Letter urging the combination of the turboalternator developed for the station solar-dynamic power system with the USAF's particle-bed reactor concept as an effective made-in-US space nuclear power system.
India and China looking at space cooperation, India having more experience with satellite building and China having better launchers.
Astronomers worry that SDIO's Topaz 2 space reactor test will interfere with high-energy astronomy satellites like Compton.
Aldrich says the investigation of using Soyuz TM as the station lifeboat found no "show-stoppers" and more detailed one-year study will now start.
TRW and Rockwell get Brilliant Eyes contracts, including on-orbit testing of competing designs.
China and Hughes begin investigation of the Optus B2 loss. The satellite did not respond to ground command after being placed in orbit. [Actually, it looks like it didn't make it, although parts of the booster did.]
First "hammering" attempts at opening Galileo's antenna (by pulsing the drive motor) fail Dec 29-30. The ballscrew did rotate somewhat, but the antenna is still unopened. More attempts will follow. [They didn't work either, and JPL has pretty much given up on the high-gain antenna.]
Lockheed signs major deal with Khrunichev to market Proton in the West. Proposed payloads include launch of the (Soyuz) station lifeboats, some shuttle payloads, and station components. Khrunichev builds Proton, as well as the Almaz radarsats and major Mir components. It's currently running on one shift for a capacity of nine Protons a year, but could build 18/year with existing tooling and facilities by going to multiple shifts. It's now building about eight a year, after about a 30% drop in production rate in the late 1980s. Lockheed says there are several Protons in inventory that could be used to meet immediate demand. The Proton production cycle, starting with raw materials, takes about nine months [Western launchers typically take 3-4 times that]. Payload is 44klbs to low orbit or 9klb to GTO. The L/K agreement assumes that Tyuratam will continue to be available for Proton launches, although the Russian government is talking to Khrunichev about launching Proton from Plesetsk in case Kazakhstan gets difficult about using Tyuratam. Lockheed people will visit Tyuratam this year for a look at facilities. There are currently no plans to use launch sites other than Tyuratam and Plesetsk. The Russians traditionally install the payload on the launcher in the factory, with the stack still horizontal, which is unusual in the West. However, Lockheed does its own satellite testing horizontally, and has experience with what it calls "ship and shoot", which would be used for Proton: the satellite would be installed into its payload fairing, sealed in, and then shipped to the launch site as a single unit that would simply be bolted to the Proton by the Khrunichev crews. This might reduce concerns about technology transfer. Lockheed says that Proton's electrical and mechanical interfaces to its payloads are very simple and there are no plans to change this. There is a possibility of some minor modernization of Proton.
Burst of Russian military launch activity, as satellite constellations are replenished. Despite the drop in launch activity in the last five years, the Russians still do 50% more launches per year than the US. Of particular note is that the recent activity included a successful Zenit launch after three successive failures.
Preparations underway to deploy a small experimental solar sail from the Progress freighter soon to be discarded from Mir.
C++ is the best example of second-system| Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology effect since OS/360. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry