Hiten crashed on the Moon April 11, after running out of fuel.
USAF Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak is worried about proliferation of remote-sensing satellites and wants to be able to shoot them down.
A private US group, Sea Launch Investors, is seeking rights to use Russia's stockpile of deactivated sub-launched ballistic missiles as sea-launched space launchers. Notably, the SS-N-23 Shtil, specifically the Shtil 3 version, could launch 670kg into a 200km orbit. It could be souped up by adding SS-N-20s as strap-ons (!) or by duplicating the third stage to produce a four-stage launcher. All of the SS-N series are waterproof and designed for sea launch. SLI includes John Draim, the retired USN captain who ran USN's Hydra sea-launch program. SLI has asked for access to as many as 200 Shtils, plus smaller missiles for microgravity work (a secondary interest, but possibly useful for cash flow while orbital customers are lined up). The legal situation is a bit problematic, because this probably qualifies as a "mobile launch platform", forbidden for such missiles by START, but SLI is pushing for special-case treatment -- provided for in the treaty -- on the grounds that this is in the interests of both nations. Involved on the Russian side are Makayev (which made the missiles and would convert them for civilian use), Ramcon (an association of retired Russian naval officers, whose proceeds would go to build housing for navy officers), and Variant (which would do logistics support). Launches would be from the Russian arctic, or possibly Alaska, for polar orbits, and from Guam or Indonesia for equatorial.
McDonnell-Douglas wins the USAF MLV-3 launcher competition, calling for 25 Navstar launches plus 11 more launches with as-yet-unspecified payloads. The contract also calls for the ability to mount a launch on 60 days' notice. The McDD booster is, of course, the Delta 2, with minor upgrades. It will have a new guidance and navigation system, a modified payload fairing so that fairing, payload, and third stage can be pre-stacked and transported to the pad as a unit, and larger nozzles on the three ignited-at-altitude strap-ons to boost payload a bit for the new slightly-heavier Navstars. The RFP also asked for a growth path; McDD proposed slightly fatter strap-ons, boosting payload about 10%, but the USAF has not indicated intent to pursue this. The losing competitors were GD, bidding Atlas 2 with minor upgrades, and MM, bidding Titan 2S -- a Titan 2G (converted from the old ICBMs) with six strap-ons.
Inmarsat completes negotiations and signs for a Proton launch of an Inmarsat 3 in 1995. There are complications; although the launch itself is quite cheap, one-time engineering costs to make it all work for a Western customer are likely to push costs up to near-Ariane levels. Inmarsat nevertheless thinks it a good deal. Inmarsat and MM have concluded that satellite changes will be minimal and straightforward.
USAF Space Command to test relaying of satellite intelligence data to tactical aircraft, in particular using satellite data to fire anti-radar missiles at radars that the aircraft themselves cannot "see" from low altitude.
NASA to undertake detailed review of its Centers for the Commercial Development of Space, looking to see which ones are getting results and which ones are attracting outside investment.
Lawrence DeLucas, deputy director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography (at U of Alabama), the first crystallographer to fly in space, says that his center is generally doing well and attracting commercial interest, but he would really like to be able to fly experiments more often. They've flown 16 in five years, which is not nearly enough for serious experimental work. He also thinks that ultimately the X-ray analysis [which is the purpose for the crystal-growing] should be done in orbit, because the crystals are fragile and can be damaged by reentry and landing.
Orbital Sciences to market flight services for small science missions using the small satellite bus it developed for the Orbcomm project. The customer would supply instruments, sensors, or other small payloads; OSC would launch and operate them for 1-2 years. The satellites would be "100lb 100watt class", and would be launched by Pegasus for a fixed price under $10M. Launch would typically be within a year of contract signing.
Discovery crew retrieves the Spartan free-flyer; that part of the mission went smoothly. Otherwise there were assorted problems: Discovery's Ku-band antenna acted up (troublesome, but a new data recorder aboard the mission prevented serious data loss), the MAS atmospheric sounder initially failed to follow pointing directions from Discovery's guidance system (worked around by pointing the whole orbiter until the MAS team found a fix), and the cooling system for a middeck lymphocyte experiment failed (after several unsuccessful attempts at fixes, two of the astronauts improvised an airflow system). On the bright side, the Belgian Solcon instrument successfully did solar measurements simultaneously with an identical instrument on the orbiting Eureca platform, and Discovery's crew briefly talked to the Mir crew by amateur radio (a first).
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