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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 2057.PDF
OPERATIONS: SPACE First Titan IV launched The maiden launch of the Martin Marietta Titan IV booster took place on June 14, from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The booster placed the first of a third generation of Defence Support Programme TRW-built early warning missile tracking satellites into geosta tionary orbit. The launch was expected to have taken place last October, then was rescheduled for March this year, but several technical problems were encountered. The Titan IV was conceived in 1984 as a complementary vehi cle for the Space Shuttle. Ten vehicles were first ordered, worth $2 1 billion, but after the Challenger accident the order was increased to 23, raising the contract value to $4-1 billion. The vehicle, originally desig nated the Titan 34D-7, is basically a Titan 34D with seven- segment, rather than five- segment, solid-rocket boosters. It can carry either a Boeing IUS upper stage—used for the June 14 launch—or a General Dynam ics Centaur C. The latter combi nation can place a 4,535kg load into geostationary orbit. Launches of the Titan IV from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cali fornia, with the IUS upper stage will begin next year, and with the Centaur G in 1992. The vehicle is expected eventually to replace the Space Shuttle for military launches, although this year the Shuttle is scheduled to carry the second DSP Block 3 satellite. • Columbia roll-out set for July 9 Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia is set to be rolled out to launch Pad 39B on July 9 for the STS 28 US Department of Defense mission, tentatively scheduled for July 31. Columbia, which has flown seven space missions, including the first five Space Shuttle flights starting in 1981, and which was last used in January 1986, is undergoing final- work in the Orbiter Processing Facility of the Kennedy Space Center before its move to the Vehicle Assembly Building on June 30 for mating with the external tank and solid- rocket boosters. Final work includes verifi cation of its Inertial Measuring Unit, structural leak checks, clean-out of the payload bay, and the fixing of the last thermal protection system blankets and 24 more tiles, 18 of which are around the payload bay doors. • Indian satellite damaged on pad The Indian Insat ID commu nications satellite has been damaged by a launch pad acci dent, and the first US commercial expendable satellite launch vehicle flight, set for June 29, has been delayed "indefinitely". The accident occurred on the McDonnell Douglas launch pad 17 at Cape Canaveral, where a Delta booster was being prepared for the launch. The fully fuelled and pressurised satellite had been winched to the top of the rocket and fully mated to it when the hook of the crane used for the operation fell off and hit the satellite. The crane was moving away from the satellite after its encapsulation can had been removed, and was preparing to bring an air-conditioning unit towards the craft. The launch pad was sealed off while engineers assessed the damage to the Indian spacecraft, but McDonnell Douglas engineer Bob Parker at Cape Canaveral tells Flight that the launch has definitely been postponed. • Soviets launch six satellites Six Soviet satellites were launched between May 31 and June 8. Molniya 3-35 was launched on a Molniya booster from Plesetsk on June 8, into a standard highly elliptical orbit, inclined to the equator by 62-9°. The day before, Cosmos 2026, a military navigation satellite, was launched from Plesetsk by a Cosmos booster. A photo-reconnaissance satel lite, Cosmos 2025, was launched by a Soyuz booster from Plesetsk on June 2, and on May 31 a Proton booster carried three Cosmos satellites, 2022-2024, into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Two satellites were Glonass navigation space craft, and Cosmos 2024 was an Etalon, a passive optical reflector for laser ranging, the second in a planned series. The deployment of the two Pion upper-atmosphere research sub-satellites from the Resurs F spacecraft launched on May 25 took place on June 9. • Mir malfunctions criticised Over half the equipment on the Soviet Mir space station has malfunctioned during its three years in space, says cosmonaut chief Vladimir Shatalov. He says that several cosmonauts have wasted much of their time conducting in-orbit repairs of equipment that was never tested before launch. At least two manned flights have been cancelled as a result of these faults, he says. Mir is on automatic mode as it orbits, awaiting a manned repair mission and the first of two new modules. Tass says that the first module is due to be launched in late September. Mir's major problem, according to flight director Valeri Ryumin, concerns its electrical generation system. Shatalov has also criticised the lack of industrial and tech nological spin-off from manned flights, and has urged the formation of a US NASA-style space agency. • Matra hopes for Hispasat French company Matra is confident that it will sign a contract with Spain in the next "few weeks" for the Hispasat communications satellite which is to be launched in 1992, primarily to provide commu nications services for coverage of the# 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Matra says that discussions about frequency co-ordination at the 39°W geostationary orbital slot is "holding things up". Hughes Aircraft, however, is reportedly making a strong bid to take the contract. The US company has offered either a spin-stabilised or three-axis stabilised satellite model, and says that Spain "has not made up its mind yet". D NEWS IN BRIEF GD LAUNCH BUSINESS General Dynamics has options on eight commercial launches, and 11 commercial missions are being negotiated, including the launch', of Italy's Small X-ray astronomy satellite, SAX, on an Atlas 1 in 1993 and a baselined Atlas launch, in 1995, of the ESA/NASA Soho spacecraft. Of its seven firm contracts— Eutelsat II, CRRES, three GOES, and two Intelsat VIIs —the Eutelsat launch, sched uled for early 1990, "may slip", says GD. SWISSMARSAT Switzerland has become the 56th member of the Inter national Maritime Satellite Organisation. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 July 1989 15
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