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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 2456.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Shuttle stays cut-price WASHINGTON D.C. Uncertainty and anger in the US space transportation community follows President Reagan's decision that customers for a Space Shuttle flight after October 1, 1988, will be charged on the basis of $74 million for a full payload bay. The uncertainty arises from an unusual Nasa sales ploy which effectively puts the Shuttle up for auction to the highest bidder: the anger from the pricing policy, which will end the expendable launch vehicle (ELV) business in the USA at least for Pam-D-class satellites. Potential customers will send Nasa their payload carrying and launch date requirements, together with bids not lower than that based on $74 million for a full payload bay. Acceptance of a bid will depend on what other tenders have been received for a designated Shuttle flight. The number of flights up for auction will be limited each year by other payload require ments. Bidding for certain 1988-89 flights can begin immediately. Nasa and the White House hope that with this auction arrangement and with 24 flights a year by 1988-89, Shuttle revenue can be increased to go some way towards recovering actual flight costs. It is clear that, to Nasa and the US President, it is a matter of national pride and prestige that Shuttle remains the country's premier launch vehicle. It is difficult to see, however, how an auction system will work, whether 24 flights a year will ever be achieved with the present four-Orbiter fleet, and whether Shuttle can remain a viable commercial satellite launcher when faced with interference in its schedule by military and Government clients and customers with large payloads. The picture is confused because the new price tag will not apply to Government and 16 military flights, the charges for which will be made privately. Nasa will continue to offer space on Shuttle at reduced prices to industrial companies interested in commercialising microgravity processes. In real terms, a Shuttle flight today costs about $130 million, and a science mission such as Spacelab 2 costs $330 million. The commercial charge for a dedicated payload bay on a Shuttle flight today is equivalent to $40 million. Customers booking space on Shuttle for flights three years from now are currently charged at the rate of $71 million for a full payload bay. On a shared flight this is equivalent to $25 million for a Pam-D class satellite. Under the new pricing policy, the owner of such a satellite will pay at minimum little more than currently charged, the price increasing with demand. President Reagan's pricing decision, and the unusual manner in which revenue could be increased, contra dicts his official statement in June 1983 that Shuttle pricing for 1988-89 would achieve "full cost recovery". The new price will have a "devastating effect" on attempts to market the Delta ELV, says Transpace Carri ers, which had been lobbying for a Shuttle price of at least $150 million. The survival of Transpace, which took over Delta marketing from Nasa, is now in doubt. If the company folds, the situation will be simplified for Arianespace, and its intense competition with Shuttle will continue. Arianespace charges between $25 million and $30 million for a Pam-D-class payload on a two-satellite launch on an Ariane 3. Spacelab 2 makesgood KENNEDY SC The return of Shuttle Orbiter Challenger after an extra day in orbit, and versatile trouble shooting by its crew and ground engineers, has resulted in a 90 per cent successful mission, says Nasa, illustrat ing the flexibility of the Space Shuttle system. Jesse Moore, Nasa's Shuttle chief, confirmed Flight's assessment of reac tion to Challenger's engine shutdown when he said; "We ought to purge the words 'abort to orbit' as long as we get into orbit." The engine shutdown was caused by the failure of a temperature sensor unit rather than a fault Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force base on August 6 after a Spacelab mission lasting seven days, 22hr, and 45min. Below A Shuttle price of $74 million seems likely to end Transpace Carriers' hopes of marketing the Delta expendable launch vehicle which it took over from Nasa in May 1984 in the engine itself, and will not delay the next Shuttle f flight scheduled for August 24. "A scientific harvest of mammoth proportions" resulted from the mission despite the early setbacks, j says a breathless Nasa spokesman. Before the end of the eight-day flight all equip ment and experiments were up and running, including the * instrument pointing system (IPS) which began operating normally after the input of new computer software devel oped by the science crew on,' board Challenger. The IPS is a vital tool for future Shuttle astronomyr missions, such as the Astro 1 flight to study Halley's comet f next March. "If the IPS does not work," says the Astro 1 pro gramme manager, "the whole* mission is down the drain." Built by ten European* companies under the leader ship of Dornier, the IPS is designed to provide excep-* tional pointing accuracy for instruments weighing up to 7> tonnes. Development of the IPS has proved difficult and was $50 million over budget/ with the equipment being delivered late, delaying the> Spacelab 2 mission for several months. Orbiter Challenger will now" be configured for the German Spacelab D-l mission, sched-7 uled for November. The next Shuttle mission is flight 511/Discovery, which is to be"" launched at 0910hr EST on August 24. The five-man j, crew, commanded by Joe Engle, will deploy Leasat 4, Aussat 1, and ASC 1, and ' attempt to repair Leasat 3, stranded in low-Earth orbit after deployment from Dis covery on mission 51D in April. FLIGHT International, 17 August 1985
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