First GOES-Next bird is in the space simulation chambers for tests, leading up to a launch late next year.
NASA self-assessment results will be published, including measurements of Goldin's own performance against complaints that he is late for meetings, slow to return phone calls, and slow to forward documents.
ESA is doubtful that Giotto will be able to make a third comet encounter. The probe is currently back in hibernation, awaiting an Earth flyby on 1 July 1999 that could be used to redirect it. However, it only has 4kg of fuel left, which is probably not enough to fly another encounter, and there is some concern that updates to ESA's ground equipment may make it difficult to talk to Giotto by 1999.
FCC approves requests from Motorola, Ellipsat, and Constellation to launch several experimental satellites each as advance tests for their planned LEO comsat systems.
France and Italy showing increasing interest in some sort of joint European ballistic-missile defence system. The Mitterand government in France is opposed to such systems, partly because widespread deployment of such systems could neutralize France's small strategic-missile force that now gives the country near-superpower status, but Mitterand's Socialists are expected to lose the next election. Europe as a whole is looking at growing threats from the Third World, instability in Russia and the Ukraine that could allow tactical missiles to end up in the wrong places, and cuts in more conventional aerospace programs.
Pakistan is building prototype hardware for its second satellite, meant for a small experimental remote-sensing mission. They are hoping for a piggyback launch to minimize costs (their first went up on a Long March test launch two years ago). They are also continuing development of their home-grown sounding rockets with a long-term objective of being able to orbit small satellites, but this program is being hampered by Western unwillingness to sell them technologies that could be used in tactical missiles.
NASDA approaches design freeze on the J-1 booster, intended to place 1-ton payloads into low orbit, as a replacement for the H-1 in launching payloads too small to be economical on the H-2. The current J-1 design puts the second and third stages of ISAS's M3S2 scientific launcher atop one of the H-2's SRBs. About two launches a year are planned; there is some interest in commercial sale, but prices would be high and the matter will not be pursued until development is further along. The current authorization from the Space Activities Commission is for design and development, but no actual launches have yet been ordered. The major remaining design issues are the first interstage assembly and the guidance system (ISAS traditionally uses radio guidance, while NASDA prefers inertial). Prime contractor has not yet been chosen. The old Tanegashima H-1 launch facilities will be used, with minor modifications. NASDA has sketched growth configurations, starting with a "hammerhead" design with a fatter payload fairing and progressing through solid strap-ons to a concept adding two more H-2 SRBs as a zeroth stage, but no serious work on such has been authorized.
Meanwhile, ISAS has hit a snag on its M-5, meant as a major upgrade to the M3S2 series: both first and second stage motor casings burst well below their specified pressure in early tests. This has delayed the launch schedule a year. Particularly inconvenient is that the Noshiro Test Center facilities mostly cannot be used during winter, which is expected to increase the delay. The first M-5 launch is now set for 1995, carrying the Muses-B radio-astronomy mission. A Mars mission is still set for 1996, while the lunar penetrator mission will slip to 1997. The M-5 is the first all-new M-series booster in twenty years, and was undertaken because the M3S2 is simply getting too small (indeed, the remaining M3S2 facilities will be mothballed in 1994 because all later missions require the M-5). With a launch mass of 130T and a 1.8T capacity into LEO, it will be one of the largest all-solid launchers.
World's largest light-gas gun nears completion at LLNL. It is expected to be able to accelerate 5kg to 4km/s, and is a major development step toward a gas gun capable of orbital launches. After initial tests, the gun will be moved from Livermore to Vandenberg to permit firing it upward at an angle. The current design probably cannot be scaled up to an orbital gun, as new barrel materials would be needed to cope with the necessary pressures, but new approaches are being developed and the problems are believed manageable.
Tethered-satellite mission hits snags, literally... After repeated problems, tethered-satellite deployment was aborted at 256m and the satellite was successfully reeled back in and stowed. Further attempts at deployment would have been possible, but there were fears that more problems on retrieval might have required abandoning the satellite. The engineers generally rate the mission a partial success: "we flew the two scariest parts of the mission" [deployment and retrieval] and mission commander Loren Shriver reported that it was relatively easy to damp out unwanted tether motions. The scientists, unsurprisingly, were less happy, since little of their end of the mission got done. The satellite itself performed flawlessly; the US-built deployment apparatus, and records relating to its construction, are being impounded for an investigation.
ESA succeeds in boosting its Eureca long-duration experiment carrier into its desired orbit, after some delay. It was deployed from Atlantis a day late due to software problems, and then a first orbit-raising burn was aborted when data seemed to show that the thrust line was 5-10 degrees offset from where it should have been. Diagnosis of the problem was delayed because Eureca is within view of ESA ground stations for only about 2 hrs/day. A solution was not considered urgent, as current atmospheric forecasts indicated that Eureca would not fall too low for retrieval (planned for April) even if no orbit-raising burn was done.
The Progress freighter design has been modified somewhat to carry a new thruster package to Mir, with its midsection -- normally full of tanks for gases and liquids -- reworked to incorporate side cutouts to hold the box-shaped thruster unit. Energia says these modifications will also allow Progress to carry a piggyback payload of perhaps 1000kg to be released into orbit.
Russia develops a revised design for Mir 2, with a core similar to the existing core unit and four modules similar to Kvant 1. The current design has the module cluster located at the middle of a long beam, which will carry solar arrays at one end and parabolic solar concentrators on the other. Putting the solar arrays out on the beam, and giving them greater ability to pivot, will eliminate problems now experienced with Mir in which the whole station must sometimes be turned to get better sun angles. Energia says there will be a heavy emphasis on placing contracts within Russia rather than in other ex-USSR republics, because "prices charged outside Russia are skyrocketing, and there is not a corresponding increase in quality or capability". Mir 2 is planned for flight in 1995 or thereabouts,;the current Mir cluster is expected to continue operations until then without major problems.
The Space Regatta Consortium, a group of companies led by Energia, plans to test a solar sail on a Progress mission late this year. After the usual delivery of supplies to Mir, the Progress will separate and then deploy the sail. The 20m-diameter sail will be deployed by centrifugal force. [The Russians seem to think this is a unique concept, which indicates that they're somewhat out of touch with solar-sail work done elsewhere...] The sail will be "evaluated" for three days, after which it will separate from the Progress and both parts will eventually make destructive reentries. The SRC is offering advertising space on the sail, to be visible from Mir when the sail is deployed. Various possible future applications are being discussed. [Frankly, it's not clear to me how much they're going to learn from this. Air drag is going to dominate sail thrust at that altitude; conventional solar sails are pretty useless below about 1000km.]
There is nothing wrong with making | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry