Message-ID: <QYrHSO200UkV85j04o@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Mon,  7 Aug 89 03:17:46 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #588

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 588

Today's Topics:
		     space news from July 3 AW&ST
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Aug 89 05:30:01 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from July 3 AW&ST

This is the Paris Air Show wrap-up issue, light on space news.

NASA reveals plans to do exhaustive photography of LDEF before moving it
into the payload bay on the LDEF-retrieval mission, to document the exact
surface appearance of everything before exposure to air.

Air Force Secretary recommends 70% cut in DoD Aerospace Plane funding,
saying that costs are too high and risks too great.  He does concede
that it will be six months before he can be specific about technical
objections [!].  Reports are that his opinion was based on a report from
the Rand Corp., his former employer.  A 70% cut would effectively kill
the project.

German-led industrial consortium (with members in US, France, and Italy)
beign formed to develop a privately-owned retrievable unmanned space
platform called "Amica".  ESA is considering turning Eureca, a similar
rig developed with ESA money, over to the group.  This would provide two
vehicles for industrial materials work in the early 1990s.  The group
is already marketing platform space to NASA, ESA, and the French and
Italian space agencies; it will concentrate on government-agency payload
sponsors initially, with a gradual shift to commercial customers later.
Construction will be financed with payload deposits and bank loans.
NASA is a crucial customer; Amica does not want NASA money, but wants to
trade payload space for free or cheap shuttle deployment and retrievals.
NASA is interested but wary.  Eureca is scheduled to fly (for ESA) in
mid-1991, and it would then be turned over to the Amica group.  Amica
itself would fly for six months in 1992, after which the platforms would
alternate in doing one six-month mission per year.  ESA plans to use
most of the second and third Eureca flights but has made no commitment
to Amica yet.

British astronaut to fly to Mir in 1991.  The mission, dubbed "Juno", is
now official, with the signing of the contract in Moscow.  It will be
financed by sponsorship and merchandising (!), sale of payload space,
and broadcasting rights.  About L16M is needed all told.  Two astronaut
candidates are being sought; they will start 18 months of training at
Star City in November.  They will learn Russian as part of this.  [I'm
surprised at this -- I'd have expected that to be a prerequisite -- but
maybe they decided there weren't enough people who could meet it.  If I
recall correctly, nominal training for a Mir flight is one year, so
the Soviets are allowing extra time for it.  They may also be charging
extra, as L16M is about twice the reported "going rate".]  The mission
will be 8 days long in spring 1991.  The backup candidate will spend
the time doing the same experiments on the ground.

ESA's Olympus broadcast satellite arrives in Ottawa for checkout before
shipment to Kourou.

First pictures of the new Soviet SL-16 booster.  This is the one whose
first stage is also the Energia strap-on.  At least 11 have been launched
since first flight in 1985, mostly carrying military snoopsats.  A new
version of the Progress freighter is being developed for SL-16 launch.
Capacity to LEO is 30 klbs.  [Sounds like Progress II is going to be a
whole lot bigger than the current one.  SL-16 could well be meant as a
Proton replacement in the long run; payload capacity should be similar
with a third stage added.]

SSME fails during development testing:  pump shaft seizes and hydrogen
fire results, with heavy damage to the engine.  This engine was a ground
test unit, but NASA is assessing whether the problem might affect the
operational engines.

First pictures of Soviet launch activities at Plesetsk; quite good photos,
actually.  This is novel because Plesetsk is primarily military and was
very highly classified until recently.  It is the world's busiest launch
site, ahead of even Baikonur [nowhere else comes close to either], with
over 1200 launches to date.

Lockheed to develop threat-warning system for US military satellites, to
detect and verify attacks by antisatellite weapons.  The initial Satellite
On-board Attack Warning System unit, for delivery and launch in 1992,
will include detection of microwaves, laser light, and impacts.  There
have been suspected cases of "interference" with US satellites
in the past, although details are classified.  A major goal of SOARS
is unambiguous determination of whether trouble is an attack or an
on-board technical problem.  Low-profile attacks like peppering a
satellite with projectiles could be mistaken for problems with space
debris, for example, and it is considered important that the cause of
a satellite failure be known quickly and definitely in a crisis; even
a tentative analysis can take months now.  SOARS normally gets power
and communications through its host satellite, but it includes its own
hardened backup power supply and transmitter, designed to survive an
attack that would disable the satellite.  The initial contract is for
only one unit, although there are options for two more, and Lockheed
obviously hopes to get a production contract eventually.  Later
versions might add sensors for particle beams, radio jamming, and
nuclear radiation.
-- 
1961-1969: 8 years of Apollo.  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1969-1989: 20 years of nothing.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #588
*******************