Letter from Bruce French, criticizing NASA proposals to launch Cassini by in-orbit assembly of a three-stage IUS stack using two shuttle missions. "Does anybody really believe this will be cheaper than buying one Titan 4?"
Russian GALS comsat to test plasma thrusters (Isp > 1500) for stationkeeping. SEP and Loral engineers are interested observers.
Delta launches the 24th operational Navstar 9 March; once this one is checked out, GPS will officially be operational... except that it's had three satellite failures recently.
Milstar 1 has a power-supply failure; a backup supply has been turned on.
ISRO decides to launch Insat 2C and 2D (1995-6) on Ariane.
Commerce Dept licensing of 1m-resolution commercial imaging satellites said to be imminent.
Columbia launched 4 March, after a one-day slip due to high winds. Military and Coast Guard aircraft helped track the floating SRBs, since the same high winds prevented pre-positioning NASA's recovery ships.
NASA "Access To Space" study backs development of a reusable SSTO launcher as a replacement for the shuttle and expendables, saying that the long-term cost reductions amply justify the development effort. The study's baseline SSTO is a 2Mlb 150ft winged VTHL with a 25klb payload into a 220nmi 51.6deg orbit. (A somewhat larger vehicle would be needed if full-size Titan IV payloads were to be accommodated.) The preferred engine choice is the RD-704 tripropellant engine, burning LOX, LH2, and kerosene. TSTO and airbreather concepts were found to be more expensive and of little benefit.
Hughes agrees to remove a decryption chip from the Optus B3 comsat, clearing the way for its shipment to China for launch this summer. The chip is not considered vital, and Aussat says it had not been informed that the chip's presence was a significant problem. [Personally, I'd say this sounds like a face-saving move for bureaucrats who've been ordered to reverse a previous decision: ask Hughes to make an insignificant but plausible-sounding change, and then claim that it was the whole problem.] The chip would have been essentially impossible for Chinese technicians to reach in any case. It was intended to improve security for satellite control, but Aussat's existing birds do not have it and Aussat does not consider its absence a problem.
Yeltsin signs long-awaited order authorizing sale of 49% of NPO Energia to private investors.
Rep. George Brown threatens to oppose space station if continued decline of NASA budgets threatens other programs. The Congressional Budget Office's traditional list of possible cuts will not include much for NASA this year, because there is not much left to cut unless you kill the station or the shuttle.
Russians begin to question US ability to pursue the space station. "We often hear American politicians asking whether the US can rely on Russia for the station. What they don't seem to understand is that similar questions are being asked in my country, and I think for very good reason."
US commercial use of Mir grows, but some customers are concerned that Russian prices are rising. NPO Energia says this is normal as a market economy takes over.
Imaging from Mir is starting to attract interest, mostly because the Mir crew can provide real-time control of the imaging, while the existing unmanned imaging satellites run on preprogrammed schedules with no provision for user interaction. "...potential customers [ask] how much cloud cover is in our pictures -- which is a concern when you try to get images from an unmanned satellite... if there's cloud cover over the area of interest, the cosmonauts simply won't take the picture..."
People are also starting to look at Russian ground equipment; OHB System bought Russian hardware for the ground station for its Safir project. "If you are not worried how nice it looks or how much it weighs, the Russians can provide hardware at a great bargain... their equipment may not be as sophisticated as in the West, [but] it is rugged, reliable, and capable..." They paid the Moskovsky Energeticheskiy Institute about 1/5 what a Western supplier would have wanted.
First two Orbcomm satellites now in final assembly, after delays due to problems with the antenna design, for launch this summer. The Orbcomm ground facilities are almost complete.
OSC is now offering Picolab, a very small satellite bus based on the tiny Orbcomm test satellite.
Launch of SeaStar (OSC's private remote-sensing bird, built to provide ocean-image data to (mostly) NASA) has slipped about nine months overall, due to changes in instrument specs requested by the customers. The changes have been made (by OSC and Hughes) without raising data prices. Launch now set for third quarter this year.
"All I really want is a rich uncle." | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology - Wernher von Braun | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry