the stature of the space centre. Regarding the creation of a British astronaut corps, simi lar to the French space agency's spacionauts, Pattie said that this was highly likely should ESA continue its high profile participation in the US Space Station. China expands TV coverage BEIJING ~ A new satellite ground station has enabled residents of Lhasa, one of China's remotest cities, to watch programmes trans mitted from the capital, Beijing. The station is one of 53 that have been installed recently in provinces and autonomous regions. More than 1,000 ground stations are to be built in China in the next two years. Up to 30,000 receivers will be needed to cover 95 per cent of the country's area, which is similar to that of the USA. The stations will all be built locally. China also hopes to orbit its first domestically- produced TV satellite early in 1987. Mission 61B Shuttle astronauts recently visited RCA to inspect the Ku- Band-2 satellite. The craft will fly uninsured because of high premiums Ariane insurance scheme near PARIS Arianespace hopes that by January it will have completed plans for a self- insurance scheme in time for Spot Image to insure its Spot satellite at a favourable rate. The launch of Spot, and the Swedish Viking craft, was delayed to January 11 after the loss of Ariane V15 last September. Arianespace plans to estab lish an insurance "pool" to underwrite the next 15 launches at $70 million per launch, equivalent to a premium rate of 11 to 13 per cent, on the basis that, from past experience, it would expect to have one failure in this period. The company is finding it harder to market Ariane in the face of increased com petitiveness by Nasa, particu larly the space agency's two- option reflight warranty and other sales promotion. This, and the basic design differ ences and records of Ariane and Shuttle, are forcing Arianespace to lower its predictions from nine to ten double-satellite launches a year, quoted five years ago, to a rate of five to seven launches. Senior Arianespace executives admit that there is now little prospect of ever reaching double figures in one year. The current state of the space insurance market is illustrated by RCA Astro Electronics' refusal to pay a premium of 28 per cent of the cost of its Satcom Ku Band 2 satellite, to cover its launch on Shuttle 61B. The satellite, which is worth about $30 million, flies uninsured. 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 30 November 1985
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