November-December 1981:news from KSC

SHUTTLE SCHEDULES

Budget constraints and delays caused by the need to increase the Shuttle’s payload capacity prompted NASA to drop 8 flights from the 1982-85 schedule, some of which will be conducted later.

Shuttle manifests published in late May listed the following launch schedules: at Kennedy Space Center there will be two in 1982,seven in 1983, nine in 1984,13 in 1985,18 in 1986 and four in the early months of 1987. A West Coast schedule for polar orbits flown from Vandenberg Air Force Base listed a first flight and landing in 1984, three in 1985, five in 1986 and one in January 1987. Virtually all of the latter are military.

While NASA hopes to conduct the Shuttle’s first operational mission in September 1982, the odds suggest a later date. NASA plans a third test flight in February 1982 but if four more months must elapse before the fourth and final test, only 60 days would remain to install cargo and dispatch Columbia on its first operational mission.

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ASTRONAUTS MARRY

Two candidate astronauts selected in the 1978 Shuttle group,Robert Gibson and Margaret Rhea Seddon, married on 30 May. They are not the first married astronauts because Anna Fisher and her husband William Fisher were selected in 1978 and 1980, respectively. Soviet cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev (Vostok 3) and Valentina Tereshkova (Vostok 6) were married in November 1963.

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SHUTTLE SERVICING

As Columbia continues its four-flight test series, NASA has drastically modified planning for quick turnaround of the operational vehicles. Having once expected to service Shuttles in only 10 days between missions, the agency now talks of one to two months and says that pace cannot be achieved until 1985 or later. Six flights per Shuttle when four become available would limit NASA to 24 missions per year. And since one of the four will remain at the West Coast military base, in all likelihood, the maximum will drop to 18. On the other hand, if launch crews can halve the servicing period the rate will double to 36 per year.

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IUS ON ITS WAY

The Pathfinder vehicle for the Air Force’s Inertial Upper Stage arrived at Cape Canaveral during 21 July. The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) will serve as an unmanned upper stage for both the Air Force’s Titan 34D and the Shuttle. The first launch is expected in Spring 1982 with the Titan 34D.

The Pathfinder IUS is, in effect, the stand-in for the first IUS flight vehicle. It is identical to a flight-ready upper stage except that its solid rocket motors and ordnance devices are loaded with inert material. Its role is to proceed through complete launch checkout to the point of liftoff, in order to verify processing procedures, facilities and the mechanical and electrical interfaces between the IUS, launch vehicle and support equipment. It is the same size and weight as the IUS and contains all the flight electronics necessary to prove that the IUS is ready for flight.

The Pathfinder’s role involves a number of firsts for the system, including:

1. First electromagnetic interference testing of the IUS system. The Pathfinder is exposed to electromagnetic fields of the type it is expected to face on the launch pad atop the Titan, proving the performance of its components under these conditions.

2. First shipment of the IUS. The Pathfinder is packaged and handled the same way as flight vehicles, providing a checkout of the systemin an operational environment.

3. First activation and checkout of the Boeing and Air Force IUS facilities at the Air Force’s Eastern Launch Site at Canaveral.

4. First mating and fit checks between the IUS and the Titan.

It was transported to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by truck in four segments (large solid-rocket motor, interstage,smaller solid-rocket motor and equipment support section) before being taken to the Solid Motor Assembly Building and assembled. It then went to the Air Force’s Launch Complex 40 and was placed atop the Titan.

The Pathfinder is one of many reasons the IUS is expected to provide an extremely reliable ride for its scientific and other payloads - it is designed to attain at least 96 percent reliability. Currently, this reliability is predicted at better than 98 percent. The importance of this reliability is underscored by the IUS’s role - it is to carry payloads to orbits that the Shuttle and Titan cannot reach. Boeing is developing and will deliver a similar pathfinder IUS vehicle for the Shuttle in 1982 and this vehicle will also be used for full dress rehersals.

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FLTSATCOM 5

The fifth satellite in the Fltsatcom series was launched by Atlas Centaur 59 on 6 August to provide the US military with communications over the Pacific hemisphere. Weighing 4136 lb at launch, the satellite was down to about 2200 lb by the time it reached geostationary orbit, from where it would begin its journey to 73°W. Fltsatcom provides 24 channels in the 240-400 MHz band, with the intention of providing a service for the next 5 years. Fltsatcom began operation in February 1978.

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VENUS PROBE

Plans for the American VOIR (Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar) mission are still uncertain because both the launch date and the launch vehicle are still undecided. When the IUS was dropped from Shuttle planetary missions NASA decided to adopt a modified version of the Centaur cryogenic upper stage. VOIR could be launched in November 1987 (Type II trajectory) or April 1988 (Type I) for Venus arrival in July/August 1988, to begin its mission of mapping Venus at high resolution (some of it down to 100 m).

In order to save carrying a large retromotor, VOIR will use the method of ‘aerobraking’ for the first time on a planetary mission. It will first enter a highly-elliptical orbit with its periapsis dropping into the atmosphere, with the result that over the following 30-60 days the orbit will become almost circularised. An engine burn will raise periapsis to prevent orbital decay and establish an orbit 250 km high.

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NEW WEATHER SATELLITE

The NOAA 7 environmental satellite was launched into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit by a modified Atlas F on 22 June. It joins its sister NOAA 6 in a 500 mile high orbit from where it can view the whole Earth at least twice everyday, to provide high-resolution weather information. Its scanning radiometer looks at the Earth in 5 spectral bands to provide data on:

• High resolution, day and night cloud cover observations on a local and global scale;

• High resolution observations of sea surface temperatures;

• Improved observations of vertical temperatures and water vapor profiles in the troposphere and lower stratosphere on a global basis;

• Observations of vertical temperature profiles in the middle and upper stratosphere on a global basis;

In addition, it acts as a collector and relay of data from automatic weather stations and balloons.

NOAA 7 is the fourth of a series of eight Tiros-N metsats based on the Air Force’s Block 5D vehicles. The GOES satellites perform the same type of work but from their positions in the geostationery orbit where they can view a complete hemisphere (but with reduced resolution). The remaining four NOAA craft will be launched as they are needed.