Oct 22 1987
From The Space Library
NASA announced that in the next three years it would reduce Shuttle use by launching only 19 space flights. During the same time, it would launch 49 satellites on untended rockets. About 30 non-military payloads originally planned to be carried into orbit by the Shuttle through 1995, will now be carried on untended rockets.
NASA said that it would launch five science missions in 1989, some with international cooperation. Four of these missions-the Magellan, to map Venus; the Hubble Space Telescope, in cooperation with the European Space Agency; and the ASTRO-1 ultraviolet observatory and Galileo, in cooperation with Germany to make a comprehensive survey of Jupiter and its moons-would fly on the Shuttle. A fifth mission, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) to investigate cosmic background noise, was to launch on a Delta. Another scheduled Shuttle launch was the cooperative ESA/NASA Ulysses mission to observe the polar region of the Sun.
From 1990 through 1995, NASA expected to accelerate deployment of other space science missions by fully utilizing expendable launch vehicles. For example, NASA anticipated Delta launches of a Roentgen Satellite in February 1990 and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer in August 1991. (NASA Release 87-158; LA Times, Oct 23/87; NY Times, Oct 23/87; W Times, Oct 23/87)
Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems, New Orleans, Louisiana; Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division, Downey, California; and United Technologies Corporation, USBI Booster Production Company, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama; were selected for contracts to perform definition studies for a. proposed untended launch vehicle. The new vehicle, called Shuttle-C, would supplement the orbiter with an untended cargo element. (NASA Release 87-159)
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