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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 2877.PDF
SPACCFU6HT NASA sets November ISS date TIM FURNISS/LONDON NASA HAS set 20 November as the date for the Internat ional Space Station (ISS) project finally to get airborne. Six years later than planned when the pro ject was initiated in 1984, Russia's Zarya control module will be the first section launched into space aboard a Proton booster. The lift-off will be followed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS88 on 3 December, carrying the US Node 1 model, the Unity, which will be docked to the Zarya. Russia's Service Module, howev er, will not be launched to the Space Station until July 1999 - a delay from April - and the first crew to operate on die orbital base will therefore not now arrive until January 2000 at the earliest (Flight International, 9-15 September). Russia will lease the use of its Service Module to NASA for $60 million, with a further $40 million later, to provide cash to assist the country to fulfill its ISS commit ments. As a result, NASA is paying Russia for the Zarya - which was built under a separate $200 million contract - as well as the Service Module. The latter was originally meant to have been supplied as part of die Russian commitment to die project. The US space agency is to ask US Congress for an additional $1.2 billion on top of about $2 billion budgeted to keep the ISS pro gramme on course in 1998. With NASA unable to rule out further Russian difficulties and its relations with Congress continuing to dete riorate, however, winning approval for extra funds is not guaranteed. A further $500 million is planned to help Russia to supply Progress and Soyuz vehicles, while the remaining funds will be used to modify the three ISS Space Shuttle orbiters, the Atlantis, Discover)' and Endeavour, to earn' additional pro- pellants to maintain the ISS' orbit. In addition to the Service Module, there will be four ISS Shuttle missions and one Russian Progress refuelling flight in 1999. The following year will see 15 ISS missions, including delivery of the NASA Laboratory Module and other equipment, and three Soyuz and six Progress missions. The newly announced schedule casts doubt on the planned com pletion of the ISS in 2002-3 and it appears likely that 2004 is now a more realistic target. 3 Soyuz booked SPACE SYSTEMS LORAL has signed a contract with Starsem, a joint venture of Russia's Samara, Arianespace and Aerospatiale, to launch 12 Globalstar satellites on three Soyuz boosters in 1999. This follows the loss of 12 satellites caused by the fail ure of a Zenit firing on 10 September, and brings to six the number of Soyuz Global- star launches. Three of these, covering an initial 12 - the first planned for November- will have been completed before the end of this year. Ariane logs another success ARIANESPACE launched Eu-telsat's W2 and the Swedish Sirius ^communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit aboard the Ariane 44L/V111 from Kourou at 22:51 GMT on 5 October. The W2 was built by Alcatel (formerly Aerospatiale's satellite division) and die Sirius by Hughes Space and Communi cations. The launch came just 19 days after flight VI10. Another Eutelsat satellite, die Matra Marconi Space-built Hot Bird 5, was due to be launched by an Atlas 2 A from Cape Canaveral on 9 October. Arianespace's next launch will be VI13 on 28 October, using another 44L model, the payloads for which have not been officially confirmed. Flight 112, scheduled for 20 October, is die third devel opment launch of the Ariane 503 (Flight International, 7-13 October). • The Boeing-led Sea Launch project's Odyssey floating launch pad arrived at Seal Beach, Cali fornia on 4 October in preparation for the first launch of the Zenit 3 booster - of a dummy satellite - in March 1999 from the mid-Pacific. Boeing has paid a $10 million penalty to die US Government to settle charges that it transferred military technology to Russia and Ukraine during the course of devel opment work. • The next commercial customer for the ILS International Launch Services Russian Proton, the Telstar 6, which was to have been launched on 16 October, has been delayed until at least the end of November by Loral Space and Communications to conduct tests on French-German built travelling wave tubes that may be susceptible to thermally induced fatigue. 3 No 51 52 53 54 iiumraimiiuiiii Date Spacecraft 8 Sep 5 Iridium 16 Sep PAS 7 22 Sep 8 Orbcomm 29 Sep Molniya 1/91 Type Comsats Comsat Comsats Comsat Launcher* Delta 2/8> Ariane 4/6> Pegasus XL/4 Molniya M/3 Country* USA 22 Europe 6 USA 23 Russia 16 Launch site* vandenberg 5 Kourou 6 Air launch 4 Plesetsk 5 > Delta 7290/6, Ariane 44LP/2 + 79 Iridiums launched. 72 operational, 5 in-orbit spares. 2 non-operational Failures: Ukrainian/Russian Zenit 2 launched on 10 September from Baiknonur failed to place 12 Globalstar satellites into orbit Last Satellite Launch Log: Flight International. 23-29 September STEX is launched on third Taurus booster ORBITAL SCIENCES launched its third Taurus booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 3 October, carrying die $90 million National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite. The STEX incorporates 29 new technologies, including a 5km-long Advanced TetJier Experiment. The Lockheed Martin-built 6,985kg STEX is designed to explore new commercial off-the- shelf technologies to enhance future space missions at a lower cost. It is die first of a planned series of missions by the NRO's Ad vanced Systems and Technology Directorate. The second is the GeoLite, built by TRW, which will be launched on a Delta 2 in 2001. Other technologies on the STEX include an electric xenon ion propulsion module based on a Russian unit, a powerful solid-state data recorder, multifunctional solar cell arrays and high density nickel-hvdrogen batteries. • NEWS IN BRIEF • MARS ENGINE TEST Kaiser Marquardt has tested a low-temperature propul sion system that could be used for NASA's Mars Ascent spacecraft, which will attempt to bring back samples to earth in about 2005, or after. The hyperlogic nitric oxide- monomethylhydrazine pro- pellant thruster operates at -40°C, simulating the Martian surface temperature. • AEROSPIKETEST The first successful power- pack test of the Boeing Rocketdyne division's Linear Aerospike Engine for the Lockheed Martin X-33 sub orbital technology demon strator was completed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, on 1 October. The test calibrated the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuel turbopumps and settings. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 October 1998 21
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