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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 3406.PDF
OPERATIONS: SPACEFLIGHT Sky-BSB merger may hit Marcopolo BY TIM FURNISS The Luxembourg SES Astra satellite system will be the prime provider of a new British five-channel direct television broadcast service, operated by a merger of British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and News International into a joint partnership trading as Sky Television. The merger could eventually result in the redundancy of the two proprietary fBSB Marcopolo satellites. The deal between BSB and Sky TV, which have been competing for viewers for over a year, is still subject to various approvals. Since the Marcopolos could be reconfigured and moved in Cosmonauts fail to repair hatch Soviet cosmonauts Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Stre- kalov failed to repair the hatch of the airlock on the Kvant 2 module during a 3h 45 min sortie from the Mir space sta tion on 30 October. The space- walk had been planned for 19 October but was delayed when Strekalov caught a cold. Soviet mission managers do not regard the hatch problem as serious since it involves dam aged hinges which merely make it difficult to close completely. Another planned spacewalk, scheduled before the crew re turns to Earth in December, may involve further work on the hatch. The sortie was origi nally scheduled to prepare the Mir's exterior for the transfer of solar panels on the Kristall module to the rear-mounted Kvant 1 module next year by the Soyuz TM11 crew. Crews for Soyuz TM11 were announced on 2 November. The likely prime crew will be Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov, who will be accompanied by the first space journalist, Japan's Toehiro Akiyama. The likely backup crew will be Anatoli Artsybarsky and Sergi Krikalev, with Japan's Rioko Kikuchi. D geostationary orbit to suit new user needs — at the expense of in-orbit life due to loss of sta- tionkeeping propellant — Sky Television could raise reve nue either by selling these in- orbit or offering to lease transponders. It would not be the first time such a sale has been under taken. Recently, GE Astro Space agreed to buy or lease Telesat on Canada's Anik D2 satellite, to serve existing GE Americom customers currently using Sat- com C spacecraft. BSB and Sky have jointly in vested over £1.25 billion in their ventures but are making enormous losses: Sky about £2 million a week, and BSB £8 million. During a transitional period, Sky viewers will con tinue to use the existing trans ponders leased on the Astra 1A satellite, while existing BSB viewers will receive pro gram mes from the Marcopolos. Eventually, BSB will be made compatible with Sky, using the Astra system. With two redundant satellites already in orbit, the situation could change. The fate of the Marcopolos will depend on whether the new BSB — operating on a UK IBA national franchise — will be allowed to use Astra, which is a non-domestic system. If so, after a transitional period, the new joint venture could find itself with two redundant Marcopolos. • INMARSAT 2F1 DEPLOYMENT SATISFACTORY The Inmarsat 2F1 satellite launched on 30 October (Flight Interna tional, 7-13 November) is "...performing superbly and all major deployments have been completed satisfactorily", says Inmarsat. The satellite, which has its L-band cup antennae array shown clearly in this pre-launch photograph, will be on station in mid-December. No 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 Date Oct1 Oct1 Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 12 Oct 16 Oct 30 October satellite launch log Spacecraft Cosmos 2101 Navstar FSW STS32 SBS6/Galaxy6 Cosmos 2102 lnmarsat2F1 Type Recon Navsat Rem Sens Discovery Planetary Comsats Recon Comsat Launcher Soyuz Delta Long March 2 Shuttle Ariane Soyuz Delta Launch site Baikonur Canaveral Juiquan KSC Kourou Plesetsk Canaveral Atlantis launch in November The Space Shuttle mission STS 38, a Department of Defense flight by orbiter Atlan tis, has been scheduled tenta tively for 16 November after being delayed from 9 November by the US Air Force to resolve payload problems. The STS 38 payload, report edly a reconnaissance satellite to support Operation Desert Shield, had been placed in the Shuttle's payload bay on 29 October but was removed for repair or modi ication. A tanking test of Columbia on 30 October finally cleared the vehicle of hydrogen leaks. Co lumbia now looks set for an early December launch on its much-delayed STS 35 Astro 1 mission. This was first delayed on 30 May by a hydrogen leak during propellant loading 6h before scheduled lift-off. Two subsequent launch attempts in September were thwarted by similar leakages and another attempt by a tech nical problem with the Astro 1 payload. After the 30 October test, during which ten television cameras and 17 sensors fitted inside Columbia's engine com partment checked for leaks,liq uid hydrogen was loaded into the external tank. NASA managers explained that the problem began earlier this year. After the Columbia STS 32 mission last January, the entire engine compartment was stripped so that grit could be cleaned from fuel lines. When the engines were reassembled, seals were imperfectly fitted. During the 30 May launch at tempt, another leak occurred in the fuel line from the external tank to the orbiter. In investi gating this more serious leak, managers overlooked the leaks coming from imperfect seals, which were not corrected in time for the September at tempts. Also sidetracking NASA was the similar fuel-line leak which occurred during a test on Atlantis in June. As a result NASA has introduced a new processing programme in which key engine components will be checked for leaks before the engines are finally assembled. Q H FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 November, 1990
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