Loral gets contract from TEMPO for two broadcastsats for US service. Delivery in orbit, June and Oct 1996.
Gen. Charles Horner (head of US Space Command) now holds out little hope that the USAF can take the lead role in new-launcher development. No money.
Continental is equipping some of its Continental Express commuter- airliner fleet with GPS receivers, in hopes of cost savings in operations into mountain airports with poor weather and terrain unsuited to the conventional ILS landing aid. They will start with non-precision approaches into Aspen and Steamboat Springs, proceeding to precision approaches with the installation of differential-GPS gear next year. On the agenda after that is DGPS precision approaches into Houston. Continental's president has testified to a House committee that GPS use could save the airline industry $500M+ annually.
Discovery launch attempt July 24 is another scrub, at T-28s, when one of the hydrazine turbines that power the hydraulics in the right SRB falls below its minimum speed shortly after startup. Leakage in the plumbing, leading to fuel starvation, is suspected. The whole turbine unit is being replaced.
Makeyev raises the necessary funding for the four-month preliminary design phase of the Surf sea-launched booster (derived from Soviet submarine missiles). This will include production of a user's manual. Payloads for the planned demonstration launch in June (using an SS-N-23) are being sought.
Inmarsat short list for orbits for its global phone service includes intermediate and Clarke orbits, with low orbit deleted [reportedly because they concluded it would take too many satellites and run up the bill unacceptably].
Norway proceeding with plans to piggyback DGPS corrections on AM and FM broadcast stations, to provide precision navigation to the entire country. Eight reference-receiver stations are already operating, and the remaining three will be running by the end of the year. Data from the receiver stations will go to a control center at Honefoss, whence it will be distributed to the radio stations. The AM stations have longer range, but the FM stations should be capable of a higher data rate; transmission trials will start this winter. The control center is already feeding data to Norway's maritime radio beacons for transmission to coastal vessels; four beacons are already carrying it, and the rest will be upgraded over the next two years. Maritime beacon tests are planned to last until 1996, at which point tests of the full-scale system should be underway. Yet to be resolved is how to charge users for operating costs, something the Norwegian government is committed to doing.
Article on Russian plans for Mir 2. [Obviously this is a bit dated now with the recent developments, but...] Launch target is 1997, with final details now being worked out. Zenit will be the launcher for add-on modules and service vehicles. The core module will be a 20-ton module like Mir 1's, but the add-ons will be 8-ton modules for Zenit launch. (The idea of 80-ton modules launched on Energia has definitely been dropped!) Soyuz will continue to be used as the crew carrier. Progress will be replaced by a larger freighter, retaining the current propulsion section, equipment bay, and docking system but adding a much larger cargo compartment in between. The launch configuration of the add-on modules will be similar, with the cargo compartment replaced by the module. There is also a design for a "space tug" vehicle which replaces some of the cargo capacity with more fuel.
The normal Mir 2 crew will remain two men, like Mir 1. The Russians say that in their experience, adding the third man didn't actually raise the work output all that much -- certainly not enough to be worth the extra supplies.
The current Mir 1 crew will stay up six months as usual. One of their jobs will be an EVA to install a short truss, Rapana, a test article for the structure that will support a pair of concentrators for a solar-dynamic power system on Mir 2.
The next Mir 1 crew will be a three-man crew, one of whom will be a doctor who will stay up for 18 months.
Russia still plans to launch the last two Mir-1 add-on modules, but no firm date is currently set.
Goldin shuffles station program: Bob Moorehead, head of Reston, is being reassigned to Washington. Moorehead is fighting the transfer. Most everyone believes that Reston as a whole will soon get the axe. Some other management shuffles have been made, with more to come as the transition proceeds.
Goldin has also announced imminent staffing of the new station program office, inviting all comers to apply for some 300 positions... which doesn't sit well with the folks at Reston who already occupy some of those positions.
House subcommittee approves bill authorizing NASA to offer employees up to $25k to quit. NASA needs to cut staff, especially on the station program, and "attrition" staff losses have been low of late because of hard times.
While NASA works on defining the new station design, the international partners remain dissatisfied with inadequate involvement in decisions. They're also wondering about possible US-Russia deals. ESA, in particular, thinks that if the "launch everything on the shuttle" decision is changed, Ariane should be considered before Russian launchers.
Energomash develops uprated RD-170 to increase the lift capacity of the Zenit, raising chamber pressure and making other small changes. [Hmm, just the thing if you want to launch Zenit from Plesetsk instead of Baikonur.] They've also come up with a proposal for the RD-180, an RD-170 derivative with two chambers instead of four (and suitably revised pumps). Pratt&Whitney, involved in marketing Energomash gear in the West, cites applications in upgrading existing US launchers, building a new 20klb launcher, or replacing the shuttle SRBs (with three RD-180s per booster for full engine-out capability).
Japanese government planners recommend funding for the Hope unmanned spaceplane be phased in as H-2 development funding tapers off.
Editorial urging action on a global navsat program. The obvious way to do it is to get Inmarsat to put its personal-phone satellites in medium-altitude orbits, with navsat transmitters piggybacked on them. Inmarsat is thinking about it, but there's a funding problem -- so it's time to stop debating and start talking major civil-aviation agencies into coughing up cash, because this is a wonderful opportunity to get an international civil navsat system at a bargain price.
"Every time I inspect the mechanism | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology closely, more pieces fall off." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry