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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0215.PDF
Israeli satellites jeopardised Plans to launch two Israeli com munications satellites are in jeopardy because of strong opposition from the country's defence forces, which may delay the launch, scheduled for 1993, or cancel the programme. The plan to launch two Amos communications satellites is a purely commercial venture by General Satellite, a company headed by Maj Gen Meir Amit, former head of Israeli intel ligence. The two satellites, each carrying eight transponders, are planned to meet all local needs for communication frequencies beyond the year 2000. Israel Aircraft Industries has begun designing the satellites at its MBT plant. According to the plan, the two satellites will be launched by Ariane in 1993. To raise the $260 million needed to manufacture and launch the two satellites, Gen eral Satellite has asked the Israeli Government to commit itself to buying $30 million of services annually for ten years from 1993. The Israeli Government has not yet discussed the issue, but a few weeks ago it was leaked that members of the Israeli Defence Force general staff oppose any Government commitment. "The opposition in the general staff can only be explained by the fear that, if the Government commits itself to the pro gramme, money from the defence budget will also be allo cated to it," says a source close to the Amos programme. Meir Amit says that the com mitment requested from the Government "includes all the national needs". Israel plans Offeq-2 Israel Aircraft Industries plans to launch a second experi mental satellite, "Offeq-2", within the next two years. Offeq-1, the first Israeli sat ellite, burned up in the upper atmosphere on January 14, after four months in orbit. Offeq-1 was launched on September 19, 1988, into an elliptical 3'rbit with a perigee of 250km. The satellite com pleted one orbit every 90min. Transmissions were received for the last time at IAI's ground station at 0330hr on January 14. Moshe Ortasse, president of IAI's electronics division, says that Offeq-1 stayed in orbit one month more than antici pated. "It performed smoothly and completed all its scientific missions," Ortasse says. The plan now is to launch the sec ond experimental satellite within the next two years, using the Shavit booster devel oped by IAI and Israel Military Industries. Pegasus first launch booked by Tim Furniss The maiden flight of the OSC/ Hercules-funded Pegasus air- launched satellite launch vehi cle will take place in July. It is to place a DARPA-NASA payload into a 640km polar orbit. A further DARPA mission is scheduled to take place in Sep tember and another four could follow for DARPA in 1990. Each launch is expected to cost the Government agency about $10 million. Pegasus cost OSC/ Hercules $45 million in private funding to develop. The joint company is negotiating several other launches, some with com mercial companies, although its original assessment that the market would provide mainly launches for commercial com panies rather than Government agencies has not proved the case. The three-stage, 15m-long vehicle, which is powered by solid propellant used by the Per shing II missile, is taken to a height of 12,000m by a NASA NB-52, after take-off from the Dryden Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base. The booster is dropped 100m and its first-stage motor ignites for 81-3 seconds, to begin a launch phase which is capable of placing a 272kg satellite into a polar orbit over the Pacific Ocean in 8min 53-9 seconds. OSC/Hercules is considering uprating the booster to take heavier payloads by extending the first stage, replacing the third with a liquid engine, enlarging the overall diameter of the existing vehicle, or adding a fourth stage. Shuttle passengers grounded No non-essential passengers will fly the Space Shuttle until at least 1992, according to a NASA policy guideline. The first "spaceflight participant", if there ever is one, will be teacher Barbara Morgan, who was the backup to Christa McAillife, who was killed in the Challenger disaster. Most Shuttle flights will include only five NASA astro naut pilots and mission special ists. Another category, non- NASA payload specialists, will only fly if they "are essential to mission success". These include astronomers Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance, who will be the first of that Shuttle crew category to fly, doing so in 1990 on the Astro 1 Spacelab mission. It is highly unlikely, said a NASA spokesman, that com pany payload specialists will fly Shuttle. Specialists, such as McDonnell Douglas' Charlie Walker, have flown previously to operate the kind of equip ment that NASA mission spe cialists operated during earlier flights. Mission specialists will take over this work. Payload specialists are there fore likely to be limited 'to Spacelab missions, such as the Spacelab Life Sciences mission scheduled for 1990. Foreigners will be included, such as two West Germans on Spacelab D2 mission and a Japanese scientist on Spacelab J, both in 1991. Martin Marietta details System concept Martin Marietta, one of three US companies studying the Advanced Launch System, is working on concepts using both expendable (far right) and recov erable (near right) liquid-propellant strap- on boosters. With four expendable boosters the vehicle can lift 105,0001b into low- Earth orbit; 119,0001b with one recoverable booster; and 160,0001b with eight expendable or two recoverable boosters. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 28 January 1989 21
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