Oct 6 1982
From The Space Library
NASA announced the selection of four of five crew members for the first DOD Shuttle mission, STS-10, scheduled for launch from KSC in the last quarter of 1983. The commander would be Thomas K. Mattingly; pilot, Loren J. Shriver; and mission specialists, Ellison S. Onizuka and James F. Buchli. The fifth crew member, an Air Force manned-spaceflight engineer, would be named later. (NASA Release 82-146; MSFC Release 82-90; NY Times, Oct 7/82, A-18)
The Washington Post said that STS-5, the first operational Shuttle mission, would include simulation of a space repair job to practice for the salvaging of an orbiting satellite, Solar Max, in April 1984. The 5,000-pound Solar Max cost $70 million at its launch in February 1980 to study the Sun during maximum sunspot activity. Less than six months later, the devices pointing its instrumentation at the Sun broke down, and the satellite was practically useless.
Congress allowed $18 million to put the Shuttle alongside in a 308-mile-high orbit so that astronauts could ground a dozen cables, cut seals holding them to a panel, and pry the entire group from the panel. The greatest expense was for training the spacesuited crew to use tools and to handle the Solar Max as it orbited at 17,500-miles-per-hour alongside the Shuttle. (W Post, Oct 7/82, A-23)
NASA announced that the Federal Republic of Germany was the first nation to buy a dedicated Spacelab mission from NASA, at a cost of about $65 million. Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson, NASA associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems, signed the launch services agreement with the chairman and vice chairman of the German aerospace research establishment (DFVLR).
The D-1 Spacelab mission, set to fly on the Shuttle in June 1985, would consist of low-gravity experiments primarily from German industry and research groups in the field of materials processing in space and life sciences. The Federal Republic had given about 64% of the funding for the billion-dollar European development of Spacelab. (NASA Release 82-145)
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