Oct 25 1985
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA earmarked about $3.2 million in FY 86 funding for continuing work on the proposed space station at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to define processing requirements, evaluate maintenance and resupply activities, and assess facility needs, the Spaceport News reported. The funding, an increase over the previous year, would pay for studies to further the Phase B definition and preliminary design effort expected to continue through early 1987. NASA planned for the early 1990s the first launch of a space station element.
KSC studies were intended to identify ground processing options and launch preparation concepts. In addition, KSC contractors were evaluating what facilities were needed for processing the station elements and payloads. KSC was also studying how NASA should approach the ongoing maintenance and resupply activities that would support continuous on-orbit operations.
KSC space station activity in FY 86 was expected to require the equivalent of about 180 NASA and contractor workers. (Spaceport News, Oct 25/85, 2)
NASA selected the dual keel reference configuration, a modification of the power tower concept, for the proposed permanently manned space station, the Spaceport News reported. It was called the dual keel because of twin vertical booms that would provide the framework for attachment of other structures. The concept's primary attributes were that it would provide better customer accommodations and servicing, increased attachment area, and a more versatile design for growth based on future requirements and changing station roles.
Another change in space station planning was placement of the pressurized modules near the station's center of gravity to increase the amount of space available for experiments, such as crystal growth, that needed a micro-gravity environment. NASA selected the dual keel configuration from a variety of layouts devised by teams of contractors working on two-year space station definition and preliminary studies. Overall space station shape and module placement were just two of the many significant technical decisions program officials had made since the space station definition period began in April 1985.
NASA would conduct over the next three to five months a series of reviews to narrow design choices so that it could select by early 1986 a baseline structure for the proposed space station. Contractor teams would spend the second half of the study phase doing space station subsystem preliminary designs, leading to start in mid-1987 of the planned development phase. (Spaceport News, Oct 25/85, 2)
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