The Optus (nee Aussat) constellation is being rearranged. Optus A2 will move to an inclined orbit, suitable only for customers with tracking antennas but requiring less stationkeeping fuel. The new Optus B2, slated for Long March launch late this year, will go into on-orbit storage, with the intent that it replace Optus A3 circa 1997. Reasons given are "changing demand" and the shift of Australia-New Zealand phone traffic to a new fiber-optic undersea cable.
Hermes contractors pressure ESA to keep the project alive somehow, e.g. as an unmanned demonstrator, but ESA's opinion is thought to be "forget it". The final decision will come at the November ministers' meeting in Spain.
Pioneer Venus went down into Venus Oct 8, unexpectedly early, after its tanks ran dry a few days before.
Sweden's Freja auroral-research satellite flew Oct 6, piggyback on a Long March launch.
Defense Science Board review of NASP rules against building a flying X-30 in the near future, citing continuing difficulty in predicting boundary- layer transitions accurately -- a problem that could raise or lower the weight of the design ten tons or more -- and lack of data to justify claims that the scramjet engines would work well in the Mach 12-16 range.
Congress kills NLS, allocating only $10M in FY93 and earmarking it entirely for termination costs. Critics cite lack of mission, great uncertainty about operational cost, a schedule incompatible with use for space-station construction, and a payload too small for SEI. Unhappily, cancellation will also probably end technology-development work that could benefit existing launchers. NLS managers concede crucial errors, notably slowness in documenting financial benefits of a new launcher, unenthusiastic support from some of the contractors, and lack of clear need for a new launcher.
SDIO awards contracts for Taurus and Conestoga launches in 1994: a Taurus launch for the Clementine 2 lunar-orbit sensor test, a Conestoga launch for the MSTI-5 miniature-seeker technology payload, and four options on each launcher. These will be the second launches for each (although it will be the first Taurus to use a Castor 120 instead of an MX first stage as the first stage; this is not as big a change as it sounds because the former is a derivative of the latter, but performance will be better and vibration lower), since Taurus will fly next year with a DARPA payload and Conestoga will fly in March with the first COMET mission.
NASA and the Russian Space Agency sign agreements for various joint activities, notably flight of a cosmonaut on STS-60 (Titov and Krikalev have been tentatively picked for training), flight of an astronaut to Mir for a stay of at least 90 days, a shuttle flight to Mir (which will carry a new Mir crew up, and return with the old Mir crew plus the 90-day astronaut), and a pair of US instruments (soil magnetic properties and soil reactivity/composition) on the 1994 Russian Mars lander.
Congress cuts SDI substantially, with cuts falling heaviest on space- based elements in general and Brilliant Pebbles in particular.
Airline orders for satellite-communications systems are brisk, mostly for long-haul trans-oceanic aircraft. Long-haul business jets are also becoming a major market.
United Airlines estimates it is already saving up to $100k per year per aircraft on trans-Pacific 747s equipped with satellite communications, mostly because reliable communication makes traffic controllers more willing to revise clearances and routing on short notice.
FAA to publish criteria for GPS receivers for aircraft navigation by November, permitting non-precision approaches to most US airports. Determination of suitability for precision (i.e. bad-weather) approaches is still several years off, with uncertainty about achieving sufficient precision for even Category 1 approaches and grave doubts about the feasibility of Category 2 or 3.
Automatic dependent surveillance (GPS receivers on aircraft reporting positions to air-traffic control via satellite data link) trials in the Pacific are going well, and there is great interest in Asia, where radar coverage for more conventional real-time tracking is often sparse.
Taiwan issues first contracts for its Rocsat series of three science missions over 15 years starting 1997. The emphasis, at least for Rocsat 1, will be solar-terrestrial physics, although remote sensing is also of interest. Launch services will be bought abroad, with prime contenders being Pegasus XL (the stretched Pegasus), Conestoga 2, and Scout 2.
Instrument selection for Planet B, Japan's first Mars mission, is imminent. Planet B will be a Mars orbiter, focussing on atmosphere-solar wind interaction but possibly also carrying other instruments (notably, there has been talk of a UV camera). Planet B has been having weight-growth problems -- launch on an M-5 sets tight limits -- but they are thought to be under control.
1992 had the largest Antarctic ozone hole yet seen, perhaps because of Pinatubo. [AW&ST actually didn't report this very well; according to Science, the hole covered an unusually large area but its "depth" was below that seen in several recent years, with the overall result being unusual in some ways but not particularly severe.]
Mir cosmonauts finish a series of EVAs to set up their new roll-control thruster system. One EVA was marred by an unfortunate incident in which when technical problems broke the usual relay-satellite link to Russian ground control, an attempt to restore contact via Ukrainian ground facilities ended abruptly when Ukrainian tracking-center personnel "discontinued cooperation". The incident has not been fully explained, although ground technicians are known to be unhappy about poor pay. Also of note: during the second EVA, the cosmonauts took down the very last Soviet flag still flying, on top of Mir's mast.
MS-DOS is the OS/360 of the 1980s. | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology -Hal W. Hardenbergh (1985)| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry