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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 2697.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Japan sounds off with fifth TR- 1A launch from Tanegashima JAPAN'S NATIONAL SPACE Deve lopment Agency launched the fifth TR-1A solid propellant sounding rocket from Tanegashima on 25 September, carrying 750kg of science experiments to an altitude of 100km (55nm) during a sub-orbital flight in which they were exposed to 6min of micro- gravity conditions, to qualify technology for use on the Japan Experiment Module aboard the international space station. The payload was recovered 320km downrange from Tanegashima. First launched in 1991, the 13m-high TRIA is based on the solid-rocket booster of the H2. Arianespace will order extra Ariane 4s after Ariane 5 delay TIM FURNISS/LONDON ARIANESPACE HAS been forced to order up to another six Ariane 4 launchers to compen sate for farther delays in the intro duction of the Ariane 5 vehicle to commercial service. The first flight of the European Space Agency's (ESA) new booster failed on 4 June, after an untested Ariane 4-class inertial-reference unit used on the Ariane 5 caused the vehicle to veer off-course and break apart, with die loss of four Cluster science satellites. Charles Bigot, president of the European launcher organisation, says that the new Ariane 4 order will be needed to meet customer demands in 1999. He expects a considerable delay to the troubled $7 billion Ariane 5 programme. Arianespace had planned to take delivery of the first commercial Ariane 5 (the third launcher over all) early in 1997. The first com mercial launch has been delayed to 1998. It will be the fourth rocket off the production line. This follows ESA's decision to test fly the second Ariane 5 on a geostationary-transfer orbit mis sion with dummy payloads in April 1997, and perform a third qualifica tion flight — with a commercial payload and the space agency's Atmospheric Re-entry Demon strator — the following September (Flight International, 2-8 October). The failure on 4 June will cost ESA over $360 million. Member states have refused to .pay for the additional flight,'and funding is likely to come from the enhanced Ariane 5 programme, delaying the introduction of this more powerful launcher. Ariane 5 industrial con tractors, led by Aerospatiale, may be persuaded to contribute funds. Arianespace has 22 Ariane 4s remaining to fly and 14 Ariane 5s. The company now has a backlog of 42 satellites, worth $4.2 billion, fol lowing an order to launch the Skynet 4E Arianespace plans to launch two more Ariane 4s this year and 11 in 1997. The company had been hoping to fly up to four Ariane 5s with eight Ariane 4s in 1998 and by 1999, to launch six Ariane 5s and only three Ariane 4s. The company announced on 2 October that it had established a new company, Arianespace Fin ance, which will provide $400 mil lion in loans to customers to foster the development of new projects for the Ariane launchers. • Microprobes to Mars TWO 2KG MICROPROBES will be flown as part of the sec ond NASA New Millennium mis sion in 1998, riding piggyback on the Mars Surveyor Lander. They will penetrate the surface on impact and return some basic data, validating technologies which can be applied to later missions to Mars in which microprobes could be used to search for sub-surface ice and minerals. • •.^•x'J^^HnJI.lll'WIII.M No Date Spacecraft Type 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 4 Sep 5 Sep 6 Sep 8 Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 16 Sep 26 Sep Cosmos 2333 Cosmos 2334A Inmarsat 3F4 GE1 Echostar 2 Navstar Atlantis 17 Express 2 Elint Navsat Comsat Comsat Comsat GPS Mir Comsat Launcher!*) Zenit (1) Cosmos (3) Proton (6)t Atlas (5)f Ariane (9)f Delta 2(8)t STS 79 (6) Proton (7)t Country!*) Russia (15) Russia (16) Russia (17) USA (24) Europe (9) USA (25) USA (26) Russia (18) Launch site! ) Baikonur(10) Plesetsk (6) Baikonur(ll) Canaveral(12) Kourou(9) Canaveral (13) KSC (6) Baikonur (12) indicates total number of orbital launches by this launch vehicle, country and launch site it A Military navsat also orbited Mexican Unamsat t Proton SL-12 (5), Atlas 2A (2), Ariane 42P (3), Delta 7925 (7), Proton SL-12 (6), Last Satellite Launch Log: Flight International, 11-17 September NASA starts work on Space Shuttle privatisation plan NASA BEGAN a new era in Space Shuttle operations on 1 October with the formal award of a six-year, $7 billion space-opera tions contract to the United Space Alliance, a partnership of Rockwell and Lockheed Martin. The privatisation will consoli date ground processing and in flight operations with a single company, as part of a bid by NASA to cut its annual $3.2 billion Space Shuttle operations budget to $2.5 billion by 2000 Flight Inter national, 31 July-6 August). NASAsays thatthe commercial isation of Shuttle operations to that akin to an airline, will be accom plished ".. .while maintaining safe ty as the top priority and keeping the current annual flight rate [seven to eight missions] intact". The United Space Alliance will be penalised severely for failing to meet cost savings, but will be awarded 35% of additional costs saved after an initial target of $400 million has been met. NASA will retain control of launch decisions, responsibility for safety and will own the four Shuttle orbiters. • Engineers inspecting one of the solid-rocket boosters recovered after the STS79 launch found a 150mm-long metal wrench in the engine compartment, which had been left by a technician after pre punch testing. The booster's noz zle also showed excessive erosion of insulation. About 12.5mm of the 37.5-75mm-thick carbon material had been burned away, leaving 50 to 60 gouges 150-600mm long and 70mm wide. The STS7 9/Atlantis had returned US astronaut Shannon Lucid to Earth after she completed a record (by a woman) 188-day 5h spaceflight, mainly aboard the Russian Mir 1 space station. The fourth docking in the Shuttle Mir Mission programme, the'STS79 delivered another US astronaut, John Blaha. He will be retrieved; from the Mir by the STS8 \lAtlantis, which will be pre ceded on 8 November by the sev enth and last Shuttle mission of 1996, the STS WColumbia. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9 - 15 October 1996 21
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