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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0370.PDF
DHC-6 TWIN OTTER SUPPORT We hold extensive inventory of • Airframe parts • Engine parts • HSI module kits • Propeller parts • Landing gear parts • Rotables • Instruments Exchange program available - including PT-6 engines. WE ALSO BUY DHC-6 PARTS & ROTABLES Send listings TELEX PHONE OR WRITE TODAY AMAGER LANDEVEJ 147A COPENHAGEN AIRPORT DK-2770 KASTRUP. DENMARK PHONE: 45-1 51 34 44 TELEX: 31214 SAT DK TELEFAX: 45-1 51 34 34 SITA: CPHSVCR SPACEFLIGHT Galileo probe mods cost $1 5m EL SEGUNDO Hughes Aircraft is reas sembling and refurbishing the Galileo Jupiter descent probe to counter potential problems caused by ageing, reports Tim Furniss. The Galileo probe and orbiter were to have been launched towards Jupiter in 1986, but will now be despatched from the Shuttle in October next year. Because of previous delays, Galileo will be nine years old by the time it is launched. Even the October 1989 launch window will be threatened by any Shuttle delays. Galileo's protracted jour ney, necessitated by the use of a less powerful IUS upper stage in place of a Centaur G Prime, will take more than five years, during which it will fly past Venus (Feb 1990), twice past the Earth (Dec 1990 and 1992), and past the asteroids Gaspra (1991) and Ida (Aug 1993). Parts to be rebuilt include the probe's parachute, its lith ium hydroxide batteries, the mortar cartridge which deploys the pilot parachute, and the pyrotechnic pressure cartridges used for parachute separation. Four of the probe's science instruments have been declared flightwor- thy, a fifth instrument is still under review, and a sixth, the net flux radiometer, is being refined. The probe will be ejected in July 1995, before Galileo enters orbit around Jupiter the following December. It will dive into the turbulent clouds of the Jovian atmos phere on December 7 at a speed of 160,000km/hr. Deceleration to Mach 1 will take two minutes, creating forces of 350g. Temperatures on the nose of the descent probe will be as intense as those from a nuclear explosion. After the "re-entry", the probe will descend 240km into the atmosphere in which it will operate for most of the time in a relatively benign environ ment. After 75min the pressure will reach 15 to 20 times Earth sea-level pressure, and the craft will be destroyed. Alcatel wins Poseidon contract Alcatel has been awarded a Frl26 million contract to supply the Poseidon radar altimeter. It will be part of the joint Franco-US Topex-Poseidon ocean topographical satellite to be launched by an Ariane 42L in October 1991. Poseidon will be mounted on a US Fairchild platform to form the Topex satellite. Alcatel has also won a Fr93 million contract to supply Matra with the payload electronic systems for the French Spot 3 remote-sensing satellite. Euro comsats in trouble PARIS The West German TV-Sat 1 and French Telecom IB communications satellites were still in trouble on Febru ary 3. This casts doubt on the European satellite industry's ability to compete in the international market, and on the future of European satel lite broadcasting business. One solar panel on TV-Sat cannot be deployed, and Tele com IB is out of control. TV- Sat's sister craft, the French TDF 1, may be delayed, and the launch of Telecom 1C on the next Ariane, scheduled for March 4, may also be held up. To make matters worse, the launch of the SES Astra TV satellite this autumn is under threat from delays to Ariane. SPACESHOTS The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 1915, a photo- reconnaisance satellite, and a Meteor 2 meteorological satellite, on January 26 and February 1 respectively, on SL-4 and SL-14 vehicles from Plesetsk. The Soviets have now performed four launches this year, putting a total of nine satellites into orbit. The Soviet's planned Columbus Mars mission in 1992, originally planned to involve a balloon sonde and automatic surface rover, may now be a more modest orbital survey mission. It may be launched in tandem with the US Mars Observer, which could be used by the Soviets as a data relay satellite, as a result of new co-operation between US and Soviet scientists. Soviet spacecraft Phobos 1 will be launched on July 7 and Phobos 2 on July 12 this year, on their missions to investigate the Martian moon of the same name. The 11-ton Long Exposure Duration Facility (LDEF) deployed from the Shuttle in 1984, which was to have been retrieved by Shuttle in 1986, is in danger of making a prema ture re-entry. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 13 February 1988
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