March 1981:milestones

November 1980

22-23 Radio transmissions from Salyut 6 received by Western tracking stations indicate that Salyut 6 is being prepared for a new manned occupation. Salyut's orbit is 293 x 308 km, 90.46 minutes, 51.62 degrees inclination.

24 NASA moves Space Shuttle “Columbia” from Orbiter Processing Facility to Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC for mating with External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters.

25 NASA offers Ball Aerospace Systems $21 million cost-plus award fee contract to integrate, test and deliver Earth Budget Radiation Satellite for launch by Space Shuttle by April 1984.

27 Soviets launch Soyuz T-3 spacecraft with cosmonauts Lt-Col. Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov and Gennady Strekalov at 1718 MT. Ships of this class use "an original on-board computing complex which frees the cosmonauts from many routine operations. Depending on the situation, this complex will itself select the best system of orientation, or approach with another spacecraft, and the plan of descent. ” T-series ships are about the same size and weight of earlier Soyuz ferries but many of the on-board systems are smaller and lighter.

28 Soyuz T-3 docks with Salyut 6 Progress 11 complex at 1854 MT. Object of mission is described as bringing Salyut 6's systems back into full manned operation and giving the space station a thorough overhaul. Research tasks included the growth of higher plants, the manufacture of semi-conductor materials and use of a portable helium-neon laser to obtain a hologram of a crystal being dissolved.

28 Spacelab engineering model is accepted by NASA in roll-out ceremony in Bremen,West Germany. The engineering model - a non-flying prototype - will be used to verify interface of the Spacelab with ground equipment at KSC.

December 1980

1 India announces agreement with NASA to launch two Indian communications/meteorological satellites. The satellites, to be built by Ford Aerospace, will provide point-to-point voice links, direct-broadcast TV and weather information from geostationary orbit. To be known as Indian National Satellite (Insat) 1A and IB, they will be launched by the Space Shuttle in 1983.

4 Space Shuttle main propulsion system is successfully static fired for 591 seconds at National Space Technology Laboratories, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, exceeding the time required to place the Shuttle into Earth orbit. Firing was the 11th test of three-engine cluster and brought the total test time on the main propulsion system to nearly 3,200 seconds. This was in addition to more than 86,400 seconds of single engine tests that have been conducted in separate firings.

6 Intelsat 5 is launched by Atlas Centaur from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, for stationing in geostationary orbit. The biggest communications satellite yet, it will relay 12,000 telephone calls and two colour television programmes between 105 member countries of the Intelsat consortium. Intelsat 5 was developed and constructed by an international industry team led by Ford Aerospace & Communications Corporation of the United States. The team also includes five European sub-contractors - Aerospatiale (France); GEC-Marconi (UK); Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (West Germany); Selenia (Italy) and Thomson-CSF (France) - as well as Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. There are 12 Intelsat V flight vehicles on order at present.

10 Re-entry module of Soyuz T-3 soft lands some 130 km east of Dzhezkazgan at 1226 Moscow time.

16 NASA Ames Research Center selects Hughes Aircraft's space and communications group for negotiation of a $40 million contract to develop the Jupiter-mission Galileo probe carrier. The probe carrier will be launched from the Space Shuttle in March 1984 using an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS).

29 Space Shuttle "Columbia” is rolled out from Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

31 NASA re-schedules launch of “Columbia" for 17 March. Orbital mission to last nearly 55 hours returning to Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards,California or White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

January 1981

6 NASA announces that “Columbia” is undergoing checks on the launch pad according to schedule. Checks of the water flow at the mobile launch platform level have begun. "The water system will be used both to prevent flame and heat damage to the launch structure and also to provide sound deadening to protect the Space Shuttle from intense launch, noise vibrations.” Prime crew astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen and backup crew Joe Engle and Richard Truly are practising emergency escape from the pad.