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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0369.PDF
Shuttle director quits over safety concerns TIM FURNISS/LONDON BRYAN O'CONNOR, NASA!s director of the Space Shuttle programme in Washington DC, has resigned in protest at man agement changes, which he argues could jeopardise safety. The changes come in the wake of controversial plans to privatise Shuttle operations. Safety con cerns have already been raised among politicians, space-industry workers and Shut tle astronauts, who warn that the privatisation plan could result in the type of fragmented pro gramme management which con tributed to the Challenger accident ten years ago. O'Connor, a former Shuttle commander, was heavily involved in improving the safety of the pro gramme after the Challenger acci dent. His main concern over the changes are proposals to shift pro gramme management from the Washington DC headquarters to thejohnson Space Center QSQ at Houston, Texas. The STS72 Endeavour lands at Kennedy Space Center He says that one of the safety improvements made after the Challenger accident was that man agement of the programme was established at NASA!? headquarters. George Abbey, a former chief of the Shuttle programme, has been appointed director of the JSC. Plans to streamline the pro gramme will result in Rockwell and Lockheed Martin taking over Shuttle operations under the Un ited Space Alliance banner. The aim is to cut costs, improve effi ciency and eliminate unnecessary duplication of work between NASA and contractor employees. The Alliance will be head ed by former Shuttle mis sion-specialist astronaut, James Adamson. By 2001, NASA must cut its annual $14 billion budget by one-third and shed 27,000 contractor and agency personnel, including more than 3,000 Shuttle-related civil ser vants. The $3.2 billion annual Shuttle operations budget has to be shaved to $2.5 billion. Negotiations with the Alliance will be completed in September, and will include appropriate incentives to maintain flight safety. "With Lockheed Martin and Rockwell, we have two experienced companies that clear ly understand how to operate the Shuttle safely," says Daniel Gol- din, NASAJS Administrator. • The Space Shuttle STS75/ Columbia has been scheduled for a 22 February launch, carrying the Italian Tethered Satellite System. Russia's Soyuz TM23 mission will be launched — with two cosmo nauts — to the Mir 1 space station on 21 February. • X-34 programme halted ORBITAL SCIENCES(OSC) and Rockwell have stopped design work on die X-34B launch er project, although NASA, which is partially funding the work, has not yet cancelled the programme. The choice of propulsion system for the X-34B, which was to have been launched atop a Boeing 747 NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, caused difficulties between OSC and Rockwell. OSC favoured a Russian RD-120 engine, while Rockwell wanted to use an engine produced by its Rocketdyne divi sion. The unpredictability of the low-Earth-orbit launch market was an additional factor in the decision to halt the design work. • JANUARY SATELLITE LAUNCH LOG No Date Spacecraft Type 1 11 Jan Endeavour 10 Science Launcher!*) Country!*; STS72 (1) USA (1) Launch site!*) KSC(l) 2 12 Jan PAS 3R Measat 1 Comsat Comsat Ariane 4(1)** Europe (1) Kourou(l) 3 14 Jan Koreasat2 Comsat Delta 2 (2)** USA(2) Canaveral(l) 4 17 Jan Cosmos 2327 Milsat Cosmos (1) Russia (1) Plesetsk(l) 25 Jan Gorizont Comsat Proton (1)** Russia(2) Baikonur(l) * Indicates total number of orbital launches by this launch vehicle, country and launch site in 1996. ** Ariane 44L model (1), Delta 7925 model (1), SL-12 model (1) Launch of Palapa CI on Atlas 2AS on 31 January local time at Cape Canaveral is catalogued as a February launch Last Satellite launch log: Flight International, 17-23 January • '.MTI:,V'.">I3I' |jl | I — No Country!*) Date Spacecraft Type 183 USA (102) 20 Oct '95 STS73/Columbia Microlab Crew Flight time 7 15d 21h 52m 184 USA (103) 12 Nov STS74/Atlantis SMM 2 8d 4h 30m 185 USA (104) 11 Jan '96 STS72/Endeavour Science 8d22h * Indicates total number of launches by this country since 12 April, 1961 181 Russia (9) Soyuz TM23 in-flight TOTALS: 6,225 days manned spaceflight time on 184 completed missions. Accumulated flight time by Space Shuttle in 73 space missions: 589 days. Last log: Flight International, 11-17 October, 1995 m^m^mgt^mmmmm 1J2UV NEWS IN BRIEF • NEAR THING NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) space craft will be launched aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 booster from Cape Can averal, Florida, on 16 February. The NEAR will enter orbit around the aster oid Eros in 1999 (Flight In ternational, 17-23 January). Also planned for 16 February launches are China's first Long March 3B, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite; and a Russian Proton, carrying a Raduga spacecraft. A Tsyklon will be launched on 19 February carrying a Gonets communications satellite. • OLD SPACEMAN NASA astronaut Story Mus- grave will become the oldest person in space in November, at the age of 61, as a mission specialist on the STS80V- Columbia mission. He will also be making his sixth Shuttle flight since 1983, equalling the space-flight records by John Young bet ween 1965 and 1983. • ARIANESPACE BOOST The Ariane V83 was used to launch Japan's NSTAR-B sat ellite on 5 February. The next launch, of the Intelsat 707, is scheduled for 1 March. Russia plans launches from Sovbondy base THE FORMER missile-launch base of Sovbondy, in the Amur region of the Russian Far East, will become operational for satellite launches later this year, when a Start booster is to lift a small research satellite into orbit. Sovbondy will become Russia's third satellite-launch base after Kapustin Yar and Plesetsk, al though most of the country's laun ches have been made from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The new base will be able to launch Rokot satellite launchers from five missile silos, with the first Rokot launch scheduled for 1997. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 February 1996 33
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