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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 2917.PDF
'?L Space Station funding passes major milestone TIM FURNISS/LONDON THE US HOUSE of Rep resentatives has cleared a hard-fought Bill authorising NASA to spend $13.1 billion on the international space station over the next seven years, during which time construction of the base is scheduled to be completed. The unprecedented financial forward commitment has still to be passed by the Senate, however. If cleared by Congress, the Bill would limit NASA to spending no more than $2.1 million each year on the space station. NASA will be care fully monitored by Congress dur ing the period, and will have to indicate ways in which the space station can be commercialised. NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan, Canada and other countries will spend an esti mated $60 billion to establish the international space base by June 2002. The completed space sta tion, consisting of seven laborato ries and a habitation module, truss frames and solar arrays, will weigh 421 and span 110m. The main structure of the 8.5in- long, US laboratory module for the space station was completed by Boeing at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama in September. The 2,720kg laboratory will be launched in November 1998. It will be covered with a debris-shield blanket and a thin aluminium outer shield. Boeing is also completing the Nodes 1 and 2, which will con nect the various modules. Space-station assembly will begin with the Russian launch of the Functional Energy Block mod ule in November 1997, to which the Node 1 and other equipment will be added in December 1997. Complete assembly will require over 20 dedicated Space Shuttle missions: nearly 40 launches by Russia and at least one by Europe of the ESA Columbus laboratory. The next structure to be fabri cated at Marshall will be the habitat module. The US has completed nearly 37,000kg of space-station hardware. • NEWS IN BRIEF • INDIAN SATELLITES READY European, Russian and Indian boosters will carry three Indian satellites into orbit this year. The indige nous Insat 2C communica tions satellite, weighing 1,450kg, is scheduled for an Ariane/V81 launch in Nov ember. A Russian Molniya booster will carry the Indian Remote Sensing satellite, the 1,250kg IRS 1C, into Sun- synchronous orbit from Baikonur. The smaller, 930kg IRS-P3 is to be launched on the third development flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from India's Shri- harikota launch base. • NILESAT CONTRACT The $158 million turnkey contract to build two com munications satellites and two ground stations for Egypt may be won by Matra Marconi Space, a Gov ernment source has reported. Previous reports indicated that Aerospatiale would win. 11' No 47 48 49 50 51 JHAI(Mtl&MalllUJMII!(il!lli!t Date Spacecraft Type 3 Sep SoyuzTM22 7 Sep Endeavour 9+ 23 Sep Telstar402R 26 Sep Resurs F2 29 Sep Cosmos 2320 Ferry Science Comsat Obs Recon Launcher!*) Soyuz(8) STS69 (5) Ariane 4 (8)t Soyuz(9) Soyuz(10) Country!*) Russia (21) USA (18) Europe (8) Russia (22) Russia (23) Launch srte(') Baikonur (10) KSC (5) Kourou (8) Plesetsk (12) Baikonur (11) * Indicates total number of orbital launches by this launch vehicle, country and launch site in 1995. (Japan's orbital launch of the Express on 15 January is not classified by US Space Command) + Deployed and retrieved Spartan and Wake Shield free fliers t Ariane 42L model (3) l.'.MMb.KJ^alM |j I | | || 1^—^——• No Country!*) Date Spacecraft 181 Russia (9)** 3 Sep Soyuz TM22 Type Ferry Crew Flight time 3 In flight 182 USA (101) 7 Sep STS69 Endeavour Science 5 lOd 20h 28m * Indicates total number of launches by this country since 12 April 1961 * * Former Soviet Union (81) Mir 18. delivered by STS71, landed Soyuz TM21, flight time: 79d llh 20m TOTALS: 6192 days manned spaceflight time on 181 completed missions. Accumulated flight by Space Shuttle in 70 space missions: 556 days. Russia makes final launch of Resurs F spacecraft THE FINAL RUSSIAN Resurs F remote-sensing satellite was launched by a Soyuz booster from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 26 September. The spacecraft are based on the Vostok capsule, and the first example was first launched in September 1979 under the official Resurs label. Photographic images are returned to Earth from the craft. The spacecraft are also used for classified reconnaissance missions. The last Resurs was launched in August 1993, and the successor craft, called the Nika, is "...still not completed because of meagre financing", says the Federal Geo desy and Cartography Service. • It has been announced that pre viously classified images returned from former Soviet military reconnaissance satellites, and pic tures from civilian spacecraft, are being marketed internationally by the Conversion Technology Centre, which has been estab lished by the Russian Space Agency and the defence ministry. In another market development, using a former Resurs T military photo reconnaissance satellite model, to be launched from Plesetsk in January 1996, the Russian Sovinformsputnik organi sation will provide custom-pro duced images under contract to the US company Aerial Images. J Identified flying object THIS IS ONE FLYING SAUCER which can be identified. It is the Wake Shield free-flying spacecraft seen after deployment dur ing the Space Shuttle Endeavour/STS69 mission in September. Control problems and overheating reduced the craft's production of ultra-thin semiconductor films in the pure vacuum created in the wake of the Shuttle's flightpath. NASA reports that the Spartan free-flier, which also experienced problems during the STS69 flight, "appeared to have successfully accomplished its mission". The Space Shuttle Discovery, meanwhile, has been delivered to Rockwell for a nine-month modification, including the installation of an external airlock to support international Space Station docking and assembly operations. 24 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11 - 17 October 1995
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