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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 2449.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Orbital Sciences wins X-34 launch-test vehicle deal TIM FURNISS/LONDON NASA EIAS formally awarded Orbital Sciences (OSC) the $50 million contract to develop the small X-34 technology demonstra tor for the agency's reusable launch vehicle (RLV) programme. The X-34 research will comple ment the Lockheed Martin's X-3 3 single-stage-to-orbit RLV subor bital demonstration vehicle and the McDonnell Douglas Clipper Graham DC-XA technoloy craft. NASA is putting $10 million into the X-34 programme. The OSC contract calls for eight flights ofthe 18m-longX-34rock- et-powered spaceplane..The first two must occur during late 1998. The X-34 will be air-launched from the OSC Lockheed L-1011 carrier aircraft after take-off from White Sands, New Mexico. The six remaining flights will reach a maximum speed of Mach 1 and altitude of 250,000ft. NASA may exercise an option for25 additionalX-34flights, some possibly originating from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. AlliedSignal has been awarded an $8.2 million contract from OSC to provide components for the X-34, including electrical and hydraulic power systems. Competition to win the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELVJcontract is also intensifying, with Boeing car rying a test firing of a modified Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)for6min. The SSME had been installed in a Boeing propulsion module and dropped twice from a crane into inland waterways at NASAs Sten- nis Space Centre, Mississippi. The subsequent firing (the 51st by the veteran test engine 2107) completed Boeing's rocket-engine recovery and re-use demonstra tion programme. One aim of the EELV project is to halve launch costs and reduce launch turn around to 30 days. Boeing is the only potential EELV contractor to incorporate the SSME in its design. The other companies working on the $30 million Phase 1 contract areAlliant Tech-Systems, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas. The companies will submit their bids to the US Air Force later in Sep tember and two companies will be selected for $60 million detailed design study contracts. The finalist for the potential $2 billion programme to replace the existing Atlas, Delta and Titan boosters by 2005 will be selected in 1998. Two medium-class and one heavy-class EELV models are planned. • NEWS IN BRIEF • FRENCH SUYUZ MISSION The Soyuz TM23 spacecraft landed safely in Kazakhstan on 2 September, ending the French-funded Casseiopea science mission performed on die Russian Mir 1 space sta tion by spacionaute Claudie Andre-Deshays, who was launched aboard the Soyuz TM24 on 17 August. Deshays landed with cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev, who had been replaced by die TM24'sValeri Korzun and Alexander Kaleri. • ICO FLIES DELTA McDonnell Douglas says diat its new Delta 3 launchers will be used to carry some of die 12 mobile communica tions satellites to be operated by the Inmarsat affiliate com pany, ICO Communications. Hughes Space and Com munications, which is build ing the ICO satellites, has booked 11 launches on die Delta 3. One of those has been assigned die Galaxy 10 satellite. Japan's Adeos eyes the world JAPAN'S ADVANCED Earth Observing Satellite, the 3,500kg Adeos, the largest craft built by die country, has started its sur veying mission despite a problem widi one of two sets of attitude control system dirusters which has failed. The Adeos is equipped widi a suite of five national and two NASA instru ments, and one French instrument, and is acquiring data on global warming, depletion of die ozone layer, decrease in die tropical rain forests and climate changes. Brazil nears first VLS satellite launch BRAZIL'S FIRST satellite is due to be launched within the "the next few months" .aboard the Veiculo Lancador de Satellites (VLS), says the country's president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The three-stage, solid-propel- lant VLS vehicle, with four strap-on boosters, will place a national envi ronmental data collection satellite into low-Earth orbit (LEO). The VLS, which can place 200kg into a 1,000km orbit and 3 00kg into LEO, will undergo four demonstration flights from the national Alcantara launch centre before being declared operational. To prepare for the launch a sub orbital Sonda 4 rocket, on which the VLS is based, was launched on 27 August to check out the launch team and tracking stations. • No Date Spacecraft Type 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 8 Aug 15 Aug 17 Aug 17 Aug 18 Aug 21 Aug 29 Aug Italsat F2 Telecom 2D Molniya 1 Adeos 1= Soyuz TM24 ChinaSat 7 FAST Interbol 2A Comsat Comsat Milcoms Obs Ferry Comsat Science Science Launcher)*) Ariane 4(8) . Molniya (1) H2(l) Soyuz(4)> LM3 (2)+ Pegasus(4) Molniya (2) Country!*) Launch sited Europe (8) Kourou (8) •~;:^ Russia (13) Plesetsk(5) Japan (1) Tanegashima (1) Russia (14) Baikonur (9) China (2) . Xichang(2) USA (23) Air launch (4) Russia (14) Plestesk(6) * Indicates total number of orbital launches by this launch vehicle, country and launch site in 1996. > Ariane 44L (4), Soyuz U model (5), Pegasus XL (3) = Also carried Japanese amateur-radio satellite + Third-stage malfunction stranded satellite in useless orbit A Also carried Czchek Republic Magion and Argentine Microsat Last satellite launch log: Flight International, 14-20 August FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11 -17 September 1996 45
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