[First, a correction and a clarification. The correction is that the Canadian GPS atmospheric-modelling work I mentioned last time involves more than just the National Research Council: NRC is collecting the data, but the analysis is being done at the University of New Brunswick. The clarification is that those early spysat photos mentioned for 6 March were definitely from Discoverer 14, because the Discoverer 13 capsule -- the first object successfully recovered from orbit -- did not carry film.]
Letter from Frank S. Wilson: "It is ludicrous to define the American pioneer spirit by a willingness to fund poorly run NASA programs..."
Letter from Paul R. Johnson, concerning the impact of high launch costs: "The costs of nonrecurring engineering and project management are driven by the need to extract as much as possible from each precious pound of spacecraft and to allocate those pounds rationally, or at least peacefully, among competing interests..."
Hughes and PanAmSat agree on joint development of the HS 601HP, a high- power version of the 601, using GaAs solar cells, "advanced" batteries, and xenon-ion stationkeeping thrusters. First delivery 1Q1997.
DC-X to fly again in May, starting a short series of test flights aimed at demonstrating the flip maneuver required for vertical landing after nose-first reentry.
First American cosmonaut: Norm Thagard launched to Mir 14 March, from the same pad that launched Sputnik and Gagarin. Launch was in clear skies at a temperature of 11F, at the start of a launch window 30s long. Progress M-26 separated from Mir 15 March, to free the aft docking port. Docking was normal on 16 March.
Thagard is nominally slated to spend three months on Mir, but that is subject to revision if Mir reconfiguration and the launch of the Spektr module are delayed. Thagard could return as late as September (6 months). Apart from science experiments (mostly biomedical), Thagard will also study Mir's internal layout and stowage, to smooth later joint operations and assess possible problems.
NASA managers are still annoyed at limited access to details of Russian planning and quality control, but say it's getting better. They still don't know as much as they'd like about the 1994 Mir docking problems. Steps have been taken to deal with possible difficulties; in particular, equipment has been added to Spektr to provide backup manual control if the automatic docking system misbehaves. (Docking of large modules to Mir has historically been a bit troublesome.)
Two shuttle program reviews -- one by outsiders (Kraft's panel), one by insiders (O'Connor's) -- agree that recent shuttle cuts do not compromise safety and that there is room for more. The O'Connor panel, primarily aimed at assessing the manpower needed for safe operations, concluded that the price paid so far (and to be paid after further reductions) is mostly in schedule flexibility rather than safety. It also found that further safety improvements will require more modern approaches to quality control, NASA having pushed the traditional multiple-inspections philosophy well beyond the point of diminishing returns. "Nobody's doing that in industry any more."
The Kraft panel had more radical recommendations, including consolidating shuttle operations under a prime contractor. This would remove the current Byzantine management structure, which makes effective decision-making very difficult. They suggested choosing one from the current contractors, rather than holding an open competition, for a quicker and easier transition. Other recommendations include streamlined checkout and payload processing, introduction of orbiter modifications as "block changes" rather than continuous confusion, and firm insistence that orbiter changes must either improve safety or reduce costs.
Astro 2 mission finishing up. NASA has decided not to extend the flight, already planned as the longest yet, partly because landing weather is forecast to be excellent on the scheduled day (NASA likes to make it as easy for the crews as possible after long flights). An extension would have been possible; the hardware is working fine and the crew has used less fuel than predicted. In compensation for the decision not to extend the flight, the crew has been told to use the fuel surplus to maneuver more rapidly from one observing target to the next.
Clinton decides to make CIA directory a cabinet rank, after John Deutch makes this a condition of taking the job. [Why is this space-related? Because Deutch has been a major opponent of RLV work within DoD -- in particular, he's the man who almost killed DC-X by sitting on the funding Congress provided for it -- and this move puts him in a position where he's less influential on the development side but more so on the customer side.]
DoD tentatively consents to the FAA's scheme to broadcast wide-area DGPS corrections by comsat. [Must have taken a lot of arm-twisting.]
More detail on the schedule slip of the M-5. The problem is finding welding cracks in the M-5 motor casings; such a crack is blamed for a rupture in a 1993 pressure test, and both improved materials and improved testing methods have been introduced as a result. The loss of the last M-3S-2 has put ISAS under considerable pressure to make sure the M-5 works properly. Original date for the first launch was mid-1995. It's now mid-1996, and a further six-month slip is likely due to side effects of the Kobe earthquake. ISAS is unhappy that tight funding will restrict static testing.
Meanwhile, development is on track for the first M-5 payloads. The Muses-B VLBI radio-astronomy spacecraft (including a 10m dish antenna) will be ready for launch (into a 620x6200mi elliptical orbit) in mid-1996. The Lunar-A mission, a lunar orbiter carrying three penetrator landers, will be ready for mid-1997 launch. And early testing is underway on the Planet-B spacecraft, a fields-and-particles Mars orbiter, set to fly in winter 1998.
Space Communications Corp (Japan) awards Superbird C contract to Hughes.
Congress is making unhappy noises about commercial 1m imaging again, on national-security grounds. Complicating things further, although France opposes commercial marketing below 5m, it is now hinting that Helios spacecraft (thought to have about 1m resolution) could be sold to allies.
There is a difference between | Henry Spencer cynicism and skepticism. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu