[Getting farther behind... and it will get worse before it gets better, since I'm about to be away for two weeks. I'll try to catch up a bit after that.]
US Army ram accelerator reaches 1.42 km/s in tests. Army plans to quadruple its length and raise internal gas pressure next year.
Griffin says a shuttle-derived heavy launcher should be able to launch space-station elements at a similar cost to the shuttle [i.e. a net savings because of less need for assembly and fewer launches].
Rockwell and NPO Energia sign contract for technical information exchange leading to (next year) purchase of Russian docking hardware for the Shuttle-Mir mission.
Bush signs new Landsat act, creating a two-tier price system that gives nonprofit users a break, and also provides for construction of Landsat 7.
Successful Ariane launch from Kourou Oct 27, carrying a Hughes comsat. First use of the "perigee velocity augmentation" procedure [in which a satellite with extra room in its tanks is put into a lower transfer orbit than usual but with its tanks topped off, giving a net gain in stationkeeping fuel at the end of maneuvering].
Echostar Satellite Corp buys seven comsats from GE, including launches, first to go up in 1995. Of note is that the satellites will use arcjet thrusters for stationkeeping.
Pratt&Whitney signs deal with NPO Energomash, making P&W the US representative for the Energomash engines, which include the RD-170 heavylift engine (currently the world's most powerful, used in the Energia strap-ons and [slightly modified] in the Zenit). P&W also gets rights to use Energomash's technology in engines that don't compete with the Russian ones. NASA is interested in the RD-170 but wants more technical details first. The engine has flown about 30 times, with its one failure attributed to a manufacturing defect. The only difference between the Energia version and the Zenit version (the RD-171) is that the Zenit version has to gimbal in two planes rather than one.
USAF may take the lead in son-of-son-of-NLS, the latest attempt to get a new-technology 20klb US launcher built. They are talking about reprogramming some 1993 funding for early work, and Congress is not rejecting the idea -- their biggest objection to NLS was the split NASA/USAF management. NASA is interested in engine work on the new launcher but would not be in charge. Industry is concerned that the work teams put together for NLS engine work may disperse before fresh funding comes through.
P&W completes testing on the RL10A-5 developed for DC-X, with hardware deliveries to start by year end.
Charles Bolden picked to command STS-60, the mission that will have a Russian cosmonaut along. Vladimir Titov and Sergei Krikalev are in training for the flight; who will be prime and who will be backup has not yet been decided.
NPO Energomash seeks Western funding for its RD-701 tripropellant rocket engine, meant for an air-launched spaceplane project, which burns LOX, kerosene, and hydrogen, with the kerosene phased out during climb. Vacuum thrust is 900klb on both fuels and 357klb on just hydrogen. It is designed to be reusable.
Columbia mission "pioneers" teleoperated science experiments [actually it's been done once or twice before] after deploying Lageos 2, with Earth-based experimenters directly controlling their own payloads.
Magnavox and Cue Network Corp [a paging company] plan to offer low-cost differential GPS service in the US and Canada, transmitting differential corrections through Cue's paging network.
NASA DC-8 flies with receiver system for real-time reception of weather- satellite images in flight. Ames's C-130 has also been fitted with the system, and the National Hurricane Center is considering it for their hurricane-hunter aircraft.
"God willing... we shall return." | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry