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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3603.PDF
Atlantis lands: Nasa names crews US Space Shuttle Atlantis ended the classified STS 27 mission with a touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, Cali fornia, on December 6, after a flight lasting more than four days. STS 27 was the second Shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster. Nasa celebrated by naming four more Shuttle crews, bring ing to eight the number of crews in training for flights through to March 1990. Seven missions are planned for 1989, although the first, STS 29, is threatened by a slight delay because Nasa has to replace the first stage of the IUS upper stage for its TDRS-D payload. The new crew selections confirm that payload specialist scientists will fly on space- lab science missions, such as the Astro 1 flight. The inclusion of two civilian Nasa astronauts in the crew for a military mission, STS 33, has caused a stir in the Department of Defence. Crews have already been named for STS 29, 30, 28, and 31, and the new selections are for missions STS 33, 34, 32, and 35. These missions will not follow a numerical sequence, and this will no doubt cause as much confusion as Nasa's pre- Challenger flight designation system. Flight: STS 29 Orbiter: Discovery Date: Feb 18, 1989 Payload: TORS D Crew: Commander Michael Coats Pilot John Blaha MS James Buchli Robert Springer James Bagian Flight: STS 30 Orbiter: Atlantis Date: Apr 20, 1989 Payload: Magellan Crew: Commander David Walker Pilot Ronald Grabe MS Norman Thagard Mary Cleave Mark Lee Flight: STS 28 Orbiter: Columbia Date: Jul 1, 1989 Payload: DoD Crew: Commander Brewster Shaw Pilot Richard Richards MS David Leestma James Adamson Mark Brown Flight: STS 33 Orbiter: Discovery Date: Aug 10, 1989 Payload: DoD Crew: Commander Frederick Gregory Pilot David Griggs MS Manley Carter Story Musgrave Kathryn Thornton Flight: STS 34 Orbiter: Atlantis Date: Oct 12, 1989 Payload: Galileo Crew: Commander Donald, Williams Pilot Michael McCulley MS Shannon Lucid Ellen Baker Franklin Chang-Diaz Flight: STS 32 Orbiter: Columbia Date: Nov 13, 1989 Payload: Leasat 5 LDEF retrieval Crew: Commander Dan Brandenstein . Pilot James Wetherbee MS Donnie Dunbar David Low Marsha Ivins Flight: STS 31 Orbiter: Atlantis Date: Dec 11, 1989 Payload: Hubble Crew: Commander Loren Shriver Pilot Charles Bolden MS Bruce McCandless Kathryn Sullivan Steven Hawley Flight: STS 36 Orbiter: Discovery Date: Feb 1, 1990 Payload: DoD Crew: Not named Flight: STS 35 Orbiter: Columbia Date: Mar 1, 1990 Payload: Astro 1 Crew: Commander John McBride Pilot Guy Gardner MS Jeffrey Hoffman Robert Parker Mike Lounge PS Samual Durrance Ronald Parise Japan's H-2 fires up Japan's next-generation rocket prototype, the H-2, is undergoing tests. The first burning of the first LE7 stage was conducted at Mit'ubishi Heavy Industries' test centre, 500km north of Tokyo in Tashiro City, Akita Prefecture. The LETs 1 -2 million-ton thrust is equivalent to that of the US space Shuttle's main engine. Under development by the National Space Development Agency of Japan, the H-2 is expected to be launched in 1991. Saturn / Titan mission approved The European Space Agency has approved the Cassini mission to Saturn and its large moon Titan as its next major science project. The mission, to be conducted with Nasa, would be launched by a Titan 4/Centaur G in April 1996, to fly past the asteroid 66 Maja in 1997 and Jupiter in late 1999, before arriving in orbit around Saturn in Octo ber 2002. Nasa will provide the Mariner Mk II Inter planetary platform, which will enter orbit around Saturn. Europe will build a descent probe to explore the moon Titan. The probe will be named after the astrono mer and physicist Christian Huygens. Titan attracts enormous interest among planetary scientists because it is the largest known moon to have an atmosphere. This com prises thick organic-rich nitrogen at a surface pres sure of 1 • 5 bar and a tem perature of 94K (-179°C). Scientists believe that chemical processes in Titan's atmosphere may resemble those at work on Earth before the origin of life. The 192-3kg Huygens probe will incorporate a large 3-lm-diameter, coni cal decelerator which will slow it from 7km/sec to 266m/sec 180km above the surface of Titan after release from the Cassini orbiter 12 days after arriving at Saturn. A parachute will continue a two- to three-hour descent to the surface, which may be covered by lakes or oceans of ethane or methane. Huygens will carry seven experi ments, weighing 39-9kg. It is hoped that the 5m/sec impact may be soft enough for the probe to survive and conduct in situ analysis. It will orbit Saturn for four years, flying over Titan's surface more than 30 times. PLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 17 December 1988 17
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