April-May 1981:space activities report

HIGHLIGHTS

Work on India’s second Bhaskara Earth resources satellite has began in Bangalore. The satellite will have three microwave radiometer channels, one more than the original. The extra channel will permit precise measurements of water vapour in the atmosphere. Launch Is scheduled by a Soviet C-1 rocket in the second half of next year.

A Space Museum with the shape of “an interplanetary space station’ is under construction at Stellar Town near Moscow where Soviet cosmonauts are trained. The building, which has a capacity of 2,260,000 cubic feet (64,000 cubic metres), will house several thousand exhibits collected over the 20 years since Yuri Gagarin made the world’s first space flight on 12 April 1961. On display will be spacecraft,spacesuits and cosmonauts’ personal items.

Soviet scientists have prepared two soft-landing spacecraft for launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome by Proton D-1-e rockets when the Venus “window” opens in November. They will have equipment capable of drilling into surface rock and depositing soil samples into an onboard laboratory for chemical analysis by an X-ray fluorescence device. The spacecraft expected to reach Venus in March/April 1982, will also employ TV cameras and other scientific equipment.

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RECOVERING THE SHUTTLE ORBITER

Special precautions have been taken at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where the first four flights of the Space Shuttle “Columbia'' are due to end. Immediately after the spacecraft lands ground team members wearing “SCAPE" suits that protect them from toxic chemicals will approach the spacecraft as it stops rolling.

The ground team first takes sensor readings to ensure that the atmosphere in the vicinity of the orbiter is not explosive. In the event of propellant leaks, a wind machine truck carrying a large fan will be moved into the area to create a turbulent air flow that breaks up gas concentrations and reduces the risk of explosion.

An air conditioning purge unit is attached to the orbiter so cool air can be directed through the orbiter’s aft fuselage,payload bay, forward fuselage, wings, vertical stabiliser, and orbital manoeuvring system/reaction control system pods to dissipate the heat of atmospheric reentry.

A second ground cooling unit is connected to the spacecraft with freon coolant loops to provide cooling for the flight crew and avionics during post-landing and system checks. The spacecraft fuel cells remain powered up at this time. The flight crew will;then exit the spacecraft and a ground crew will power down the spacecraft.

Within one to two hours the spacecraft and ground support equipment convoy will be ready to move the spacecraft to the service area at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. After detailed inspection and preparations at DFRC, the “Columbia” is ferried by the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to the Kennedy Space Center. When the spacecraft lands and completes its runout at the KSC, the same procedures as at Edwards Air Force Base are followed with the exception that only one hour will be required before the spacecraft and convoy are ready to move to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF).

In later missions, the orbiter must be refurbished and prepared for another launch within 160 hours (14 working days). This short turnaround decreases the maintenance cost (part of the cost per flight), decreases the number of orbiters and support elements needed, and increases the utilisation rate of each orbiter.

The spacecraft is towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility where it is safed (fuel and oxidiser systems drained, tanks purged and ordnance removed). The OMS and RCS pods are removed, refurbished if required and reinstalled and other vehicle maintenance performed. The payload is then installed and spacecraft functioning verified. Activity in the OPF will take about 96 hours.

In the meantime, a new set of solid rocket boosters and external tank will have been stacked and mated on the mobile launch platform in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The spacecraft is then towed to the VAB and mated to the external tank, shuttle connections and the integrated vehicle are checked and ordnance is installed. Activity in the VAB is due to last about 39 hours.

The giant crawler then moves the entire Shuttle stack 3 miles to Launch Complex 39A where connections are made and servicing, checkout and pre-launch activities are conducted. This takes about 24 hours. The vehicle is then ready for launch within two hours.

NASA has, of course, prepared a number of alternative landing sites to cater for emergencies. Contingency sites are at Northrup Strip, White Sands, New Mexico; ROTA Naval Air Station, Spain; Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. In the event of a landing at any one of these sites, a crew of eight will immediately move to the landing site to assist the astronaut crew. Their main task will be to prepare the orbiter for loading aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for transport back to the Kennedy Space Center. Outside the United States,personnel at the contingency landing site are given minimum training on safe handling of the orbiter with emphasis on crash rescue training, how to tow the orbiter to a safe area, and prevention of propellant contamination.

