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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 0086.PDF
McDonnell Douglas to build spin-stabilised upper stage McDONNELL Douglas is to develop a solid-propellant, spin-stabilised upper stage for the Shuttle as a commercial venture. Clearly foreseeing the even tual phase-out of the Delta, the com pany has chosen to stay in the satellite launcher business by using its technology to develop the relatively low-cost SSUS. Nasa has agreed to use the stage provided it is technically and commercially acceptable, but there is no financial support from the US space agency, and the programme is a risk venture for the company, as it was the Delta 3914 (Flight, Dec. 25). After being carried to low Earth orbit by the Shuttle these spin- stabilised vehicles, carrying payloads up to 2,4501b, would then be launched into transfer orbits, and kick motors would subsequently insert them into circular, synchronous paths. Nasa has agreed that in response to McDonnell's initiative it will not begin develop ment of a competitive or alternative vehicle, but it appears that Boeing is -WW also showing interest in the SSUS. While McDonnell Douglas pursues this project, a larger version of the SSUS with a payload capability of about 4,5001b is also under study, principally by Boeing, which last August was selected to build the IUS or Interim Upper Stage. There is some doubt that the large SSUS will ever be more than a paper vehicle, how ever, because it appears to overlap the IUS, which can ferry 4,2001b pay- load to synchronous orbit. This industry initiative by McDonnell Douglas will be a pleasant surprise for the US taxpayer, who (until the advent of the Delta 3914) had not been used to seeing much risk-taking on the part of US industry as far as launch vehicles were concerned. McDonnell Douglas will meanwhile continue in production with the Delta because its economics in comparison with those of the Shuttle will probably continue to be attractive well into the 1980s. In fact, unless the Shuttle can launch two synchronous payloads of Delta size on one flight, this conven tional throw-away rocket is likely always to be substantially cheaper and, therefore, a continuing embarrassment to Nasa in its attempts to market the Shuttle. By encouraging McDonnell Douglas to bring out a Shuttle ancillary with the same performance as the 3914, Nasa may be able to make the planned obsolescence of the latter vehicle more acceptable. Final descent through the atmosphere of Venus of the main probe to be carried by the Pioneer 1978 spacecraft was being simulated last month in an Earth-atmosphere drop-test from a USAF balloon. The flight, which was being made between December 13 and 16, was planned to duplicate the sequence of events which will take place just before the probe enters the hot, dense lower layers of the Venus atmosphere. The balloon is seen here being prepared for launch at the US Army's White Sands Missile Range mssmsM a^&&&^ FLIGHT International, 8 January 1977 Nasa promotes Aidsat follow-on NASA and Aid, the US Agency for International Development, have set up a joint working group to see how experience from the successful Aidsat project can be applied to future inter national collaborative programmes. Aidsat, a joint Nasa-Aid venture, ended on October 30 last year with a final demonstration in Haiti. Using the US space agency's ATS-6 applications satellite, the project demonstrated to people in 27 emerging nations how space and communications technology could speed their development. The two-part programme began on August 1. The first phase included demonstrations in South-east and Southern Asia, the Middle East, and East and North Africa. The second part involved countries in West Africa, South and Central America and the Caribbean. The project was directed at decision-makers, and observers in cluded eight presidents, three prime ministers, a king and a sultan, to gether with top government ministers and businessmen. Aidsat was based on what is un doubtedly the most versatile communi cations satellite yet launched. ATS-6 was used to relay high-quality colour television programmes from small por table transmitters directly to low-cost receivers in remote areas. Direct broadcasting of this nature is not pos sible with any of the existing com mercial satellites. Second Skylark 12 success THE second of the new three-stage Skylark 12 research rockets built by British Aircraft Corporation was successfully launched in mid-December from the Andoya range in Arctic Norway. First reports indicate that it reached a height of 425 miles, and telemetry data were received for 14min. First launch of this new and more powerful sounding rocket, which can carry payloads three times as high as earlier Skylarks, took place on Novem ber 21 (see Flight for December 18, page 1802). Both rockets carried pay- loads for Britain's Science Research Council, which is investigating auroral activity in the polar region, and both were launched by a BAC team. The second Skylark 12 carried eight experiments weighing a total of 3271b. Three came from University College, London, and two were co-operative ventures, one with Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre and the other with the SRF's Appleton Laboratory. The latter also had an experiment of its own on board, as did the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory. West Germany has ordered four of the new rockets, and there will be three more for the SRC.
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