Jan 23 1985
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James Beggs and U.R. Rao, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), signed a launch services agreement covering the reimbursable launch of INSAT 1C around mid-1986 from the Space Shuttle, the Marshall Star reported. A multipurpose satellite, INSAT 1C would provide communications and meteorological services to India.
In addition, the two agreed that an ISRO scientist/engineer would serve as a payload specialist during that Space Shuttle mission and discussed other possible NASA/ISRO cooperative activities in space applications and space science. (Marshall Star, Jan 23/85, 4)
NASA postponed for 24 hours the first classified Space Shuttle flight, scheduled for launch the afternoon of January 23, as freezing temperatures threatened to cause severe icing on the external fuel tank, the Washington Post reported. Officials said ice chunks could drop off, damaging the Space Shuttle, and also that NASA staff was conducting inspection of fuel and water pipes to determine if they had frozen shut.
The Department of Defense (DOD) had classified nearly all aspects of the mission. The crew consisting of Navy Capt. Thomas Mattingly, AF Lt. Col. Loren Shriver, Marine Lt. Col. James Buchli, AF Maj. Ellison Onizuka, and AF Maj. Gary Payton would not conduct the traditional prelaunch news conference nor hold one after landing. The U.S. Air Force would not disclose how long the crew would stay in orbit or what flight path they would take on the premise it might help the USSR determine mission purpose or interfere with the mission.
Previously the Washington Post had reported that Challenger would carry into orbit a sigint (signals intelligence) satellite that could intercept telemetry from Soviet missile tests. The Associated Press later had reported that the satellite could pick up radio, ground-to-space communications, and long-distance telephone calls made by microwave relay. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger would not comment on the reports' accuracy.
The USAF had not filed a flight-path plan with the United Nations, and the location of two ships that would recover the solid-fuel rocket boosters was also secret. There would be no public air-to-ground communications during the flight. (W Post, Jan 23/85, A3)
Missiles
The U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Division successfully flight-tested a low-cost, state-of-the-art autopilot on an unmanned research vehicle, the Air Force Systems Command's Newsreview reported. The division adapted commercially available microprocessor chips in the $50,000, in-house autopilot program to develop flight control-systems technology that would lead to cost reductions in tactical missiles. Researchers made five flight tests of the autopilot since October 1983 on an XBQM-106 unmanned vehicle during which the autopilot provided control augmentation, translating user inputs into vehicle actions.
Current guidance and stabilization packages in missiles and other aerospace systems were costly because they used expensive data processing microchips that had excessive amounts of computational processing capability but no built-in control functions, thus requiring additional electronic interface components to perform the "control" function tasks. The microprocessor chip, in contrast, had sufficient built-in computational and control functions to permit 60% fewer interfacing components and should be appropriate to numerous tactical weapons systems, both surface and air-launched.
The next step in the program would require replacing the wire-wrapped or brassboard model of the autopilot with a refined system on a printed circuit board, which would undergo at least 2 additional flights before the end of FY 85. (AFSC Newsreview, Jan 23/85, 8)
Data Tracking and Relay Systems
NASA announced that the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) would transfer spacecraft tracking and data acquisition operations from its Beltsville Tracking Station to its Wallops Flight Facility by early 1986, consolidating the operations to support balloon, sounding-rocket, and aeronautical-flight research. Diminishing need for ground stations due to the new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) necessitated the realignment.
TDRSS would consist of three communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit, providing global coverage by earth-orbiting satellites and replacing the worldwide network of ground stations. NASA had launched the first TDRSS satellite in April 1983 and would launch the second about February 20. GSFC would phase out or transfer to other agencies most of its tracking stations. In addition to Wallops, however, GSFC would maintain ground stations at Bermuda and Merritt Island, Florida, to support Space Shuttle launches from KSC. The White Sands, New Mexico, station was the ground terminal for orbiting TDRSS satellites (NASA Release 85-11) Marshall Space Flight Center
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