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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1653.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT CIA clears spy images sales The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to allow US defence contractors to sell reconnaissance-quality spy- satellite images and systems as they bid for a share of a poten tial $5 billion worldwide re mote-sensing satellite market. The move is in response to several similar projects planned by other countries, which offer images with resolutions lower than the 10m quality which the US Government allows to be released from US spacecraft. France's Spot Image satellite offers 5m-resolution images. Russia — with the help of German companies — is mar keting images with resolutions down to 0.75m and South Af rica's proposed Greensat will provide 2.5m images (Flight International, 23-29 June). Reflecting interest in high- resolution images, the United Arab Emirates requested per mission to buy a US Itek reconnaissance-camera for a national reconnaissance satel lite in 1991. This has yet to be granted and the Gulf nation has approached Spot Image. The CIA decision to relax its rules opens the way for Lock heed to market a commercial remote-sensing satellite pro gramme, based on the KH-11 spacecraft which it built for the US Department of Defense. Lockheed, keen to diversify its activities from budget-hit de fence projects, is seeking international partners and has applied for a licence from the US Department of Commerce to market the system. • Clinton reprieves the Freedom BY TIM FURN1SS US President Bill Clinton has chosen to please sup porters and appease critics by selecting NASA's reduced-cost Option A redesign for the Free dom Space Station and direct ing a protracted effort leading to permanent manned opera tions after 2001. Clinton hailed his decision as being "good for jobs" and as the way to keep the USA "ahead in space". Option A retains many elements of the original modular Freedom de sign, conceived in 1984, and allows the potential of extend ing the station to become a combination of Option A and B. Option A comprises a small US laboratory module with Eu ropean and Japanese modules, but not initially the Canadian mobile service centre. It has simplified power and data management and central sys tems, known as Bus A, which include guid ance, naviga tion and communica tions compo nents based on spy satel lites built by Lockheed. Option B is similar to A, but with the original and more Cheaper Option A expensive — Freedom bus systems. Planned international partici pation by the European Space Agency and Japan is retained in the new plan. The Freedom may also be placed into an orbit which will allow Russian par ticipation. Technical details re main to be worked out. NASA's new Freedom plan involves a funding request of $2.1 billion a year over the next five years — saving $4 billion on programme costs. Freedom wins presidential go-ahead The cuts will delay the start of the Freedom's construction in orbit to 1997 and mean the shedding up to 30% of the space agency's 24,000 jobs. The funding decisions now required push the fate of the Freedom and the agency into the hands of Congress. If the station is cancelled — as many observers believe is almost in evitable — Clinton can claim that Congress is responsible. • See feature, P30. DC-X poised for move to flight tests McDonnell Douglas Aero space's Delta Clipper- Experimental (DC-X) single- stage-to orbit test vehicle is expected to be moved to the test-flight area of the White Sands Missile Range, New Mex ico, for the start of flight- testing around late July. The DC-X, a one-third-scale technology demonstrator devel oped for the US Ballistic Mis sile Defense Organisation single-stage-rocket technology programme, is on schedule for its first flight, following a suc cessful full-flight-profile simu lation and static-firing test programme. This included a main-engine firing of 62.28s, when thrust levels varied from 30% to 80%. The manager of the DC-X programme, Paul Klevatt, says: "Our objective was to operate all vehicle systems, including FROSTY FINGERS Hubble repair astronaut Story Musgrave suffered frostbitten fingers during an 8h test of equipment and tools in a vac uum chamber at the Houston Space Center, Texas. SPACE PACT Spar Aerospace and Matra Marconi Space have signed a long-term agreement to design and develop advanced Earth- sensing-radar satellite systems for the commercial market, NEWS IN BRIEF based on the technology for instruments on the European ERS 1 remote-sensing satellite and Canada's Radarsat. EUROPESAT NEIN Matra Marconi Space's con tract to build the Europesat communications satellite is unlikely to be fulfilled, after the decision by Germany to stop funds for the Eutelsat telecommunications organisa tion's project. France, another potential investor, has indi cated that it does not believe the Europesat to be viable in the current economic climate. H2 FIRINGS Japan's National Space Devel opment Agency conducted successful 100s and 353s cap tive tests of the LE7 cryogenic first-stage engine of the H2 booster on the Yoshinobo pad at the Tanegashima Space Cen tre on 31 May and 15 June. all four engines, software, elec trical, avionics and mechanical/ hydraulic subsystems for a full duration of approximately 60s. He continues: "The engines were controlled and auto matically adjusted by the DC- X's software to simulate all the phases of the take-off, hover, translational flight and landing tests that will be conducted at the 'clipper site' at the White Sands Space Harbour." During the tests, the Pratt & Whitney RL10A-5 hydrogen- fuelled engines were fired ini tially for a 3.5s check at low thrust, followed by a throttle- up equivalent to power levels needed to climb to test alti tudes of up to 20,000ft (6,100m). The 65kN (14,5001b)-thrust A-5s were then throttled back to maintain altitude and move to the land ing site before being throttled down for descent. The tests were conducted at one of the White Sands Missile Range test sites in New Mexico. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 30 June - 6 July, 1993
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