Jun 28 1985
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
In May an armament division F-16 from the U.S. Air Force's 3246th Test Wing fired an advanced, medium range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) over White Sands Missile Range in the first guided launch of its full-scale development program, the Air Force System Command's (AFSC) Newsreview reported. Armament division officials said the successful flight verified AMRAAM's interface with the F-16's avionics system and the performance of its active radar guidance capabilities.
AMRAAM is an all-weather, all-aspect radar missile designed to replace the AIM-7 radar missile. AMRAAM is smaller, lighter, and faster than AIM-7 and had an active radar seeker that would permit air crews to "launch and leave" or to execute simultaneous multiple-target attacks during a single intercept.
Pilots could launch AMRAAM from beyond visual range, because it received target information from the launch aircraft's avionics systems. After launch, the aircraft could pass target information to the missile, or the missile could use its own inertial reference unit and microcomputer to guide inertially toward the target. During the terminal phase, the missile's active seeker would take over and guide the missile to the target.
The Air Force and Navy had a contract with Hughes Aircraft Co. for full-scale development of AMRAAM, with Raytheon Co. designated as "follower" contractor to introduce competition during the production phase.
The previous December an AMRAAM separation/control test vehicle flew a preprogrammed course to evaluate the missile's autopilot, control system, aerodynamic characteristics, and safe separation from the aircraft.
The Air Force planned over the next three years more launches from several aircraft including the F-14, F-15, F-16, and F-18. Plans also called for combat aircraft of the United Kingdom and Federal Republic of Germany to carry AMRAAM. (AFSC Newsreview, June 28/85, 4)
NASA Administrator James Beggs announced that 21 teams submitted proposals to establish centers for the commercial development of space, the objective of which would be to stimulate high-technology research in the microgravity environment of space. NASA expected this research to lead eventually to development of new products that either had commercial potential or would contribute to possible commercial ventures.
The research areas proposed by the teams included semiconductor crystal growth, remote sensing, communications technology, and biotechnology.
A panel of technical, managerial, and financial experts would review over the next 45 to 60 days the proposals to identify winning proposals. NASA would fund, beginning around mid-September 1985, between three and six of the centers for up to $1 million per year each for a period not to exceed five years. (NASA Release 85-98)
A B-52 equipped with the Navstar global positioning system (GPS) flew a mission over the North Pole to prove the space-based radio navigation system's ability to navigate a polar mission, the Air Force System Command's (AFSC) Newsreview reported. The mission marked first time a preproduction Navstar GPS was used on a polar mission. The flight also tested the system's high-latitude navigation and compatibility with the aircraft's inertial navigation system (INS).
Navstar GPS, when completed in the late 1980s, would use 18 GPS satellites in six orbital planes to give worldwide, three-dimensional position and velocity information to U.S. and allied land, sea, and air forces. To determine the position of an aircraft such as the 8-52, an onboard receiver would pick up signals from at least four satellites and measure the time it took each signal to travel from the satellite.
The Navstar GPS on the B-52 aligned the inertial navigation system, giving the crew constant navigation during the 13-hour mission despite the GPS being available only three hours. The GPS and INS kept track of the aircraft's position at all times, even when crossing lines of longitude faster than the onboard screen could update them.
Although testing of the Navstar GPS using the 13-52 was almost complete, production integration was just beginning. The production phase of Navstar GPS required bringing the three segments-space, user, and control-to full operational capability. The Air Force expected two-dimensional capability in 1987, three-dimensional capability in 1988. (AFSC Newsreview, June 28/85, 7)
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