Feb 11 1985
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(New page: NASA announced it had scheduled the 8th launch in a series of 10 INTELSAT V-type international telecommunications satellites aboard an Atlas Centaur for no earlier than March 7 fro...)
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NASA announced it had scheduled the 8th launch in a series of 10 INTELSAT V-type international telecommunications satellites aboard an Atlas Centaur for no earlier than March 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA had successfully launched six INTELSAT V satellites.
The Atlas Centaur-63 was the 2nd of the new stretched version of the vehicle, able to lift from 159 to 227 kg (350 to 500 lb.) more than the previous design for a total of 2,318 kg (5,100 lb.) NASA had extended the first-stage Atlas by about 2.05 m (81 in.) to accommodate more propellant. This would be the 1st INTELSAT V-A spacecraft launched by an Atlas/Centaur.
The INTELSAT V-A satellites were similar to the Vs except for improvements that increased reliability and boosting communications-carrying capacity by 25% from 12,000 to about 15,000 simultaneous telephone calls and two TV programs. NASA would for several weeks station the satellite over the equator at about the longitude of Paris for in-orbit testing; once operational, the spacecraft would be in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean.
Lewis Research Center (LeRC) managed the Atlas Centaur development and operations, and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) managed vehicle checkout and launch. (NASA Release 85-22)
INTELSAT's Assembly of Parties, representatives of INTELSAT member nations, rejected a proposal by 21 nations that all INTELSAT parties and signatories boycott interconnection discussions with private companies planning to launch international satellites and that the U.S. reconsider its favorable policy toward non-INTELSAT satellites, Aviation Week reported. INTELSAT signatories, telecommunications organizations that operated ground facilities and represented INTELSAT member nations in organization management, had resolved in April 1983 that diversion of international traffic would threaten INTELSAT's viability.
A resolution adopted by the assembly urged all signatories and parties to "take into account" the boycott and the signatories' economic-viability resolution and to express opinions on separate systems to the U.S. and at the upcoming INTELSAT assembly.
U.S. officials had joined the consensus after objectionable language was deleted, but said naming a specific nation in the resolution could set a bad precedent. As one official noted, "The criticism of the U.S. we expected turned out to be expressions of concern by developing countries that competition could mean increased rates for them." The assembly asked the Board of Governors to submit recommendations for separate-system coordination to the assembly as soon as possible, as the U.S.'s Federal Communication Commission was processing five applications for private satellite launches. (Av Wk, Feb 11/85, 29)
Balloons
Ben Abruzzo, who took part in the 1st balloon crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, died February 11 along with five others when his twin-engine Cessna 421 plane crashed after takeoff from Coronado Airport north of Albuquerque, the Washington Post reported.
In 1978 Abruzzo, along with Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman crossed the Atlantic in the Double Eagle II, landing near Paris after the 3,000-mile flight. Late in 1981 Abruzzo, Newman, and two other men flew the Double Eagle V across the Pacific. Lifting off November 9 from Nagashima, Japan, Abruzzo crash-landed four days later in northern California in one of the worst storms there in 20 years. Abruzzo and another crew member won the Gordon Bennett race in 1979. (W Post, Feb 13/85, C6)
After 16 Space Shuttle flights, NASA believed it had solved the spacecraft's commode problems, as reports of the last two missions indicated the improved waste-disposal system performed perfectly, the Washington Post reported.
A $12 million-GE design had transformed the commode from a multi-pronged, motor-drive blender, which had fogged the Space Shuttle's air with particles of noxious dust or frozen liquid, to a device using a blast of air from a fan to carry waste into the toilet bowl; by pressing a lever, the user closed the commode top and opened a valve in the side of the Space Shuttle, where the waste was frozen and dried by the cold and vacuum of space. A tube collected urine and directed it to a holding tank for later overboard disposal. (W Post, Feb 11/85, A5)
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