Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Sun, 21 Apr 91 01:50:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 01:50:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #435 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 435 Today's Topics: * SpaceNews 22-Apr-91 * Commercial Space News (5 of 6) Re: Commercial Space News (1 of 6) Commercial Space News (1 of 6) Re: Galileo status reports Re: Saturn V blueprints Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Apr 91 01:13:23 GMT From: mintaka!think.com!masscomp!ocpt!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (John Magliacane) Subject: * SpaceNews 22-Apr-91 * SB NEWS @ AMSAT < KD2BD $SPC0422 * SpaceNews 22-Apr-91 * Bulletin ID: $SPC0422 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY APRIL 22, 1991 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited distribution. * STS-39 INFO * =============== This information comes from Gerry Creager: The following elements are ones I made a couple of days ago to match the latest cycle on orbit flight design profile for STS-39, rotated to the current launch date of April 23 at 11:05 UTC. Because of the several maneuvers, it took 4 sets to match it within about 3 seconds. Set #1 will be in error by about 17 minutes by the end of the flight. If it launches on time, we will have good visible passes on Friday morning, Apr 26, 10:47z-10:55z, and Saturday morning, Apr 27, 10:41z-10:50z. The IBSS should be deployed on the Friday pass (Orbit 49), so both it and the orbiter should be visible. Landing is at MET 8/07:25. Element Set #1 -- For Orbits 2 through 28 STS-39 1 00039U 91113.52156250 .00280000 00000-0 44539-3 0 15 2 00039 57.0030 277.1989 0009407 267.9459 92.1059 16.05426977 29 Element Set #2 -- For Orbits 29 through 58 STS-39 1 00039U 91115.20216435 .00280000 00000-0 44539-3 0 25 2 00039 57.0063 269.2651 0009337 272.1084 87.9165 16.06583130 292 Element Set #3 -- For Orbits 59 through 89 STS-39 1 00039U 91117.06825231 .00280000 00000-0 44539-3 0 32 2 00039 57.0050 260.4383 0009142 278.8905 81.1608 16.04230096 591 Element set #4 -- For Orbits 90 through 133 STS-39 1 00039U 91118.99928241 .00280000 00000-0 44539-3 0 41 2 00039 57.0040 251.3354 0009000 285.0101 75.0116 16.03012532 901 * HELPFUL HINTS * ================= Putting Mission Elapsed Time On Your Wrist Watch When NASA and AMSAT release information on upcoming Space Shuttle schedules, time is usually given in UTC based on the expected opening of the launch window. Local US time zones are also given in a margin. However, mission events are also officially given in MET, or Mission Elapsed Time. Physics determines that many mission elements must happen so many minutes or hours after launch, since that puts them over certain parts of the world, or the Shuttle will be in range of certain ground experimenters, or other factors. Launch delays are a way of life at NASA, and the upcoming shuttle launch may be no exception. Mission Elapsed Time is referred to constantly throughout a space mission. Whether you work in the space program, try to work the SAREX, or just listen to the NASA feed on the local Ham Radio repeater (146.940 MHz in the Cape Canaveral area if you're there for the launch), cable TV, or RCA Satcom F-3 Transponder 13 (where the cable company gets it for free), you might want access to MET yourself. MET is based on the time of lift-off at "zero" in the launch countdown, when the solid rocket boosters are lit, and the spacecraft leaves the pad at Launch Complex 39. Simply start the stopwatch feature of your electronic watch at zero in the count, and you will have MET on your watch! The kind of watch best suited will go until 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds, and then click back to zero and keep on going. Simply check the cheap watches in the blister packs at your local drug store for a watch with either a stopwatch, or "24 hour chronometer" feature. If they haven't got one for less than ten bucks, check a different drug store. If you should miss the launch, simply find out what time the launch happened from the newspaper, and start it 24 hours later. Set an alarm on the watch to go off a minute before the time that is 24 hours from launch. Shuttle missions are usually up a few days, and you'd be surprised how handy MET is when keeping track of the spacecraft. Of course, remember that you'll have to keep a tally of the number of elapsed days of the mission yourself. (C) Copyright 1990 Robert Osband. Permission granted to SpaceNews, and any club to reprint this article if a copy of the newsletter is sent to PO Box 23214, Tampa FL, USA 33612. All others, contact author. [Story via Ozzie, N4SCY @ K0ZXF.FL.USA.NOAM] * TNX RPTS! * ============= Thanks to all those who sent e-mail reports to SpaceNews, including: FE1LOZ, N2GGQ, DC4ZI, KA4PNT, N4RAK, N4SCY, WD4LYV, ZR5AAD, KB7ADO, N8JKQ * FEEDBACK WELCOMED * ===================== Feedback regarding SpaceNews may be directed to the editor using any one of the following paths: UUCP : ...!rutgers.edu!ka2qhd!kd2bd PACKET : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NOAM INTERNET : kd2bd@ka2qhd.de.com -OR- kd2bd@tomcat.gsfc.nasa.gov MAIL : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Electronics Technology Advanced Technology Center Brookdale Community College Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. /EX -- John A. Magliacane FAX : (908) 747-7107 Electronics Technology Department AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA Brookdale Community College UUCP : ...!rutgers!ka2qhd!kd2bd Lincroft, NJ 07738 USA VOICE: (908) 842-1900 ext 607 ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 91 06:08:41 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123!Wales.Larrison@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Wales