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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0018.PDF
1 SPACEFLIGHT 'Pebbles' prototypes awarded to Orbital Shuttle pumps hit by budgeting cuts The NASA programme to de velop new Space Shuttle main engine liquid-oxygen and liquid-hydrogen turbopumps with a lifetime of 55 flights, aiming for a first mission in 1994, has been affected by budget cuts. While a new oxidiser tur- bopump may still fly in 1994, a new hydrogen turbopump certi fication programme will be de ferred until after the oxidiser pump has been flight certified, severely delaying a mission on which both new turbopumps could fly together on an engine. NASA selected Pratt & Whit ney (P&W) to develop the new pumps in 1986, because the existing Rocketdyne pumps were showing signs of premature wear after as few as six flights, requir ing major maintenance. The P&W pumps were designed to be interchangeable, with im proved pumps also being devel oped by Rocketdyne. The programme, originally estimated to cost S240 million, is $250 million over budget. A projected total cost of $850 million and NASA budget cuts have slowed the programme. While P&W conducted a 1.5s ignition test on a Shuttle main engine, with both oxygen and hydrogen turbopumps, on 17 December, marking a "major milestone" for the company. A Rocketdyne hydrogen fuel tur bopump has been certified to fly on the March Shuttle mission. • Intercosmos launched The Soviet satellite, Intercos mos 25, was launched on 18 December with the piggy-back Czechoslovakian spacecraft Magion 3 from the Plesetsk Cos modrome aboard a Tsyklon booster. The satellite was placed into a 3,083 x 440km orbit with an inclination of 82.5°, which Magion 3 also entered after ejec ting from the main spacecraft. With the smaller Magion 3 manoeuvring in orbit using a Soviet Pulsar engine, the two satellites will study electrons and plasma in the Earth's iono sphere and magnetosphere as part of the Apex programme. • BY TIM FURNISS Orbital Sciences (OSC) has been awarded a $10.8 mil lion contract by the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) Organ isation to launch two prototype "Brilliant Pebbles" spacecraft with one Pegasus air-launched booster in 1994. This is the 16th outstanding launch contract for Pegasus, in addition to its 42 launch op tions. The programme's third launch, for the Defence Ad vanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), of the Array of Low Energy X-Ray Imaging Sensors spacecraft (ALEXIS), has been delayed considerably by con cerns about the booster's performance during its two earlier flights. The TRW-built Brilliant Peb bles programme prototype spacecraft are called "lifejackets" because they will assess the sen sor housing, which provides solar power and thermal control. Brilliant Pebbles is the highly distributed, space-based ballistic missile tracking, identification and destruction system that is a key element of the SDI defence shield. Despite the technical concerns over Pegasus, the booster has proved remarkably successful in gaining military, civilian and in ternational orders. This is partly because of its low cost, lack of competitors and the fact that it is an operational project. OSC launched the first Pegasus in April 1990, carrying a NASA-DARPA payload called Pegsat. In July 1991 it launched seven DARPA Microsats, but into a lower orbit than planned as a result of a first-second-stage separation anomaly. Between the ALEXIS flight this year and 1993, there will be two further DARPA-US Air Force missions and one DARPA mission. Pegasus has also been booked to launch NASA's Sea- Star spacecraft, also built by OSC, and seven NASA Small Explorer satellites, including one for Argentina in 1994, with op tions for three more. Pegasus will also launch a Brazilian satellite in September 1992. The US Air Force has booked one firm and 39 optional launches, while Orbital Sciences will use Pegasus to launch its proposed Orbcomm data-relay satellites. D DRA confident of project despite Soviet upheaval The planned commercial mis sion to the Mir space station by a German astronaut in March 1992 is still on schedule, despite the political upheaval in the former Soviet Union. The German space agency, DRA, says that lift-off for the planned eight-day mission by Klaus Dietrich Flade on Soyuz TM14 is to start on 17 March. A 12-day French commercial mis sion by Michel Tognini on Soyuz TM15, scheduled for July, is also safe, according to officials. The second flight of the Buran space shuttle is almost certain to be delayed for at least two years, to 1994. Buran is to be launched unmanned and, en route to the Mir space station, is scheduled to retrieve a solar panel from the station and return it to Earth. It will be man-tended by a two- man crew launched in a Soyuz TM, which will also dock with Mir later. The two Soyuz TM-Buran crews being trained for this mis sion are test pilots Ivan Bakurin and Alexei Boroday, who have been teamed with experienced Soyuz flight engineers Alexander Balandin and Alexander Ivanchenkov. • ATLAS AND ARIANE LAUNCH A veteran Ariane 44L booster (left) carries the Inmarsat 2F3 and Tele com 2A communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) from Kourou on mission V48 on 16 December, while the General Dynamics Atlas 2 (right) made its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral's Pad 36B on 7 December, carrying the Eutelsat 2F3. Ariane placed its pay- loads into GTO with one burn of its third stage Eutelsat was first placed into a low-Earth parking orbit and then its Centaur stage was restarted for the GTO burn. Each satellite was placed into geostationary orbit using on-board apogee motors. Inmarsat 2F3 will be stationed at 179°E, Telecom 2A at 3°E and Eutelsat 2F3 at 16°E. H FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 January, 1992
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