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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 0013.PDF
OPERATIONS: SPACEFLIGHT And first prize is...a journey into space Space Travel Services, a Houston-based company, has booked a 1992 flight aboard the Soviet space station Mir for the winner of a national sweep stake to become the first tourist in space. The USSR says that a contract has not yet been signed. The company will pay more than $12 million for the two- day ride in a Soyuz TM ferry, docking with Mir and returning to Earth after eight days in space. Space Travel Services will raise its money through a tele phone sweepstake. The winning candidate will, however, have to pass the Soviet medical, learn to speak Russian and undergo sim ilar training to that of the guest cosmonauts currently preparing for commercial flights. The first passenger, Japanese TV reporter Toyohiro Akiyama completed his eight-day ride on 10 December. His employer, the national TV station TBS, which paid SI2 million to the USSR, made a $7.4 million loss in the venture. TBS has criticised the Soviet approach to the commercial flight, its first attempt at mar keting its space programme. "During the preparations," says Itiro Sasaki, a TBS producer, "various new bodies would keep on appearing on the scene and all would demand their cut, and doing so, further complicated the commercial aspects of the deal. They have the most ad vanced space . programme but they're no good at business." Such experience will serve as a warning to future commercial customers," including Britain's Project Juno, whose cosmonaut, either Tim Mace or Helen Shar- man, is expected to launch on 16 May. It is still unclear how, if at all, the Juno flight will be paid for. The UK has been left with little time to put together a creditable array of British exper iments to keep Mace or Shar- mon busy, but the Britons will operate some Soviet experi ments for the Energia bureau as part of the deal. Other countries due to take Soviet commercial flights in clude Austria — who's astro naut is due to take off on 2 October — France, Germany and Spain, which are paying up to $25 million per mission. D p 1H* SPACEHAB TAKES 234 BOOKINGS The first six Space Shuttle missions of Spacehab's mid-deck augmenta tion module are now 78% hooked, following a $184 million contract from NASA for the use of 200 lockers and $43.8 million-worth of bookings for 34 lockers from other commercial customers. Six Shuttle missions will allow the flight of 300 lockers. Spacehab will pay NASA S28.2 million a mission and is still marketing module space. NASA is providing Spacehab with $7.9 million to help fund the first mission. Space Shuttle Flight Manifest 1991 Mission Orbiter Date Major payload(s) STS39 Discovery Feb DoD, IBSS/CIRRIS Crew: Coats (Cdr), Hammond (Pil), Harbaugh, McMonagle, Bluford, Hieb, Veach(MS). STS 37 Atlantis Apr Gamma Ray Observatory Crew: Nagel (Cdr), Cameron (Pil), Ross, Apt, Godwin (MS). STS 40 Columbia May Spacelab Life Sciences 1 Crew: O'Connor (Cdr), Guitierrez (Pil), Seddon, Bagian, Jernigan (MS), Gaffney Hughes-Fulford (PS). STS 43 Discovery Jul TDRS-E Crew: Blaha (Cdr), Baker (Pil), Lucid, Low, Adamson (MS). STS 44 Atlantis Aug DoD, DSP early warning craft Crew: Gregory (Cdr), Henricks (Pil), Musgrave, Runco, Voss (MS). STS 48 Discovery Nov Crew: Not assigned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite STS 42 Atlantis Dec Int. Microgravity Laboratory Crew: Grabe (Cdr), Oswald (Pil), Carter, Thagard, Readdy (MS) Merbold, Bondar(PS). 1991 NASA missions manageable The NASA Shuttle flight manifest for 1991 features the first unclassified Depart ment of Defense mission, STS 39 Discovery; the first dedicated US life-sciences manned mis sion, STS 40 Columbia; and the much-delayed International Microgravity Laboratory mis sion, STS 42 Atlantis. In previous years, NASA has produced an over-ambitious manifest only to be thwarted by technical problems. The agency seems to have learned from the experience, listing what should be a manageable seven missions for 1991. NASA managed six missions in 1990, even with the five-month delay due to Shuttle hydrogen leaks. There were a record nine missions flown during 1985. The STS 39 Discovery mis sion, flying the Cirris and IBSS payloads for the US Air Force and the Strategic Defence Initia tive Office, will for the first time have a crew of seven NASA astronauts, two of whom are replacing scheduled US Air Force Manned Space Engineer (MSE) payload specialists. The MSE programme, origi nally scheduled to carry payload specialists on all Department of Defense Shuttle missions, has apparently ended, after carrying only two specialists on two mis sions in 1985. • NEWS IN BRIEF OLDEST SPACECRAFT NASA's Pioneer 6, the oldest operating spacecraft, cele brated 25 years in space on 16 December.- It was launched into solar orbit by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral. Its mission was to return to Earth the first de tailed measurements of mag netic fields, cosmic rays, smd solar-wind particles on* the other side of the Sun. The 64kg, cylindrical TRW-built spacecraft was expected to transmit for six months. Wobbly Ulysses goes on A warped antenna boom on the Ulysess spaceraft en route to Jupiter for its swing-by solar-polar flight in 1994, has caused the craft to wobble, dis rupting transmissions. Although the disruption can be counteracted by the firing of thrusters, scientists fear that up to 90% of the data returned could be lost. The boom, built by Dornier, was coated with copper-beryl lium, which reflects solar en ergy less efficiently than other insulation on the spacecraft, and may have caused the boom to warp. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January, 1991 II
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