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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2783.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT EXPLORATION TIM FURNISS/LONDON TRW to build Hubble replacement Manufacturer beats Lockheed Martin to deal to build James Webb Space telescope to be launched in 2010 TRW is to build the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) after winning a NASA contract worth S824 million. The competition for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) was between TRW and Lockheed Martin. It is the second time in recent months the latter has lost a large contract to TRW, which in August was selected for the $4.5 billion contract to build the National Polar Orbiting Oper ational Environmental Satellite System (Flight International, 3-9 September). The NGST will be named after James Webb, who led the Apollo programme and a series of precur sor unmanned lunar missions. It will be equipped with a near infrared camera, a multi-object spectrometer and a mid-infrared camera/spectrometer, with the abil ity to look for galaxy birth, the for mation of planets in discs around young stars and study super-mas sive black holes in other galaxies. The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched in 2010 aboard an expendable launch vehicle into a deep space orbit 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) from Earth, where it will be balanced between the gravity of the sun and the Earth. A single-sided sun shield on only one side of the telescope will protect it from sun light and heat, enabling the craft to be cooled to a very low temperature without the use of a complicated refrigeration unit. In such a deep orbit, the Webb telescope will not be serviced in space like the HST, which operates in a low Earth orbit. Also unlike the HST, the new Webb telescope's 8m (26ft) diameter optical mirror will be folded at launch and its mirror- petals unfurled in space. The large mirror will provide the increased light-collecting power for the sensi tive infrared instruments and rep resents the biggest technological challenge of the project. A large fixed-shape mirror would pose launch vehicle problems. IMAGERY Space bull's eye is perfect ring NASA has released a spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope showing a nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars surround ing the yellow nucleus of the unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. The entire ring is about 120,000 light years across, slightly larger than our Milky Way galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yel low nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a "gap" separating the two may contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. LAUNCHERS H2A and Ariane boosters take off but maiden Delta IV delayed Japan's National Space and Development Agency launched its third H2A booster from Tane- gashima on 10 September, carrying the Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System (USERS) and Data Relay Test Satellite (DRTS). Ariane- space launched an Ariane 4 booster four days earlier. The launches come as the maiden flight of Boeing's Delta IV is delayed from 11 October by software problems. The Japanese H2A2024 model used two large strap-on solid rocket boosters and four similar but smaller solid strap-on boosters and was equipped with 4m payload fairing. The launch followed two test flights, in August 2001 and February this year, which were suc cessful despite a failure to deploy a payload on the second launch. USERS will be deployed into a 450km low Earth orbit, to operate materials processing experiments, while DRTS will be deployed into a geostationary transfer orbit, firing its engine to circularise the orbit to geostationary, where it will pro vide inter-satellite and satellite-to- ground communications services. On 6 September, an Ariane 44L successfully carried the Space Systems/Loral-built Intelsat 906 communications satellite. Only two Ariane 4s now remain until Ariane 5 models take over. A sec ond of three uprated models makes its inaugural flight next month. Meanwhile, the software glitch that spoiled the first of two wet countdown demonstration tests of the first Delta IV on 30 August is going to delay the maiden flight of the booster, carrying Eutelsat W5, to no earlier than 3 November. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION Gyroscopes continue to cause NASA concern A replacement Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) which was due to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) early next year has failed during a spin test. The replacement CMG is requir ed because one of the four CMGs is out of action due to one of its two bearing assemblies being broken (Flight International, 18-24 June). The replacement CMG failed dur ing the test, possibly also due to a bearing problem. The CMGs pro vide attitude control for the ISS. Without the gyros engineers would have to rely on thrusters on the Russian segment of the station to maintain proper attitude control. The latest ISS problem comes as NASA estimates that the station will cost US taxpayers $1 billion a year to operate. The ISS is unlikely to be fully operational until 2006, 12 years later than planned in 1984 when then US president Ronald Reagan gave the project the go- ahead. The station will be de- orbited in 2017. By then the ISS will have cost over $70 billion. • The Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos has told NASA that the Soyuz TM flight to the ISS next month will not include 'N Sync band member Lance Bass, as televi sion producers have failed to come up with the necessary $20 million. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 17-23 SEPTEMBER 2002 35
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