Larrison) Subject: Commercial Space News (5 of 6) OSC HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH SOVIETS FOR BRAZILIAN EARTH RESOURCES SAT OSC is competing head on with the Soviet launch program to capture a contract for the launch of Brazil's SCD Earth Resources satellite. SCD is designed to study the rain forests and ground cover from a near-equatorial low orbit, and is planned for launch by mid-1992. In competition with OSC's Pegasus is the Soviet "Cosmos" C-1 launch system, based upon their SL-8 launch vehicle. Variants of this system have been deployed by the Soviets as IRBMs. The Soviets reportedly have a ready stockpile of the Cosmos launch systems, since they have been launching them at the rate of 12-15 per year to support the InterCosmos AUOS science satellites, and are offering to sell a S-8 based Cosmos launch vehicle for $6-8 M. What makes this competition so interesting is not the complexity of the launch, but the use of the Pegasus from a foreign country. Under COCOM and the munitions control act, the U.S. has prohibited U.S. launch technology from being shipped to foreign countries, since there is direct application into ballistic missiles or it may be re-exported to other countries for other missile programs. OSC would like to book their first international "commercial" sale, but to avoid technology transfer issues, they are proposing to launch it from Florida, or for additional cost, fly the B-52/Pegasus launch system down to Brazil for a short time. The two systems have roughly the same costs, but the Brazilian government may find it attractive if the Soviets sell a C-1 booster plus advice on launching techniques, since this experience might be used in the Brazilian space launch and missile program. To provide more of a competitive edge for OSC, the U.S. government is trying to sweeten the pot by cost-sharing in the launch. Since the Brazilian satellite is only 185 Kg there's about another 40-50 Kg available in the Pegasus and NASA is looking for a small payload or instrument to co-launch with the Brazilian sat, cutting the cost to Brazil. However, this deal will be decided by the Brazilian government in the next couple of weeks, and a NASA-sponsored payload has be virtually complete, funded from the FY 1991 and FY 1992 federal budgets. They are having a hard time finding such a small payload - even canvassing the U.S. commercial smallsat industry. [Commentary: Transfer of launch technology is a very sensitive topic, and Brazil is particularly a sensitive area, since Brazil sold long range missiles and rocket technology to Iraqi, among other countries. Brazil is fairly aggressive in pursuing such technology - one of the key negotiating points during the launch competition for Brazilsat (GEO Comsats) was Arianespace offering to sell their HM-60 large rocket engine technology to Brazil, while McDonnell- Douglas was prohibited from offering the same. (This provoked very high level discussions between the U.S. and France...) Based upon current information, I rate this competition as too close to call. I think the key determinant will be the financing arrangements. Brazil has inflation in the 100's of percent per year, their currency devalues daily, and their government is facing a huge (even compared to the US) deficit. The USSR wants hard currency, which Brazil may not want to give up. If OSC can offer a good financing package, particularly with offsets to allow use of Brazilian goods or service in lieu of hard cash, then this is a good competitive advantage. A similar package might be offered by the Soviets, but they have not had a track record of offering or accepting such deals in the past.] -- Wales Larrison Internet: Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org Compuserve: >internet:Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 91 23:39:12 GMT From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Commercial Space News (1 of 6) In article <3050.28105DD6@ofa123.fidonet.org> Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org (Wales Larrison) writes: > The Hercules sale of stock is probably from a near term need to >pump up the company books to keep the stock value high... >... After the failure of the Hercules-built Titan >-IV SRM at Edwards in early April, their stock plummeted... They're also reported to have had difficulties in recent times with costs on fixed-price contracts for things like the Delta strap-ons. Like a lot of companies that spent a long time working mostly for the government, they are now having trouble estimating costs accurately enough to make money on fixed-price commercial contracts. -- And the bean-counter replied, | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology "beans are more important". | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 91 06:03:24 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123!Wales.Larrison@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Wales Larrison) Subject: Commercial Space News (1 of 6) This is the seventh in an irregular series on news from the commercial space business. The commentaries are my own thoughts on these developments. Posted in 6 messages (My apologies - message length restrictions at my up-load point). Contents - 1- OSC TO SELL MORE STOCK/HERCULES DIVESTS OF OSC INVESTMENT 2- SHENANIGANS OVER DELTA II SRM CONTRACT 3- LOCKHEED WINS CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR IRIDIUM SATELLITE SYSTEM 4- MCDONNELL-DOUGLAS POSTS OBJECTION TO DOT LAUNCH LICENSE FEES 5- OSC HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH SOVIETS FOR BRAZILIAN EARTH RESOURCES SAT 6- NOTES TO READERS (THANKS FOR COMMENTS!) Articles ---------------------------------------------------------------- OSC