The fifth and subsequent flights of "Columbia" are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center.

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SPACE OPERATIONS CENTER

Boeing Aerospace Company has been given the task, under a 12-month, $400,000 contract, of defining a manned Space Operations Center (SOC) which could be assembled some 200-250 miles (321-402 km) above the Earth. The study is being made in conjunction with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The SOC would serve many purposes. Free-flying satellites could be tended and space-based vehicles could be serviced,launched and recovered. The Centre would be permanently manned reducing dependance on Earth for control and resupply.

Boeing explains: “The Shuttle would be used for launch and assembly of the Space Operations Center. Modules of the Center would contain living quarters, service compartments and warehouses. Two living modules accommodating a crew of eight would be 40 to 50 ft (12.2 to 15.2 m) long by 14 ft (4.26 m) in diameter, about the size of a large mobile home. To meet operational objectives of the Center, a space construction facility and flight support facility also would be required. Power would be provided by two boom-mounted solar arrays.

Should NASA gain approval to build a Space Operations Center, a start could be made with an “interim station" needing a crew of four. It could be constructed from modules launched by two or three Shuttle flights in the late 1980s.

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SATELLITE BUSINESS SYSTEMS

A Delta rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:49 a.m. EST on 15 November, carrying aloft the SBS-A satellite. The SBS-A is owned by Satellite Business Systems and is designed to beam information, pictures and words to a network of Earth stations throughout the United States. The highest powered communications satellite ever launched. SBS-1, will join eight other American satellites currently in orbit that are providing both radio and television transmissions, in addition to business communications.

The launch was a double success for NASA and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. The standard Delta rocket was topped with a new upper stage that can fly on either a Delta or Space Shuttle. The new upper stage allows the launch of about a 20 per cent heavier payload.

Satellite Business Systems is the partnership formed in December 1975 by IBM Aetna Life and Casualty, and Communications Satellite Corporation, to provide large corporations with high-speed communication networks, between their farflung facilities. The company has also announced plans to offer low-cost, long-distance phone services.

By 17 November the satellite was in a circular orbit at roughly 22.300 miles above the equator in an area a little south of El Paso, Texas.

The satellite, built by Hughes Aircraft Company, is something of a jack-in-the-box. When launched, it is 111 in. long, but as it went into its final orbit a drum of solar panels telescoped out and an antenna popped up like the lid of a kitchen garbage can, making the satellite 260 in. long. The satellite operates at frequencies two to three times higher than those being used by earlier communication satellites. Consequently, customers will be able to use a relatively small antenna — capable of being mounted on the roof of a building — to transmit the equivalent of 10 million words a second.

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ARIANE: THIRD FLIGHT TEST

The launching of the Ariane L03 space rocket carrying the geostationary satellites APPLE and Meteosat 2 has been put off until probably June 1981 to allow more time for analysis of the engine problem which destroyed the 02 vehicle last May.

Tile following communique was issued jointly by ESA and CNES:

1. The Ariane programme comprises four flight tests. The first was a complete success. The second was a failure due to the malfunctioning of a lst-stage engine. The studies and ground tests made on this type of engine since May 23 have revealed the causes of the malfunction. Two high frequency vibration phenomena, to which satellite launcher engines are sensitive and whose elimination is a normal part of the development process during ground and flight tests, have been identified. One of them, located in the 2300 Hz band,can be regarded as already rectified; the other, at 2700 Hz is the subject of thorough investigation and action which still need some time to complete.

2. In these circumstances, and in view of the time required to ship the launcher to Kourou and prepare it on the launch site, the third flight test will very probably take place in June 1981. The fourth and last flight test will subsequently take place in autumn 1981. This timetable remains compatible with the commitments entered into to place in orbit scientific and telecommunications satellites in late 1981 and i1982.

3. This additional programme of studies and tests remains within the overall financial envelope fixed at the start of the programme, which comprises a 20% margin for contingencies.