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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 2921.PDF
0 PERATIONS: S PACEFLIGHT Astro flight grounded by new Shuttle leaks Space Shuttle Columbia has been grounded indefinitely after the third attempt to launch it on the STS 35/Astro 1 mission was again called off due to a hydrogen leak on 17 September. The next Shuttle mission will now be STS 41 Discovery carry ing the Ulysses solar polar or- biter scheduled for around 8 October. The mission must de part by 23 October or it will be delayed for 18 months until the opening of a new planetary- launch window. A tanking test of Discovery being considered by NASA to ensure that it has no leaks would delay the STS 41 launch at least five days to 13 October, giving it a ten-day launch window. NASA is confident that the leakage problem is now associ ated only with Columbia and may have resulted from a com plete engine dissassembly after its STS 32 mission last January to remove polishing grit. When the engines were reassembled, 'Somehow, we didn't get a seal back on right or something,' says engineering director Henry Pohl — prior to 17 September, NASA felt that the earlier prob lems had been caused by micro scopic glass beads in some seals. Columbia was grounded by hydrogen leaks on 29 May and 5 September and a planned launch on 1 September was cancelled when one of the Astro telescopes developed a fault. NASA even relaxed leakage cri teria for the 17 September at tempt but the leak exceeded the new level of acceptability. The agency is appointing an investi gative committee under Robert Schwinghamer of the Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA planned a further Co lumbia tanking test on 23 Sep tember during which TV cam eras placed inside the engine compartment would be used to find the source of the leak, which only occurs when a seal or other component is exposed to cryogenic liquid hydrogen at -253"C. If the leak is detected and a fix can be made immediately, there is a chance that Columbia could be launched in late Octo ber. It is more likely that the $150 million mission will have to be delayed until after the STS 38 Atlantis Department of De fense flight scheduled for mid- November. This mission was also delayed by a hydrogen leak discovered in June. No Shuttle launches have taken place since 29 April, put ting NASA under extreme pres sure. Its $15.1 billion 1991 budget request is being re viewed by Congress and is al ready threatened with a $1.6 billion cut — large enough to limit further work on the Free dom international space station and practically stop work on future space exploration. D HERMES SPACEPLANE DEFINED Latest configuration of the Hermes spaceplane, showing the pressurised work area, extending into the resource module of the docked Columbus man-tended free flier, and the positions of the three crew seats. To fit the 225kg Soviet ejection seats on offer would mean enlarging the cabin by 3% overall. The rival 128kg Martin-Baker seat would not dictate a configuration change. Soviets consider US flight to Mir Top-level discussions are tak ing place between the US and Soviet Governments to fly a US astronaut to the Mir space station aboard a Soyuz TM spacecraft. In return, a Soviet cosmonaut may be offered a US Shuttle flight. Plans for the swop, which would not take place before 1992, were pro gressed during the recent 15 th anniversary celebration of the Apollo-Soyuz ASTP mission. # Moscow Narodny Bank in London, which earlier an nounced that no further funds were available for the British Project Juno mission to Mir next year, is still negotiating with Soviet space agency Glavkosmos about a possible minimum cost, face-saving, lim ited-experiments flight. • N EWS IN BRIEF COSMONAUT KILLED Rimantas Stankiavikus, the Soviet Buran space shuttle test pilot due to fly the first manned mission in 1992, was killed in a Sukhoi Su-27 crash in Italy on 9 Septem ber. He is the third Buran pilot to die. Chief Buran pilot Igor Volk has been grounded by medical problems. ASTRONAUT RETIRES NASA astronaut Bruce Mc- Candless, the first person to fly independently in space, using a Manned Manoeuvring Unit, from Shuttle Challenger in 1984, has retired from the astronaut corps. ASRM START Lockheed has started a $550 million construction pro gramme following the receipt of NASA's contract to build the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM), the second- generation Space Shuttle solid rocket booster. The construction programme in cludes new buildings in Yel low Creek and Bay St Louis, Mississipi; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Huntsville, Alabama. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 26 September - 2 October. 1990
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