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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0025.PDF
ISS crew may be forced to leave TIM FURNISS/LONDON THE INTERNATIONAL Space Station (ISS) Exped ition Crew 1 could be forced to abandon the station and return to Earth in their Soyuz TM space craft if another malfunction occurs, NASA warns. The space agency's concern follows a series of equip ment failures that have hit die sta tion and comes as the next Space Shuttle mission to die ISS faces a launch delay. Plans are already in place to send spare parts for the station's air conditioner and carbon dioxide removal system on the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS 98 which is to be launched on 18 January with its major payload, the US laboratory Module, Destiny, or on a Russian Progress M tanker craft set for a February launch. The electrical power equipment on the Russian-made air condi tioning system has malfunctioned and if the carbon dioxide removal system breaks down, the crew will be forced to use canisters of lithium hydroxide which will last up to 14 days. The Russian-made carbon diox ide equipment has a broken fan sys tem and an electrical problem on the back-up fan assembly. The discovery of an eroded cable on the aft segment of a solid rocket booster (SRB) on the stacked Space Shuttle Atlantis assembly at the Kennedy Space Center, however, may cause a delay to the launch of the STS 98 mission. If the cable cannot be repaired without destacking the assembly, the delay could be considerable. The eroded electrical cable is in the reusable cable and connector assembly in the booster separation system in the lower external tank attach ring on the left hand SRB. NASA engi neers are inspecting other SRB ordnance cables. A faulty wire in one of the two explosive detonation cartridges in the similar aft SRB attach ring sep aration system caused the failure of the cartridge during the STS 97 Endeavour mission on 30 Novem ber. A back-up standard initiator cartridge fired successfully. If both systems detonators had failed, the SRB could have remained partially attached during the separation, causing the system to go out of con trol and break apart under the aero- dyndamic forces. The wiring faults could indicate an inherent fault in the Shuttle system, similar to eroded electrical harnesses discovered under the payload bay floors of all Space Shuttle orbiters after an inspection of Columbia after its STS 93 mis sion in July 1999. • The French space agency CNES is investing $500 million in the ISS between 2001-2004 in addition to its participation through its mem bership of the European Space Agency. The CNES involvement will enable France to send national astronauts to the ISS to operate experiments. • Ariane 5 booster is the eighth successful launch in five months ARIANESPACE successfully launched an Ariane 5 booster on flight VI3 8 from Kourou on 2 0 December. The booster carried the Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) Astra 2D and GE Americom's GE-8 communica tions satellites, together with a Japanese antenna technology pay- load, LDREX, into a 200km (124 miles) by 35,883km, 1.99° inclina tion transfer orbit. It was the 12th Arianespace launch in the year and the eighth in less than five months. Astra 2D is SES's first Boeing 376 spin-stabilised satellite, weighing 1,414kg (3,1101b) and equipped with 16 ku-band trans ponders. It will be placed at 28.2° in geostationary orbit (GEO). The satellite is the 11th craft in the SES fleet, eight of which have been supplied by Boeing. The Lockheed Martin-built GE-8 is equipped with 24 C-band transponders and will be located at 139°W.v It is a half-scale model of the large deployable antenna to be carried on the Engineering Test Satellite, ETS 8. D ESA selects candidates for Earth observation THE EUROPEAN Space Agency (ESA) has selected five candidate missions for initial feasibility studies in its programme to "enhance the capacity to predict the evolution of the Earth's envi ronment" as part of the agency's Living Planet programme. The programme, introduced in 1999, comprises Earth Explorer Core and Opportunity missions. The five core missions under study are: the Atmospheric Chemistry Explorer; EarthCARE, an Earth clouds aerosol and radiation exp lorer; SPECTRA, which is to study surface processes and ecosystem changes through response analysis; a water vapour lidar space experi ment, WALES; and WATS, a study of water vapour and wind in the stratosphere and troposphere. Two core missions are under development, to study gravity and steady state ocean circulation and atmospheric dynamics. The first firm Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions are: Cryosat, to measure the thickness variations in polar ice sheets and SMOS, to demonstrate the observation of soil moisture and ocean salinity. J Cassini reveals dynamic clouds on Jupiter The narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft has returned images of Jupiter from a dis tance of 19 million km (11.8 mil lion miles). Cassini is en route to become the first Saturn orbiter in 2004. The images reveal clouds of different chemical composition, height and thick- regions suggests more vortex- ness, organised by winds. The type motion and winds of less mottled appearance in the polar vigour at higher altitudes. Eutelsat to boost Hot Bird network with e-Bird craft COMMUNICATIONS satel lite operator Eutelsat is to procure a new generation multi media Hot Bird satellite in response to demand for two-way high-speed internet access. The satellite, called e-Bird, will be located at 2 5.2°E in geostation ary orbit (GEO) and will be equipped with 20 transponders fully optimised to carry internet protocol access networks with satellite return link capabilities. Demand for two-way high speed internet access has increased from25% to 40% in the past eight months, according to the satellite operator. In addition, Eutelsat will issue a request for proposals for two new Hot Bird satellites, Hot Birds 8 and 9, to complete the capacity of the network. The new satellites will bring to 100 the number of Ku- and Ka-band transponders provided by the Hot Birds and will strengthen Eutelsat's in-orbit spare capacity. The Eutelsat W series satellites were launched in May and September 2000. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001 23
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