TO SELL MORE STOCK/HERCULES DIVESTS ITS OSC INVESTMENT OSC has announced that it will probably sell another 3.2 M shares of stock during the second quarter of 1991. This will include about 1.6 M shares now owned by Hercules Inc. This stock offering would produce cash to be used for "general corporate purposes". Hercules has stated to the financial community they are planning to sell all of the OSC stock they hold during this offering- which amounts to about 20% of the total OSC stock. Since Hercules paid slightly more than $20/share for its shares and it expecting to get about $20/share, Hercules expects to break even on this investment, or see a small profit from sale. [Commentary: The OSC stock sale is not really news, expect that OSC is looking to get more capital for their projects. Since they have a lot going on, their offering of stock is a standard way to get cash in without having to tap their corporate credit lines. This only increases amount of OSC stock by about 20% or less. The Hercules sale of stock is probably from a near term need to pump up the company books to keep the stock value high. Hercules has stated they intend to sell investments in other companies and joint ventures to focus their efforts on its core chemical and aerospace businesses. After the failure of the Hercules-built Titan -IV SRM at Edwards in early April, their stock plummeted over $5/share. The failure means Hercules might have to increase program funding reserves set aside for the Titan IV SRM program to cover possible redesign and remanufacturing, and may incur higher costs and lower profits in the future if the design has to be reworked. However, whether or not they have to do this won't be known until mid-May when the accident investigation team completes their analysis, and the fix for the problem is cycled into the next full estimate of Titan completion costs. This comes on top of past failures and problems, such that in 1989, Hercules wrote off more than $200M as a result of cost overruns and delays tied to development of the Titan IV booster. But, in anticipation of this Standard and Poor's Corp (one of they major companies which rate corporate investments), placed Hercules's long-term debt of about $600 M on the CreditWatch list, which will somewhat restrict Hercules from easily getting more financing in the financial markets. I should also note that Hercules also makes rocket motors for the Trident II, Delta II, Peacekeeper and the small ICBM, and just got a $100 million order for more Delta motors, so they have lots of business in similar fields.] -- Wales Larrison Internet: Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org Compuserve: >internet:Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 91 23:40:33 GMT From: stanford.edu!ptolemy!ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov!glass@decwrl.dec.com (Jay Glass) Subject: Re: Galileo status reports This is all second or third-hand stuff, but I have heard that the high gain antenna has failed to (completely?) deploy. As of mid-week, there were a couple of theories about how the antenna may be stuck and what, if anything, may be done to release it. I don't know the specifics, and those who do are generally busy. *If* these attempts are unsuccessful, it follows that bandwidth will be *very* limited from Jupiter using only the low-gain antenna (about 10 bps at that range to Earth). This wouldn't prevent data recording and relay from the probe, but would seriously affect imaging, etc. from the Galileo orbiter. In a worst-case scenario, I have heard suggestions floated of launching a communications relay in a direct trajectory to Jupiter in order to "catch up" with Galileo and make mission objectives reachable using the low-gain antenna. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 91 01:34:56 GMT From: iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!widener!hela!aws@lll-winken.llnl.gov (Allen W. Sherzer) Subject: Re: Saturn V blueprints In article <248@hsvaic.boeing.com> eder@hsvaic.boeing.com (Dani Eder) writes: >By the time you redesign to accommodate available hardware and re-modify >the launch pads, you may as well have started from scratch with a clean >sheet design. [Instead of a new Saturn V]. About a month ago NASA gave a pitch on rebuilding the Saturn V. Their conclusion was that is would cost about $12 billion over eight years. Each vehicle would cost about $570M. Current estimates for ALS (which won't lift as much) are about 20% higher although operational costs for ALS are about half as much ($1,000/lb vs $2280/lb). However, there is reason to think these numbers are over inflated. The presentation was biased against Saturn alternatives favoring ALS type systems. For example, NASA's estimate of the cost of F-1 engines is about twice what Rocketdyne says it will take. If these numbers are indeed off by two then Saturn V's can be built for 40% the development cost of ALS, in a third less time, and cost about the same to operate. If we did a commercial procurement prices would drop far more. This may well turn out to be the best approach. Going for something we know we can build will reduce risk and keep the effort focused. We will be far less likely to push every technological envelope which is what killed the Shuttle SSME's. When we have a baseline system, we can start a program of continuous improvement. This will cut part counts, reduce manufacturing time and result in greater savings. Allen -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Allen W. Sherzer | If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back | | aws@iti.org | to you, hunt it down and kill it. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #435 *******************