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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3057.PDF
rtend space endurance lead US Space Shuttle Soviet shuttle FLIGHT 3 Reed Business Publishing 1988 The Soviet shuttle appears to be slightly larger than its US counterpart c status. A vehicle now believed to have been an aerodynamic prototype only is reported to have been carried aloft on a modified Myashichev Mya-4 bomber and possibly released to perform approach and landing tests a la US Shuttle. The USA claims to have first observed the Soviet shuttle on the Baikonur launch pad in 1986. Apparently the vehicle and its launcher, on a mobile platform similar to that used by the US Shuttle, have made the trip to the pad several times, as did the US Shuttle before its 1981 first flight. Official release of shuttle photographs suggests that the vehicle is indeed ready to fly, at least unmanned, provided its Energia booster received a clean bill of health after its maiden launch more than 18 months ago. How soon the Soviet shuttle will fly with men aboard remains to be seen. Certainly plans to man the shuttle received a setback earlier this year, when one of two test pilots acknowledged to have flown "shuttle-type missions in the atmosphere", Anatoly Lev- chenko, died of a brain tumour soon after returning from a familiarisation trip to Mir. Levchenko and Igor Volk were expected to command the Soviets e by Tim Furniss On October 16, Soviet cosmo nauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov clocked Up 300 days in space. They were launched towards the Mir space station aboard Soyuz TM4 on Decem ber 21 last year, and are expected to return to Earth on December 21, having been in space for 366 days. This will exceed by 40 days the previous longest-duration flight, by Mir cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko. Romenenko amassed 430 days space experience on three flights, and is now followed by seven colleagues with over 300 days, eight with over 200 days, and four with over 100 days. This compares with the Ameri can record of 84 days by three astronauts in 1974. The Soviet lead in space endurance is quite staggering. Not including the present mission, the Soviet man-days in space total is 2,317 on 65 missions, compared with America's 403 on 55 manned space missions. The longest US Space Soviet shuttle on its first manned test flight. Another test pilot, possibly Alexander Shchukin, will now have to be trained. This process involves flying both a special flight simu lator and a Tupolev Tu-154 airliner modifed to fly a simu lated shuttle-type approach and landing, and a Soyuz famili arisation flight to Mir. If the Soviets benefited from US openness in releasing Space Shuttle technical data, then they have gained salutory experience from US misfortune. Commercial pressures are unlikely to compromise Energia launch safety, however, although whether the Soviet launcher is man-rated in the Western sense of increased component reliability is not known. An unmanned first shuttle flight is well within Soviet capa bilities. Energia has already flown in automatic mode, and the shuttle is simply another payload for the heavylift launcher. The Soviets have ample experience of manoeuvr ing unmanned spacecraft in orbit, and even its Soyuz manned ferry re-enters under computer control. The com puter-controlled landing is one "of the most complicated problems still to be solved. Shuttle mission lasted for just over ten days, and missions last ing 16 days may be possible by 1992, first on the US Materials Laboratory 1 Spacelab mission, STS 55. Shifts on the Freedom SPACEFLIGHT Intelsat and Ford Aerospace signed the $394,278,788 contract for the delivery of five Intelsat VII commu nications satellites on October 4. The first two Intelsat VII comsats will be launched in 1992-93, and will replace Intelsat Vs. Intelsat VIIs will be,high-power satellites with independently steerable C- band spot antennas and a third K-band antenna. The launch of TDRS C by Space Shuttle Discovery STS 26 will provide the first real time transmission of Landsat thematic mapper data direct to regions from 60°E to 160°W from Eosat's Lanham international Space Station are not expected to exceed six months. The Soviet goal of extended space endurance is clearly linked to a long-term programme leading to a headquarters in the USA. Nasa has extended its contract with Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for five years to September 30, 1993. The contract, worth $5 million, covers the Magellan and Gali leo missions, and the Neptune encounter by Voyager 2 next August. Boeing Aerospace has begun work on a $10,688,737 contract from the US Air Force to develop a solar power subsystem for advanced space craft, capable of surviving hostile attack. The survivaole power subsystem, or Suffer, will include a unique solar concentrator and highly advanced electronics. manned flight to Mars next century. Titov and Manarov, mean while, together with doctor Valeri Polyakov, who had been in space 48 days on October 16, prepared for a third spacewalk outside Mir and a second attempt to replace a detector on the TTM X-ray telescope on the Kvant astrophysics module. The first repair attempt on June 30, lasting over five hours, was thwarted when a master wrench broke. New purpose-built tools were delivered to Mir on board Progress 38. If US singer John Denver really wants to fly to the Mir space station, as he claims he is planning to, the Soviets say that he will have to fulfil the follow ing conditions: he has to pay $10 million to space agency Glavkosmos; he needs some thing more than his guitar to justify the eight-day visiting mission; he will have to pass very strict medical screening; and he will have to learn Russian and train at Star City for a year. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 October 1988 IS
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