Oct 22 1985
From The Space Library
In its recently published “1986 Long-Range Program Plan,” NASA outlined plans for an evolutionary, permanently manned space station in low-earth orbit; operation by the year 2000 of man-tended platforms in equatorial, polar, and geosynchronous orbit; and routine manned missions on the moon and later Mars by the early 21st century, Defense Daily reported. The annually updated plan, summarizing the status of NASA planning as of the end of February 1985, also detailed some 120 ongoing and planned NASA space projects and missions for approximately the next ten years, with some out to the year 2000.
The plan did not discuss budget figures, but for the near-term assumed budgets with the 1% growth promised annually by President Reagan (which had since disappeared in the deficit battle in Congress).
The report did not project a need for more than four Space Shuttle orbiters but did not rule out such a need, while calling for development by 1990 of an orbital maneuvering vehicle (OMV).
Beyond 1990, objectives of the NASA spaceflight program included developing an orbital transfer vehicle complementary to the Space Shuttle for transportation of payloads, to, between, and beyond earth orbits; defining, designing, and providing a second-generation Space Transportation System including unmanned cargo vehicles and second-generation orbiters; developing and operating on a routine basis, beginning in the mid-1990s, geosynchronous orbit space platforms that were unmanned, permanent, and multifunctional; developing and putting into routine operation by the year 2000 geosynchronous orbit facilities that were permanent, multifunction, and able to be periodically manned; developing technology and techniques to construct, deploy, or assemble such facilities in space and to test and service them in orbit; and encouraging and supporting NASA and industry development of technology to improve concepts for space boosters that significantly reduced launch costs.
The NASA report noted that “achievements in the early 21st century in science, exploration, earth applications, and commercial uses would depend on two trends: first, the increasing capabilities of space systems with regard to accessibility, payloads, stay times, and variety and sophistication of operations; and second, the increasing capability of instruments with regard to detection, resolution, pointing accuracy, and data collection and management made possible by improvement of their power supplies and cooling mechanisms.” In the 21st century, the NASA report said, “automated or human-tended instruments located on the lunar surface will begin complementary observations” with instruments in low-earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit. For manned transportation from the space station, “a cryogenic version of the orbital transfer vehicle evolutionary family, currently in early stages of preliminary design, is expected to provide by the year 2000 reusability for manned and sortie flights to at least geosynchronous orbit . . . It also should be able to provide the basis for transportation for longer flights to establish a lunar base and for planetary missions such as a Mars sample return . . . Routine access to the lunar surface will make possible the first intensive, systematic study of another major celestial body,” the report noted. “Extensive sample collection and scientific traverses conducted by humans and long-term instrument networks installed and managed by humans will help determine the details of the moon's structure, composition, and history. They also will make accessible the record of solar and cosmic ray particle fluxes preserved in the lunar soil . .. Similar scientific activities can be carried out on Mars, either by large automated spacecraft or by a manned mission . . .” (D/D, Oct 22/85, 268)
Northwest Airlines Inc. completed an agreement today to purchase 10 Boeing 747-400s as part of a $21 billion airplane order, the Washington Post reported, making Northwest the first airline to have the long-range, 450-seat 747-400. Northwest president Steven Rothmeier, in a telephone conversation with the Post, said, “the 747-400 is really the next logical step in the progression of aircraft for the Pacific . . . It's our belief that this plane will set the economic structure of the Pacific to the end of the century.” Northwest also purchased ten more Boeing 757-200s, a high-technology, twin-engine standard-body aircraft.
The 747-400 would be 22% more fuel efficient than current 747s, which it closely resembled; however, it had wings six feet longer that were tipped with “winglets” that bent upward and forward to improve aerodynamic efficiency.
Digital instrument displays and computers would permit the 747-400 to have a two-pilot cockpit instead of the three-person flight crew required for current 747s; and the new plane would have a range of 8,000 statute miles-the longest of any commercial jet-permitting it to fly nonstop from New York to Tokyo, Seoul, or Shanghai.
Boeing would deliver the 747s between December 1988 and 1990; the 757s from 1987 through 1989. (W Post, Oct 23/85, Fl)
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