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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 0074.PDF
OPERATIONS: SPACEFLIGHT Thruster failure after 18 months has halted Superhird operations System failure forces Superbird suspension operatii NASA plans extra expendables BY TIM FURNISS The Japanese Superbird A satellite's altitude control thruster system has malfunc tioned and telecommunications services from the spacecraft have been suspended by opera tor Space Communciations. The satellite, based on a Ford Aerospace (now Space Systems/ Loral) Supersat bus, was launched in June 1989 by Ari- ane and is located at 158°E. The three-axis stabilised spacecraft, provided 12 Ku-band and 23 Ka-band telecommunications services in competition with Japan Communications Satel lite's JC Sat. Superbird B — delayed by transponder problems — was destroyed in the Ariane V36 explosion last February and the launch of a replacement Super- bird, also in Ariane is not scheduled until November, when services from Space Com munications can resume. The Superbirds provide tele vision, video-conferencing, te lephony, newspaper transmis sions, business applications, banking and other services to the Japanese mainland and islands. The Ford 1300 Supersat bus is being used for the Intelsat VII programme (see P 17) and the attitude control system consists of two sets of six 22N nitrogen tetroxide-monomethyl hydra zine thrusters. Two competing JC Sats are in orbit, launched by Ariane and Titan boosters in 1989 and last year. They are based on Hughes 376 buses. The Superbird malfunction is one of several to hit communi cations satellites in 1990, in cluding France's TDF and Japan's other satellite series, BS3. The Japanese National Space Development Agency expects BS3A to continue functioning on its three channels until the BS3B launch this summer, de spite it having lost a quarter of its electrical power in a short circuit in wiring between solar cells. • The Soviet Union's warning of an out-of-control re-entry of the Salyut 7 space station has been described by Tass as a "precaution", with little likeli hood of fragments surviving and hitting the Earth. The re-entry — predicted by the UK's Royal Aerospace Estab lishment early last year (Flight International, 14-20 March, 1990) — is now expected on 20 February. The space station comprises the Salyut 7 core module, launched in 1982, and the Cos mos 1686 module, launched in 1985, with a combined mass of about 45t. The combined spacecraft was NASA is to launch four ex pendable launch vehicles this year, in addition to the seven planned Shuttle flights. Two National Oceanic & At mospheric Administration (NOAA] weather satellites will be launched by Atlas boosters in May anti". December from Van- Israel receives Spot imagery The Israel Space Agency (ISA) has signed an agree ment with the French Spot Image Agency to receive and distribute Spot imagery in Israel. An Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) satellite ground station will track, receive and process Spot Earth resources satellite transmissions. It will provide the data to ISA for distribution. According to the agreement, the processed data received by the IAI ground station will be used in agriculture, hydrology, mete orology, mapping, urban plan ning and all other areas that can use the service. IAI's satellite ground station was built to track the first two Offeq experimental satellites. Adaptation of the station to Spot data reception is under way and will be completed in February. D minimal boosted into a storage orbit in August 1986, in the hope of retrieving the Salyut core on a Buran shuttle mission in 1992, rather than deliberately com manding re-entry, a standard procedure with previous Salyuts. Buran fell badly behind schedule and control of the station was lost so that even a flight of a "space tug", either to re-boost the orbit or command a controlled re-entry over an ocean, became impossible. Parts of the 75t US Space Station Skylab, did survive re entry over Australia in 1979. There was no damage and no casualties. D denberg AFB. A Scout will launch the US Navy's Profile satellite, also from Vandenberg in March and a Delta from Cape Canaveral will carry the Ex treme Ultra Violet Explorer. The launch of the next NOAA satellite in May is critical. Of the two operational craft, Nos 10 and 11, launched in 1986 and 1988, NOAA 11 is surviv ing on its back-up attitude con trol gyroscope. The prime gyro failed in August 1989. Of the two NOAA 11 is considered the more important, since it carries ozone mapping equipment. Q Starbird boosts SDI Orbital Science (OSC) suc cessfully launched its Star- bird sub-orbital booster from Cape Canaveral on 18 Decem ber on a mission for the US Army's Strategic Defence Com mand. The vehicle reached 100km altitude, a speed of Mach 8 and provided 228s of science obser vation time. The booster devel oped for the SDI Office, has a Talos motor, a Sergeant second stage and OSC Orbus 1 third and fourth stages. The rail-launched Starbird is designed to fly a guided trajec tory to simulate the flight of a ballistic missile, observed by passive sensors and tracked by an illuminator laser. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9 - 15 January, 1991
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