Jul 26 1985
From The Space Library
In an administrative realignment reflecting the maturation of the Space Shuttle program, NASA announced the appointment of Arnold Aldrich, a 26-year NASA veteran and head of the Space Shuttle projects office at the Johnson Space Center USC), to manager of the National Space Transportation System (NSTS). He would fill the vacancy left when Glynn Lunney retired in April.
The Level II NSTS organization at JSC would assimilate the projects office, consolidating all program elements under Aldrich. With this combined responsibility, Aldrich would take charge of integration of all Space Shuttle program elements including flight software, orbiter, external tank, solid-fuel rocket boosters, main engines, payloads, payload carriers, and Space Shuttle facilities. His responsibilities would also include directing the planning for NSTS operations and for management of orbiter and government furnished equipment projects. NASA named Richard Kohrs, who was acting program manager, and Lt. Col. Thomas Redmond, U.S. Air Force, deputy managers.
In a related move, Thomas Utsman, head of Space Shuttle management and operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), would become deputy director of KSC, with NASA dividing shuttle management and operations into two primary organizations: Shuttle engineering and Shuttle operations. The engineering directorate, headed by Horace Lamberth, would expand to include skills necessary for sustaining engineering of the orbiter. The operations directorate, headed by Robert Sieck, would retain all functions necessary to manage day-to-day Space Shuttle processing and its logistical support.
NASA would transfer later in the year from Johnson Space Center to KSC launch support services and orbiter thermal protection system manufacturing contracts, functions closely associated with KSC responsibilities for Space Shuttle maintenance and launch preparation. At the beginning of 1986, KSC would take over logistics responsibility for spare parts refurbishment and procurement and would assume sustaining engineering responsibility for orbiter subsystems. (NASA Release 85-112)
NASA announced that the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) selected the Space Shuttle to launch July 1988 and mid-1989 two communications satellites in INMARSAT's second generation series. The spacecraft would enhance INMARSAT's existing maritime satellite network and the communications services the organization provided to 43 member nations including the U.S.
British Aerospace Corp. would build the spacecraft; Hughes Aircraft would supply the spacecraft communications payload. A McDonnell Douglas spin-stabilized upper stage, the PAM-D, would boost the spacecraft from low-earth orbit into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. An apogee kick motor, a smaller rocket motor on the spacecraft, would position the spacecraft in a circular 22,300-nautical-mile geosynchronous orbit. (NASA Release 85-111)
In work done under a three-year grant in cooperation with Wichita State University (WSU) and aircraft and component manufacturers, Lewis Research Center (LeRC) developed the Electro-Impulse Deicing System (EIDI), which creates an electromechanical impulse at the leading edge of an aircraft's wing to produce a minute flexing of the metal skin that serves to shatter, debond, and remove ice buildup, the Lewis News reported.
At a LeRC symposium, more than 100 representatives from various companies and other government agencies met to review the results of the cooperative program to develop a technology base for EIDI. Cessna Aircraft Co. planned to apply for Federal Aviation Administration certification for their model 206 aircraft with the EIDI system.
Although several methods of deicing or anti-icing were available, all had undesirable energy requirements. The electro-magnetic impulse method, first suggested in 1937 by Rudolf Goldschmidt, a German national residing in London after World War II, offered a promising alternative.
During the 1950s and 1960s, industry used electro-impulse methods for metals forming in various industrial processes. In the 1970s, the USSR pursued further research including some aircraft applications. However, for various reasons the development stopped short of full implementation; the system still lacked a well developed underlying technology and known design parameters. Early EIDI system research offered promise of ice removal with low energy requirements, minimal maintenance (no moving parts), greater reliability, and a weight and cost competitive with existing methods.
In mid-1982, LeRC funded a six-month grant to WSU to work with two small plane makers and an aircraft electrical system manufacturer to do a feasibility study that resulted in a successful icing tunnel demonstration in October/November 1982. LeRC then organized a consortium of companies for full development of the method for the whole range of civil aircraft, each company agreeing to contribute some services or equipment to the project in return for eligibility to submit its own products for deicing design and tests by the EIDI method.
Engine aircraft candidates for the EIDI system included commercial transport turbofans, business jet turbofans, commuter transport turboprops, and commercial transport propfans. (LeRC News, July 26/85, 2)
NASA announced the Lewis Research Center awarded a $10,169,016 contract to General Dynamics Corp. for management and engineering services in support of the Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle program. The contract also called for the company to provide technical management, engineering design, analysis and development, engine testing and development, and reliability and quality assurance. The cost-plus-award fee follow-on contract would begin July 1985 and continue through December 31, 1986.
