Mar 18 1985

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Lt. Gen. James Abramhamson, in testimony before the Senate armed service strategic and theater nuclear forces subcommittee, said that bringing down the cost of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program was a critical factor in proving that SDI was affordable, Defense Daily reported. The aim was to have a program that was "practicable and could be implemented," he said.

Abramhamson told the subcommittee that he believed the SDI program would develop a sufficient base of understanding by the early 1990s so that "we could be reasonably confident that decisions could be made [for moving] into the initial portions of a layered defense." He pointed out that, although a limited defense system using conventional weapons might be possible by 1995, the emphasis on weapons was not the problem, but rather it was putting together the command and control by that time. However, he added that if a national decision were made to have a limited defense system by 1995, this would be possible. (D/D, Mar 18/85, 89)

Student Involvement Program Some high school student semifinalists in the Space Shuttle Student Involvement Program, sponsored by NASA and the National Science Teachers Association, would meet at Lewis Research Center (LeRC) March 25 and 26 to present before a panel of LeRC scientists and engineers their proposals for candidate experiments to fly aboard future Space Shuttle missions, the center announced. LeRC personnel would evaluate and suggest improvements to the experiments. The program was a nationwide competition to stimulate the study of science and technology by engaging students in projects to develop actual payload experiments for upcoming Space Shuttle flights.

The 37 students from Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin would hear a presentation by NASA astronaut Robert Springer (Lt. Col. USMC), slated to fly aboard Space Shuttle mission 51-H scheduled for launch in late 1985, and a discussion by Brian Vicek, a previous year's finalist from Parma, Ohio, on his winning experiment entitled "inducing a geotropic-type reaction in radish roots with chemical stimuli." The meeting would close with a tour of LeRC where the students would see such facilities as the 500-foot deep, zero-gravity facility and a propulsion systems laboratory where researchers tested full-scale aircraft engines under actual flight conditions.

Initially students from 10 geographical regions around the country had proposed over 2,000 biology, chemistry, and astronomy experiments. Interdisciplinary teams of teachers, scientists, and engineers had evaluated the proposals to select each region's semifinalists. As of the Space Shuttle 51-C mission in January 1985, NASA had flown 10 student experiments in space. (LeRC Release 85-17)

In its aerospace forecast and inventory issue, Aviation Week reported that aerospace sales would continue to expand in 1985 as a result of business that was already on the books, with reviving commercial transport orders expanding on earlier rebounds in the military and space segments of the industry. However, as strong as the expansion was, sales were not as robust in some markets as had been predicted the previous year.

Among the factors affecting the sales picture was Congressional trimming of military funding in the FY 85 budget. But Aviation Week predicted that to trim outlays the Pentagon would go after operating funds rather than hardware money that was spent over periods longer than a year. Thus the aerospace industry experienced moderately slower but still firm growth. Also international and domestic competition was intensifying, particularly because the Pentagon sought to use competition as a primary tool to hold down weapons costs.

The magazine forecasted that total aerospace sales in 1985 would reach $99 billion and over $100 billion in 1986. Military aircraft would produce $32 billion in sales, compared with $27.5 billion in 1984; missile sales would rise to $15.7 billion from $13.8 billion in 1984; space technology, rebounding from weak sales in the 1970s, would reach $14.8 billion compared with $12.5 billion in 1984; commercial transport orders would revive from the $6-billion level in 1984 to $9.2 billion in 1985; and business flying sales would remain flat at about $1.8 billion.

Both transport and corporate aircraft had a common problem: the high cost of relatively small increments of new technology and the drop in fuel prices that had placed a premium on modest improvement in fuel efficiency. However, all-composite turboprop aircraft for the business market were flying and might begin to change that situation in 1986 and 87. Also, new ultra-high bypass engines (in some situations a euphemism for propellers) were under test and might hit the commercial transport market in the early 1990s, as would increased use of composites, lighter and simpler subsystems, and more flexible cabins in terms of seating, galley, and lavatory layouts.

Military sales levels depended on what happened to President Reagan's defense budget in Congress. Although orders on the books would carry industry sales for 1985 to forecasted levels, a stalemate in Congress would affect the longer term outlook. (Av Wk, Mar 18/85, 10)

Satellites

NASA announced that it would launch INTELSAT V-A (F-10), first in a series of improved INTELSAT commercial communications satellites, by an Atlas-Centaur (AC-63) from KSC no earlier than March 19, 1985. The INTELSAT V-A series had a capacity of 13,500 two-way voice circuits and two TV channels.

Aerospace manufacturers around the world, under the direction of prime contractor Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp., had contributed to the design, development, and manufacture of INTELSAT V-A. These contractors and their responsibilities were: Aerospatiale (France)-designed the main member for the spacecraft's modular construction and supplied the main body structure thermal analysis and control; GEC-Marconi (United Kingdom)-produced the 11-GHz beacon transmitters used for earth station antenna tracking; Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (Federal Republic of Germany)-designed and produced the satellite control subsystem and the solar array; Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Japan)-contributed the six-GHz and four-GHz earth coverage antennas and manufactured the power control electronics and the telemetry and command digital units; Selenia (Italy)-designed and built the six telemetry, command, and ranging antennas, two 11-GHz beacon antennas, and two 14/11-GHz spot-beam antennas and built the command receiver and telemetry transmitter that combined to form a ranging transponder for determination of spacecraft position in transfer orbit; and Thomson-CSF (France)-built the 10-w, 11-GHz traveling wave tubes.

The INTELSAT V-A spacecraft would weigh about 4,402 lb. at separation from the Centaur, including the solid-propellant apogee kick motor (AKM) for circularization in the geosynchronous orbit. The separated spacecraft weight of 4,389 would include 1,963 lb. of AKM expendables and nine lb. of transfer orbit propellants.

NASA would use spin-stabilization during the transfer orbit coast to geosynchronous altitude. After burnout of the AKM, NASA would despin the spacecraft and deploy the antenna and solar array. In this configuration the spacecraft would be about 51 feet wide (measured across the solar panels) and 22 feet high. In orbital operation, the spacecraft would be three-axis stabilized with the body-fixed antenna pointing constantly at the earth and the solar array rotated to point at the sun.

The INTELSAT global satellite system comprised two essential elements: the space segment, consisting of satellites owned by INTELSAT, and the ground segment, consisting of earth stations owned by telecommunications entities in the countries in which they were located. The space segment had 16 satellites in synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 25,780 km (22,240 miles). There were 424 communications antennas at 334 earth station sites in 134 countries and territories in the ground segment. The combined system of satellites and ground stations provided more than 800 earth station-to-earth station communications pathways. (NASA MOR M-491-203-85-08 [prelaunch] Mar 18/85)

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