May 1982:milestones

January 1982

26 ESA decides to go ahead with the development of its Ariane 4 launcher.
This new version, due for a first launch in 1985, will carry a larger first stage,
liquid and/or solid boosters (up to four) and a larger payload fairing.

February 1982

3 Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia is towed from its Processing Facility into
the Vehicle Assembly Building for mating with its External Tank and Solid
Rocket Boosters. Launch of mission STS-3, with astronauts Lousma and
Fullerton, is set for 22 March.

5 NASA formally accepts the first Spacelab unit - scheduled for launch as
Spacelab 1 on STS-9 in September next year - from ESA. It will now be
prepared for flight by NASA and McDonnell Douglas engineers.

12 INTELSAT announces that it will negotiate with the Hughes Aircraft
Company for the Intelsat VI series of communications satellites. While the
initial contract will be for five craft, the total value could amount to more
than $1,000 million. The VI series, which is expected to go into operation
from 1986, will be capable of relaying the equivalent of more than 30,000
telephone calls simultaneously as well as several colour TV programmes.
INTELSAT called for proposals for the new series early in 1981 and in that
July began assessment of the two proposals received, one from Hughes and
the other from the Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation. The
satellite will be capable of launch aboard the NASA Shuttle or Europe's
Ariane 4 launcher. The current Hughes version of Intelsat VI is a spin-
stabilised satellite weighing over 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) measuring 3.6 m (11.8 ft)
in diameter and standing 11.8 m (38.7 ft) nigh when fully deployed in orbit.

15 It is reported that Anatoliy Skripko, science and technology attache at the
Soviet Embassy in Washington, has acknowledged the development of a
Soviet winged reusable spacecraft. He said the first launch could come within
five years.

16 STS-3 is transferred from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39A, three
days ahead of schedule. A countdown demonstration test involving astronauts
Lousma and Fullerton followed. A cryogenics loading test is scheduled for
26 February and hypergolics will be pumped into the fuel tank on 4 March.
If no problems are encountered during these critical functions. Page said
that Columbia could be launched on 20 March, two days earlier than
announced. That decision, he added, would await completion of the tests.
Launch director George Page noted that it took 12 days of VAB processing
to assemble the vehicle, compared to 18 days for STS-2.

18 NASA announces that Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury astronauts,
will leave the space agency on 1 March after 23 years’ service. Because of
a suspected heart condition, he was prevented from flying in space until the
joint Soviet-American mission of 1975. He was then manager ot the approach
and landing tests of the Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise and the Orbital Flight
Test programme of Columbia. Following retirement, he will act as an
aerospace consultant.

22 Europe's first coast Earth station for maritime satellite communications is
inaugerated at Eik in Norway. It will initially serve the Atlantic Ocean
Inmarsat satellite but will switch to the Indian Ocean service later this year
when a new station at Coonhilly takes over the Atlantic region.

25 The British Ariel 6 satellite, launched in June 1979 to study celestial X- and
cosmic rays, is switched off because its pointing accuracy is no longer
adequate. This is the last of the UK/Ariel satellites, a series stretching bacls
some 20 years, but British astronomers are participating in the Europeati
Exosat X-ray observatory due for launch next October.