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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 1330.PDF
ZPA'JBrUXn-f Modified DC-XA is test flown NEWS IN BRIEF • MORE BUSINESS Russia's Proton launcher, marketed by ILS Internat ional Launch Services, has been selected to launch the Lockheed Martin-built Ga- ruda satellite for Asia Cellular Satellite System for $70 mil lion. When the contract is confirmed officially, it will mark the ninth commercial launch in the Proton's back log. The Russian Govern ment has agreed funding for the Russian Space Agency to manufacture and launch two Gorizont and three Express domestic communications satellites in 1997. • ROKOT STALLED The Russian Khrunichev, German Daimler-Benz Aero space (DASA) joint venture, Eurorokot, formed to market commercially the former SS-19 military missile, the Rokot, for launches of 1,800kg payloads to low- Earth orbit (LEO), has been delayed for at least a year because of a lack of Russian funds. DASA is also studying the possibility of launching the Ukrainian Tsyklon boost er from Kourou, French Gui ana, for LEO missions. • AIR PURIFICATION The air-purification system for the Alpha International Space Station has passed a 3 0- day evaluation test at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. In a simula tion creating conditions dur ing manning by four crew, engineers injected carbon dioxide and water and re moved oxygen for a 175m3 (6,200ft3) test module. • ACCELERATED LAUNCH The Japanese Government has approved the develop ment of an uprated H2 satel lite launcher, 18 months earlier than planned. The new booster, with additional strap-on boosters and uprat ed engines, is due for its first flight in 2000. TIM FURNISS/LONDON THE UPRATED McDonnell Douglas (MDC) Delta Clip per-Experimental Advanced (DC-XA) prototype launcher had its first test flight from White Sands, New Mexico, on 18 May. The 12.8m-high vehicle was flown to an altitude of 800ft (240m), powered by its four liq uid-oxygen/liquid-hydrogen (LOX-LH) engines and was manoeuvred 105m sideways, before being flown back to its launch pad. The vehicle hovered over the pad longer than was originally planned, and deflected flames from the engines ignited a brief fire on the side of the DC-XA. The damage was slight and the THEX-33 SINGLE-stage-to-orbit re-usable launch vehicle (RLV) contractor will be selected by NASA before the end of June. One of three industry teams selected in 1995 to define concepts for an RLV to replace die Space Shuttle will be chosen to design, manufacture and flight-test an X-33 RLV demonstrator. Pro duction of a small fleet of full-scale RLVs will begin in 1999. They will be used for Space Station resupply missions and satellite deployment. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works is leading one team, which includes Rocketdyne (linear aerospike rock et), Rohr (thermal-protection sys tem), AlliedSignal (avionics), Sver- second test in the five-flight series has been scheduled for 7 June, when the vehicle is expected to reach 2,000ft. The test flights, which end in July, are part of a NASA pro gramme to develop the technolo gies needed for the proposed X-3 3 re-usable launcher (Flight biter- national, 20-26 March, P5). "Flight testing will provide in formation about the performance of composite materials and other advanced technologies in the launch vehicle as it encounters the conditions of flight, such as tem perature, pressure andnoise," says NASA programme manager Dan Dumbacher. The DC-XA is a modified ver sion of the MDC DC-X, initial trials of which were completed in drup (operations) and Alliant Techsystems (liquid-hydrogen tank). Lockheed Martin has dubbed its RLVbid the "VentureStar", and the company submitted its formal pro posal on 13 May for X-3 3 prototype fabrication. The two rival teams are Mc Donnell Douglas (MDC)/Boeing and Rockwell International. The MDC-led team envisions a vertical- launch/vertical-landing vehicle derived from the Delta Clipper- Experimental (DC-X) technology demonstrator developed for die US Department of Defense. Rockwell is offering for competition a verti cal-launch/horizontal-landing wing body. J July 1995 after eight flights dating from August 1993. Its airframe has been modified extensively, making it 635kg lighter than the original. Modi fications include a composite LH tank. The 18 May launch was the first by a rocket with such a com ponent, according to MDC. Other new items include a Russian-built aluminium-lithium alloy LOX tank, a composite intertank to connect the LOX- LH tanks and an auxiliary propul sion system, including a com posite LH feedline, LH valve and a liquid-to-gas conversion system for reaction control. The vehicle also includes a Russian auxiliary' power unit pro viding redundant hydraulic power for flight control. -I Pegasus launches MSTI3 for USAF THE FINAL standard model of the three-stage, air- launched Pegasus booster carried the US Air Force's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration satellite, MSTI 3, into orbit on 17 May. It was the sixth successful launch of the Orbital Sciences (OSC) booster since April 1990. The Pegasus was released from an OSC Lockheed L-1011 at 3 8,000ft (11,600m) over the Pacific Ocean. The MSTI entered an ini tial 361 x 296km, 97°-inclination orbit, eventuallyreachinga circular 42 5km orbit. A stretched Pegasus XL, which had its first successful flight on 8 March after two successive failures, has been manifested to launch 14 satellites, including five for NASA, starting with the Total Ozone Map ping Spectrometer in June. Four further launches are in the pipeline for this year: the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (due in August), Spain's Minisat (Sep tember), the Satelite de Apli- caciones Cientificas (SAC-B), from Argentina, together with NASAs High Energy Transient Experi ment (November), and the Sub- millimeter Wave Astronomy Sat ellite (December). _l NATIONAL 29 May - 4 June 1996 26 FLIGHT INTER Lockheed Martin hopes that the VentureStar will take it to NASA contract NASA to pick X-33 contractor
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