[Oops, typo in the last one: the letter I quoted part of was from *Rick* Roberson.]
Discovery astronauts on the next shuttle mission will use a laptop computer with special software to pick out data from the shuttle's downward-bound telemetry stream -- data that currently has to be read back up to them (!) and keyed in manually. This will be used to expedite rendezvous with and recovery of the Orfeus free-flyer. Selected telemetry data on orbiter and target positions will go to another laptop, which will do the navigation.
Hubble finds what seems to be a double nucleus in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Columbia Communications renegotiates its NASA lease on the commercial transponders on two TDRSes -- instead of a flat fee, CC will pay NASA an undisclosed percentage of revenue.
Fifteen US aerospace companies sponsor an advocacy group for a united stand on launcher modernization, in the fact of waning government interest. They face the usual complication in that there is no agreement among them on how best to proceed: upgrade existing launchers, develop a new expendable, or pursue a technological leap like SSTO.
McDD considers joining the "Gang of Five" companies looking at new space markets. The GoF also just got a modest lump of NASA funding for its work.
The White House informs the Senate that it will adhere to the traditional interpretation of the ABM Treaty, which tightly limits system development and deployment. This may be laying groundwork for sharp reductions in missile-defence budgets, and it may also be fence-mending with Sen. Nunn -- powerful, a strong backer of the traditional interpretation, and on the opposite side of the gays-in-the-military issue from Clinton.
NASDA is worried over the high projected costs of the H-2. The hardware seems on track, but marketing is going nowhere: NASDA has entered four recent launch competitions and lost all of them. NASDA's hope that the historical reliability of Japanese launchers would help against Ariane doesn't seem to be working out, partly since Ariane is doing pretty well on reliability of late. NASDA is also fighting several fundamental handicaps in bringing costs down: the value of the yen is rising persistently, objections from the fishermen's union limit H-2 launches from Tanegashima to two per year (which makes volume production impossible), and pressure to maintain historical reliability has led to a launcher with larger margins than its competition.
NASDA runs an unscheduled 60s test of the LE-7 engine July 7, to "verify" data from the 350s June 17 test that was intended as the last static test. The short duration was because the data -- exact nature unspecified -- could be obtained immediately after startup.
Ball switches its Geosat Follow-On satellite for the USN from Pegasus XL to Lockheed's LLV1. This is the first firm customer for Lockheed, although it will not be the first flight since Ball won't be ready until 1996 and Lockheed wants to start flying next year. The cost will be about the same as Pegasus XL, but payload will be somewhat larger, simplifying the spacecraft design. The GFO contract is a "turnkey" deal giving Ball full authority to use whatever launcher it pleases. Ball badly wants GFO to work, because the contract includes options for two more.
Alexis begins returning science data from its Blackbeard broadband radio-background receiver. Los Alamos controllers working on ways to improve attitude control, in hopes of being able to activate the X-ray telescopes that are the primary payload. Alexis is not spinning on the proper axis, which limits its available solar power, and the loss of its magnetometer has crippled its on-board attitude- control system. An investigation into how Alexis was damaged during launch is underway, results not expected until late summer.
[That's it, a light news week.]
"Every time I inspect the mechanism | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology closely, more pieces fall off." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry