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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 3059.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Latest Galileo\di\\we threatens the Cassini TIM FURNISS/WASHINGTON DC AFAULTY TAPE recorder aboard NASA's Si.4 billion Galileo spacecraft could prevent much of its data and images being returned from the planet Jupiter this December, after its protract ed six-year journey across the solar system. Should it prove impossible to correct the fault, the political repercussions may force the can cellation of NASA's last large plan etary exploration project, the Cassini, which is already under threat from Capitol Hill. The Cassini — equipped with the European-built Huygens lan der to explore the Saturnian moon, Titan — is planned for launch in October 1997, becoming the first craft to orbit the ringed planet in June 2004. The Galileo mission, which began with deployment from the Space Shuttle Atlantis/STSW in October 1989, has already been hit by the failure of the craft's high- gain antenna to deploy fully and by a stuck valve in the oxidiser system of the propulsion module (Flight International, 18-24 October). NASA says that me data-storage tape recorder "...did not stop as expected after rewinding", follow ing a picture-taking session on 11 October of Jupiter and its four major moons from a distance of 35.2 million kilometres. It is not clear whether the fault lies with die recorder hardware or software. NEWS IN BRIEF • LAUNCH TIMING A McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 will launch NASA's X-Ray Timing Explorer from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 November. The spacecraft, described as the "...most advanced observatory of its type flown in space", will be used to study black holes, neutron stars and quasars. If it is the latter, then a major recover)' effort may save the mis sion. Otherwise, only digital data will be returned and a "minimal number of images", using the lim ited amount of data and informa tion which can be stored directly on the craft's main computer rather than on the recorder. The number of images has already been reduced from a planned 50,000 to 1,500 by the high-gain antenna failure. Only the Galileo low-data-rate low-gain antenna is usable. The faulty recorder was placed on standby while engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab oratory QPL) started to analyse the problem, while avoiding send ing unnecessary commands to the Galileo. JPL does not expect to know the outcome until about 2 8 October, says William O'Neal, Galileo project manager. The spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter on 7 December. At the same time, an instrumented capsule will plunge into the Jovian atmosphere. The tape-recorder problem will not prevent digital- only data from the capsule being returned to Earth. NASAs last major planetary mis sion, the Mars Observer, failed as the craft suffered a propellant leak and went out of control just before entering orbit in August 1993. A major Galileo failure will therefore raise questions over the survival of the Cassini. It has already cost about $1.4 billion, and the total cost will be $3.4 billion by 2008 when the mission is complete. "Congress cancelled the Super collider when $8 billion had already been spent on the pro ject, so you can never say that Cassini is safe," says Peter Ulrich, chief of the flight-programmes branch of the NASA Solar System Exploration division. NASA has already embarked on "a series of faster, better, cheaper" planetary missions, costing about S500 million each, under the Discover)' programme. • Martian air- bag tested PROTOTYPE air bags designed to cushion the im pact as the NASA Mars Pathfinder lands on the Red Planet on 4 July, 1997, are tested against a rocky surface inside a vacuum chamber at NASA's Lewis Research Center, Plum Brook Sta tion, Ohio. The Mars Pathfinder Discovery mission will include the landing of an instrumented spacecraft, equipped with a camera and a small roving vehicle on the Martian surface — the first landing on the planet since that of the NASA Viking 2 on 3 September 1976 (Flight International, 28 June-4 July). Egypt selects Matra Marconi MATRA ALARCONI Space has been awarded a $158 million contract to build and launch Egypt's Nilesat direct-broadcast television satellite. The deal was clinched despite competition from Aerospatiale and Lockheed Martin. The contract with Egyptian Radio and Television Union pro vides for the supply of a telecom munications satellite in orbit, components of an on-the-ground spare satellite and a satellite-con trol system with a primary satellite- control centre in Cairo and a back-up centre in Alexandria. The Nilesat 1 is due to be launched by Arianespace's new Ariane 5 at the end of 1997. The satellite will deliver up to 56 chan nels of direct-to-the-home televi sion in Arab-speaking countries, extending eastwards from Mor occo to the Arabian Gulf states. The Nilesat will be based on Matra Marconi Space's successful Eurostar, which has already been selected for 14 other satellites, including France's Telecom 2, Hispasat and Inmarsat 2. • P&W test fires Russian rocket engine PRATT & WHITNEY has suc cessfully test-fired an RD-120 rocket engine on a test stand at the firm's Government Engines & Space Propulsion rocket test site in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was the first US test firing to be made of the flight-qualified Russian- made rocket engine. The RD-120 is manufactured by NPO-Energomash (NPO-EM), Russia's rocket engine manufacuirer. It provides upper-stage propulsion for the Russian/Ukrainian Zenit rocket. The liquid-oxygen and kero sene-fuelled rocket engine delivers 830kN (187,4001b) of thrust. NPO-EM and P&W are form ing a joint venture to modify the RD-120 for use on small Western- made launch vehicles capable of placing satellites into low-Earth orbit. The major change is the addition of a gimbal system for thrust-vector control. The power- plant, designated RD-120M, will be made in Russia and Ukraine. The test demonstrated the engine's ability to use US fuel and be integrated into a US launch vehicle. The venture's immediate hopes are to offer the engine for the X-34 reuseable small-launch vehi cle being developed in the USA. • 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25 - 31 October 1995
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