Nissan to move launcher production from its obsolete Ogikubo plant in Tokyo to a new plant that will be built in Tomioka City.
New French government appoints ministers for defense, research, and transport with essentially no prior experience in aerospace.
Clementine 1 under construction, for launch in January on its lunar mapping and asteroid flyby mission. Lots of new technology [the sort of thing NASA is supposed to pioneer and doesn't]: a 500-gram laser gyro, a common-pressure-vessel nickel-hydrogen battery with twice the energy per unit mass of previously-flown designs, new GaAs/Ge solar cells with much higher power output than silicon, a set of 2kg reaction wheels, two 370g star trackers that can do a three-axis attitude determination with a single image, JPEG data compression for image transmission, and a variety of test-support systems including a set of solid-state dosimeters to evaluate radiation effects on everything else. Sensors include a UV/visible camera, a lidar, and long- and short-wave IR cameras. There is also a package of radiation-effects-on-semiconductors experiments on the graphite-epoxy interstage adapter, which will be left behind in a very high elliptical orbit.
GD is extremely unhappy about having to live down *another* Atlas-Centaur failure. Hughes is not pleased either, because the satellite was to be delivered to the USN on-orbit, and the USN is not likely to accept delivery in a useless orbit. The problem is that the two booster engines of the Atlas started declining in thrust at about the 24s mark, ending up at about 65% of normal. This delayed the 5.5G acceleration level that causes them to be jettisoned, leaving the sustainer engine with not enough fuel for its full burn. The Centaur's first burn continued 24s longer than planned in an automatic attempt to compensate, resulting in the correct parking orbit... but depleting the Centaur's fuel to the point where it ran dry in the middle of the burn boosting into transfer orbit. The resulting apogee was 4967km, 3000km too low. The satellite's orbit is being raised somewhat while Hughes and the USN decide what to do, but it does not have enough fuel to reach Clarke orbit on its own. The mission was insured, and Hughes is talking to GD about a reflight. At least the Centaur behaved itself this time... which should clear it for Titan 4 operations. GD is anxious to get Atlas back on line soon, because a period of slack in Atlas launch schedules is ending and the near-future manifest is crowded.
Discovery cleared for launch, after test teams confirm that its main engines do not have the valve problem that has grounded Columbia. (They did find a valve with a slight leak; it has been replaced.)
The first Milstar is ready to fly, as soon as the USAF decides that Titan-Centaur is ready to fly it. Milstar will be unusual in that it is designed to require no major processing at the launch site -- in particular, no assembly or testing -- an idea that future programs may copy.
NASA gives Hughes the contract for the EOS ground system.
NASDA is less than pleased about the station redesign. Their problem, apart from unhappiness over continuing instability in the program, is that the Ministry of Finance allocated 310Gyen to cover all costs of the Japanese module, and it's most unlikely that this will be increased... so there is no money for substantial changes.
Editorial urging that SSF be flown or killed, saying that its problems are managerial and political more than technical, and the situation isn't going to improve much through redesign of the hardware. "Operational costs are the most fruitful area in which to search for savings. The space shuttle remains not only the Achilles' heel of the station but also the principal driver of those costs. The highest priority should be placed on ideas to combine US, European, and Russian spacecraft and launch vehicles to create synergistic new transportation modes, for hauling cargo and personnel both to and from the station. But the effort should be a genuine partnership. All too often, the US invites international partners to the table and then yanks the chair from under them just as they sit down..."
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry