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Aviation History
1987
1987 - 0022.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Ariane set for June PARIS As predicted in Flight last September, the first launch of Ariane since the V18 failure in May last year has been tentatively set for June, although two more critical tests are required on the third stage. Arianespace, which has a backlog of 42 satellites to launch by 1991, had hoped to fly seven Arianes this year, following a resumption of operations last February. Clearly this is not going to happen, and added pressure will now be put on the agency to meet its obligations to eager customers. It can expect at best to get five Arianes off the ground this year, one of which may include the first flight of Ariane 4, the workhorse of the 1990s. • Since the V18 failure, main engine contractor SEP has lost FFr350 million, and has spent FFr700 million testing the third stage. It is also spending FFr1000 million building a second altitude simulation chamber at Vernon. Nasa studies next goal WASHINGTON D.C. Nasa is studying four pro posed initiatives from the agency's strategic planning group, led by astronaut Sally Ride, to help determine Amer ica's next major goal in space. They are: a considerably expanded study of Earth, an enhanced programme of solar-system exploration, establishment of a permanent scientific base on the Moon, and manned exploration of Mars after unmanned mis sions. The last goal was recommended to Nasa by the agency's advisory council, headed by former astronaut Michael Collins. A manned flight to Mars, said the council, would capture widespread support, and preparations for it would considerably enhance the nation's scientific and tech nical capability. Although Nasa badly needs a long-term policy and strong leadership, harm is being done to its credibility by escalating costs and delays to the Space Station (its next goal in space) and by two-year delays to its next Martian flagship, Mars Observer. • In an effort to save the Mars Observer mission, and to survive as a company, Orbital Sciences Corporation has offered to fund the purchase of a Titan 3 launcher from Martin Marietta to enable the spacecraft to be launched in 1990 as planned, rather than on Shuttle in 1992. It is providing the TOS upper stage for the mission, and a delay to 1992 would severely affect the young company's future. It has just one other contract for TOS, to propel Nasa's Advanced Communications Test Satel lite (Acts), which has not yet been authorised in Nasa's budget. India's ASLV fails SRIHARIKOTA India's space hopes crashed into the Bay of Bengal on March 24 as its first Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) failed to launch the 136kg stretched Rohini, SROSS satellite. The ASLV, which can place 150kg payloads into 400km orbits, consists of a liquid- propellant first-core stage and two autonomous strap-on boosters, with four solid- propellant upper stages. The abort, witnessed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, occurred about one minute after launch, when the first- stage core engine failed. Indian officials hinted that the integrated guidance system, being tested for the first time, may have been responsible. Three Rohini satellites had previously been orbited by the country's SLV launcher, and development of the ASLV was seen as a major step towards the establishment of a self- sufficient space operation, (Flight, June 14, 1986). Three more SROSSs were to have been launched, to contribute to the development of India's first remote-sensing satellite to be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. By 1992, India hoped to be operating a geostation ary satellite launch vehicle to orbit Insat II communications satellites. Micro-gravity re-entry vehicle promoted PRESTON ~ An Anglo-American re-entry vehicle, an Italian launch site, and German funding are set to promote Topas, a low-cost access to space for microgravity experimenters who are frustrated by delays to Shuttle and the lack of other opportunities to assess materials processing in space. A range of recoverable General Electric re-entry vehicles is being marketed in Europe by NIS Space. These are based on the photographic capsules of US reconnais sance satellites. Aeritalia operates the two San Marco offshore launch platforms in the Formosa Bay, near Kenya, which have been used for satellite launches by Scout vehicles since Explorer 42 in 1970. West Germany has been the leading force in Europe promoting experiments for assessing the viability of processing in space. With the help of Scout launch vehicles purchased from the Vought Corporation, Topas could soon be offering an access to space vital to the development and evaluation of microgravity processing, which could have a vital affect on the use of the Space Station. An announcement from NIS Space is expected soon after final negotiations between the Governments of Britain, Germany, and Italy. NIS Space is also talking to British Aerospace about pos sible involvement in a project. Palapa goes into orbit CAPE CANAVERAL Indonesia's Palapa B2P communications satellite was launched successfully from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force station on March 20. The satellite, which was to have been deployed from Shuttle in May 1986, was launched by a Nasa-owned Delta 182, and boosted into final geosynchronous orbit by a 3920 payload-assist module. The Delta's second stage was tracked for SDI research. The 651kg satellite will be used to improve TV, tele phone, facsimile, and data- transmission services for Indonesia's 13,600 islands. The launch left Nasa with just three completed expendable launch vehicles in its inventory. One of these, Atlas Centaur 67, failed to launch the US Navy's Fltsat- com F6 communications satellite on March 26. Palapa was the 29th satellite launching of 1987, and the third by the USA, compared with 24 by the Soviet Union to March 25. Soviet launches since Cosmos 1825 are: Cosmos 1826, a third-generation medium- resolution photo reconnais sance satellite on March 11, the March 13 six-up launch of Cosmos 1827-32, Cosmos 1833 on March 15, and Raduga 20 on March 19. Raguda satellites are used primarily for domestic com munications. The launch came six weeks after a Proton fourth stage failed during the launch of a geosynchronous satellite that was dubbed Cosmos 1817. SPACESHOTS Thomson CSF will deliver to Brazil a complete test centre for satellite launching, experi mentation, and satellite and weapons checkout. The nine-year-old US- European-UK Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft has observed the new supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud that was discovered on Febru ary 24. It corrected earlier observations by pinpointing a different source of the super nova, which is 163,000 light years away. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 4 April 1987
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