Soviet Union joins Intelsat.
ESA makes progress on regaining control of Olympus. The solar arrays are now facing the Sun, providing full power. Main objective now is to warm the frozen propulsion system up slowly, in hopes that full attitude control and maneuvering can be restored.
Senate Armed Services Committee (again) attempts to zero out NASP funding.
Analysis of Mir radio transmissions by the Kettering group indicates that Mir cosmonauts have three designated emergency-landing areas, for use in the event that they have to take their Soyuz down immediately: their normal landing area in Kazakhstan, an offshore area in the Sea of Okhotsk... and the north-central plains of the US! (There are also occasional provisions for a landing in Europe.) Soviet space officials confirm that data on such reentries is calculated and passed to the cosmonauts, although they say the possibility of having to use them is "remote". The Soviet Union spreads over such a wide range of longitudes that on most orbits a Mir crew can abort into the USSR, but for about four orbits a day the choice is central Africa, central Australia, the far southern Pacific, or the central US, and it's pretty obvious which offers the most hospitable landing conditions.
NASA says US shuttle planning prefers emergency landings in the US or at US air bases abroad, but in a pinch landings at foreign sites are possible. There are informal agreements with "about a dozen" nations to cover such situations. The morning briefing for an orbiting crew occasionally includes a note advising that "political reasons" have ruled out certain landing sites.
Second Pegasus flies successfully... more or less. July 17 launch puts seven Microsat experimental military comsats into an orbit somewhat lower than intended, 245x192nmi vs intended 389x389nmi. Telemetry contact showed all three solid stages firing properly, also the first burn of the new little liquid-fueled fourth stage, after which contact was lost (as expected -- one of the USAF's range aircraft was grounded due to bad weather in the Antarctic). The birds did not show up when expected, and it was about nine hours before they were found and tracked, in the unexpectedly low orbit. The fourth stage apparently did the best it could, but something had gone wrong earlier; there is some indication of "an anomaly" in the first/second stage separation. Aside from the unintended orbit, the Microsats are intact and operating normally.
This was the first test of Pegasus's fourth stage, the Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System, which will be an option for future launches. It is mostly intended as a precision orbit-injection system to reduce the uncertainties resulting from the somewhat imprecise solid motors, but also provides for some orbital maneuvering. Some minor reshuffling of equipment in Pegasus's guidance/control area made room for three 50lb-thrust motors and 160lb of hydrazine. This mission also included a guidance upgrade intended to become standard: a Navstar receiver. On this flight it was a redundant backup to the inertial system, but the intent is that the Navstar receiver will eventually be the primary reference for trajectory control, as it is cheaper and tougher than a high-precision inertial system.
ESA's ERS-1 remote-sensing satellite launched July 16. Deployment was flawless except for some difficulty getting one scatterometer antenna out, which was cleared up after a short delay. ERS-2 is already under construction for 1994 launch.
Space station survives a Senate-floor amendment intended to divert its funding, mostly to veterans programs and deficit reduction.
Atlantis crew prepares for STS-43, primarily charged with hauling up TDRS-5. The mission will last nine days and carries a variety of secondary payloads; it was intended to be shorter, but was stretched in a program aimed at gathering experience for the extended-duration missions planned in the next few years. TDRS-5 will go to the West TDRS position to replace the ailing TDRS-3, which will become an orbital spare in the East position. TDRS-1 will stay in the West position as spare there. (TDRS-4 is the main East satellite, and TDRS-2 is part of Challenger's wreckage.)
Any program that calls itself an OS | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology (e.g. "MSDOS") isn't one. -Geoff Collyer| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry