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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1375.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Europe plans ISS cargo return ESA to study two-way transfer vehicle for International Space Station for service flights after Shuttle is retired Europe is studying a development of its automated transfer vehicle (ATV) capable of returning cargo to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) once the US Space Shuttle has been retired. A Phase B study of the proposed two-way cargo access and return vehicle (CARV) is under way, says Marco Caporicci, head of the European Space Agency's re-entry and human transportation division. Weighing almost 21t at launch by Ariane 5, ESA's ATV is designed to cany 7.6t of cargo, air, water and fuel to the ISS, then to take on 6.5t of waste and burn up on re-entry. The CARV has a re-entry capsule in place of the ATV's cargo carrier, allowing a substantial payload to be returned to Earth, including ISS spares for refurbishment. NASA, which issued a request for information on 16 July soliciting proposals for cargo and crew ser vices to the ISS, plans to continue using Russian Progress cargo-resup- ply and Soyuz-TM crew-transfer vehicles, plus Europe's ATV and Japan's similar HTV cargo-transfer vehicle, after the Shuttle is retired. But, like Progress, neither the ATV nor the HTV has the capability to return cargo to Earth. While the ATV is designed to use the Russian docking and refuelling system on the ISS, the CARV would be compatible with the station's wider-diameter US docking port, allowing larger items to be loaded and unloaded. Caporicci says a go- ahead decision is scheduled for 2006, with the CARV planned to be available by 2010, NASA's current date for retirement of the Shuttle upon completion of ISS assembly. EADS Space, meanwhile, has begun construction of the second of seven planned ATVs under a new €1 billion ($1.24 billion) contract from ESA. Originally scheduled to fly in September 2003, the already- completed first ATV - Jules Verne - will now be launched in late 2005. The delay is due to the hiatus in ISS assembly and problems with the ATV's autonomous docking soft ware. "We need to test it fully [in simulations]. Although unmanned, [the ATV] has to match all the safety requirements of the manned Space Station," says EADS. The sec ond ATV will be built before a pro duction review in 2005 that should give the go-ahead for the remaining five vehicles. The six ATVs still to be built will cost €835 million. The rest of EADS's €1 billion ESA contract is split between €180 mil lion for work already performed on the European ISS laboratory mod ule, Columbus, and €30 million to prepare for its eventual launch on a future Shuttle mission. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ROB COPPINGER EXPLORATION Saturn rings hint at ice An ultraviolet image of Saturn's rings suggests there is more ice towards the outer part of the rings, hinting at their origin and evolution. The image-taken using an ultravi olet imaging spectrograph instrument -wascaptured during the Cassini spacecraft's orbital insertion. The Cassini- Huygens mission is a co-operative project of NASA and the European and Italian space agencies. IN ORBIT • International Launch Services is to launch DirecTV-8, a Space Systems/ Loral 1300- series communications satellite, from Baikonur in the second quarter of 2005. • India is to launch a 500kg (1,1 OOlb) recover able capsule next year as a precursor to a potential manned spaceflight, and says the uprated GSLV-III launcher, set to fly in 2008, will be able to carry a 10t crewed capsule. • Kazakhstan plans its first communications satellite under its $345 million 2005-7 space budget. SERVICING MISSION NASA keeps options open on Hubble Shuttle NASA says it is keeping options open after the US National Research Council (NRC) recommended the agency "take no actions that would preclude a Space Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope". In an interim report on its NASA-requested assessment of options for extending Hubble's life, the NRC urges the space agency to commit to a servicing mission that accomplishes the instrument- replacement objectives planned for the cancelled SM-4 Shuttle flight, and to keep open the option of a manned mission while pursuing a potential robotic servicing mission. In response, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe says NASA is "commit ted to exploring ways to safely ex tend the useful scientific life of Hubble", and will "keep options open" while the challenges of a ro botic mission are examined. NASA cancelled the Shuttle ser vicing mission earlier this year, argu ing it could not be performed safely within the guidelines set by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The NRC disagrees, saying a Shuttle flight to Hubble "is not precluded by or inconsistent with" the CAIB's recommendations. The NRC says "compelling scien tific returns will result" from instal lation of a new wide-field camera and cosmic origins spectrograph as planned for the original SM-4 Shuttle mission. But it says the pro posed robotic servicing mission is "highly complex" and requires sig nificant technology development and demonstration to reach flight readiness. The report recommends NASA immediately take an active role in robotic space experiments planned by the US Air Force for November (XSS-11) and for September 2006 by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Orbital Express). 48 20-26 JULY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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