Centaur was a high-energy, upper-stage used with expendable boosters to deliver large payloads to geosynchronous orbit. NASA was modifying it for use as an upper stage on the Space Shuttle. (NASA Release 85-110)
A new study issued by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) said competition from other nations and several private companies in launching spacecraft put the U.S. under pressure to protect its economic and technological leadership in space, the NY Times reported. This protection could be accomplished by reassessing the Space Shuttle's pricing policy, promoting greater private investment in space-related goods and services, and forging a long-term space policy to assure a competitive edge, report recommended.
The European Space Agency, a consortium of 11 western European governments, broke the U.S. monopoly in launch services for the West with its Ariane rocket program. Arianespace, a corporation owned by the French government and European banks and aerospace companies, was aggressively pursuing customers for Ariane's services and had won several contracts that would otherwise have gone to U.S. conventional rockets or the Space Shuttle. France was planning later in the year to use the Ariane to inaugurate the world's first commercial remote-sensing satellite service, competing with U.S. Landsats that surveyed the world's geologic, water, and agricultural resources.
China announced the previous month a new commercial space program using its own satellites, launching rockets, and ground stations. The Chinese had rockets capable of boosting satellites into the high orbit needed for communications satellites.
Japan, emphasizing the export potential of space technology, was developing its own rocket launching capability and was planning to launch the next year the first of a series of ocean and land remote-sensing satellites.
India also had joined the nations launching satellites, and Brazil was building a rocket base with the intention of becoming the first South American launching power.
Although the USSR was apparently tempted to enter the commercial market, western space experts questioned whether the Russians would ever be a major force in commercial space operations. They said the USSR might be reluctant to allow outside scientists and businessmen access to their facilities and other governments would probably not allow advanced communications satellites to be exported to the Soviet Union.
In its report, the OTA said that other nations developed their own space launching capabilities out of a desire to be technologically independent, to gain any economic benefits that derived from space technology, and to be regarded as "space powers." Consequently, the report concluded that the U.S.'s "competitive strategy based on price or superior technology alone will not prevent foreign entry into the launch service business." At stake, besides prestige, was a share of what by the end of the century could be a $50 billion annual business, according to estimates by some economists in the aerospace field.
The report recommended that the U.S. government investigate new trade and regulatory policies to reduce the risks and uncertainties that hindered private investment in space technology. The study concluded that NASA by itself was "not well-equipped either to promote or to regulate growth in the commercial exploitation of space." The report suggested the regulation of "space industries" should be integrated with the regulation of their counterparts on earth. (NYT, July 26/85, Al)
NASA would once again be one of the chief exhibitors at the 33rd annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) International Fly-in July 26 to August 2 at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the Langley Researcher reported. NASA would broaden its exhibit, "The Shape of Things To Come," which was traditionally only aeronautical, to include a greater representation of its activities in space technology.
A 60 x 90-foot tent would house displays of NASA's research and technology development work in aeronautics, the space station, Space Shuttle, and space exploration. Langley Research Center and Ames Research Center would provide aeronautical exhibits, Lewis Research Center would provide aeropropulsion and space exhibits, Goddard Space Flight Center would have its search and rescue satellite van on hand, and Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center would exhibit material on space research. Astronauts Robert Gibson and Robert Overmeyer would be EAA guests and would participate in a program the evening of July 29. Two dozen NASA forum speakers would give presentations covering every aeronautical discipline.
Each year for the last several years about 100,000 people and 10,000 privately owned light airplanes were at Oshkosh for the exhibition. Organizers also scheduled the British Airways Concorde to make special fly-bys during the afternoon air shows. (LaRC Researcher, July 26/85, 3)
Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Hanford Dole announced the award of a $196.9 million contract to IBM to provide new-generation computers that would give controllers extra capacity to handle growing air traffic safely and efficiently in the coming decade. Under the contract, IBM would replace the computer systems in the nation's 20 air route traffic control centers. Contract options for future hardware maintenance and software and technical support, if exercised, could total an additional $235.1 million.
In making the announcement, Dole said that "existing computers are based on outmoded technology . . . The new computer will have the capacity to assume added functions-such as improved conflict detection and resolution-permitting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make more efficient use of controllers." And it would provide a vehicle for a stable transition to an advanced automation program in the future.
The new computers would have greater storage capacity than the IBM 9020s used since the early 1970s in FAA centers, which control all aircraft operating under instrument flight rules between the nation's airport terminal areas.
The FAA awarded the contract to IBM following a 21-month design competition with the Sperry Corp. The FAA based the selection on a number of cost and performance factors including the results of a "compute off" at the FAA Technical Center near Atlantic City, New Jersey. A key factor in the side-by-side evaluation was the capability of each computer system to run the current 9020 software package with minimum modifications.
Key element in the IBM hardware was the IBM 3080-BX1 model. Each installation would consist of two units with one serving as the primary processor and the other as a backup.
The contract called for IBM to deliver the new computer systems over a one-year period beginning in the summer of 1986 to air route traffic control centers including the FAA Technical Center and the FAA Aeronautical Center where the computer system would be used for training purposes. (FAA Release 32-85)
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