Aug 1 1985
From The Space Library
Lewis Research Center (LeRC) announced it awarded a $12,386,535 sole source fixed-price-incentive-fee contract to Teledyne Industries, Inc. for the fabrication, assembly, and testing of digital computers and remote multiplexer units in support of the Space Shuttle/Centaur program. Work began in July 1985 and would run through October 1987.
Digital computers would serve as the focal point for the Centaur flight-control system, processing data from the other flight boxes including the multiplexer units. They would also provide the hardware capability to interface with the orbiter and ground system NASA scheduled the first Centaur launch-the Ulysses mission-for May 15, 1986, from the Space Shuttle payload bay followed on May 21, 1986, by the Galileo mission. (LeRC Release 85-58)
Astronauts aboard the orbiter Challenger on Space Shuttle mission 51-F released today a six-and-a-half-foot-long drum-shaped satellite, the Plasma Diagnostics Package, from the orbiter's payload bay, shot it with a looping beam from an electron gun, and then retrieved it with the Space Shuttle's 50-foot mechanical arm, the NY Times reported.
One purpose of the demonstration was to study the electrical effects the Space Shuttle had as it moved through the electrically charged gases of the ionosphere, effects which occasionally caused the Space Shuttle to emit a soft golden glow. Researchers considered solving that riddle important to the success of future mission, which would carry sensitive instruments that the aura might disturb.
Another goal was to achieve a better understanding of the aurora, known in the northern hemisphere as the northern lights, which was a disturbance in the atmosphere that created bright lights in the night sky over polar regions.
The astronauts reported seeing flashes of light as the beam followed natural magnetic lines to the satellite, the Washington Post reported; the newspaper said scientists on the ground called the demonstration “a fabulous success.” (NYT, Aug 2/85, D14; W Post, Aug 2/85, A4)
Fourteen-war-old Todd Holmes of Fort Smith, Arkansas, unofficially became the youngest person to solo in a glider, the Washington Times reported.
According to Federal Aviation Administration regulations, a pilot had to be 14 before he or she could solo in any kind of aircraft and 16 to be licensed in a passenger-carrying glider or to fly a powered aircraft. The agency did not keep statistics on who might have been the youngest person ever to solo.
Todd, who got his glider license on his 14th birthday, said, “I could've done it two weeks ago, but I had to wait until I was 14.” (W Times, Aug 1/85, 4B)
NASA announced that it had completed with the Italian National Research Council's National Space Plan Office (PSN/CNR) selection of U.S. and Italian principal investigators for the cooperative tethered satellite system (TSS), which NASA had scheduled for a first flight in 1988 aboard the Space Shuttle. The system, using the Space Shuttle as a base of operation, would provide a unique reuseable facility remote from the orbiter for space science investigations in the upper atmosphere and in plasma-electrodynamic interactions. 101 The overall objectives of the TSS program were to demonstrate the successful operation of a tethered satellite, perform the initial electrodynamic science and plasma investigations, and develop a reusable facility capable of supporting a broad range of electrodynamic experiments in the ionosphere.
On the first TSS mission, a NASA-supplied deployer mechanism would send the Italian-developed and -built satellite upward from the Space Shuttle orbiter to a distance of as much as 12 miles. The motion of the conducting tether across geomagnetic field lines would generate several thousand volts of energy to provide a broad range of electrical operating conditions. Researchers could also use the overall system to artificially generate and study field-aligned currents and associated plasma effects.
On the second TSS mission, the satellite would be at the end of a nonconducting tether at 62 miles in the earth's atmosphere, an area previously explored only sporadically, mainly with sounding rocket payloads. The tethered satellite would permit investigation of the region on a global scale over several days.
The TSS-3 mission would be a follow-up to the TSS-1 electrodynamics mission, with deployment from either the Space Shuttle or the proposed space station.
A memorandum of understanding signed in 1984 by NASA and PSN/CNR established the TSS program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center had responsibility for project implementation.
NASA's office of space science and applications selected Peter Banks, Stanford University (Shuttle Tether Electrodynamic Tether System); Robert Estes, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Investigation of Electromagnetic Emissions by the Tether); Gordon Gullahorn, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Investigation and Measurement of Dynamic Noise in Tethered Observatory Satellite Systems); Konstantinos Papadopoulos, Science Applications, Inc. (Theory and Modeling of the Tether); and Nobie Stone, Marshall Space Flight Center (Research on Orbital Flight Plasma-Electrodynamics).
PSN/CNR selected Silvio Bergemaschi, Instituto Meccanica, Padova University (A Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of TSS Dynamics); Marino Dobrowolny, Instituto Fisica Spazio (Research on Electrodynamics Tether Effects); and Franco Mariana, University of Rome (Magnetic Field Experiment for the TSS Missions). (NASA Release 85-115)
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that following validation tests of the second Ariane launch site (ELA-2) in Kourou, French Guiana, it accepted the new facilities and made them available to the Arianespace company for international use. ELA-2 would provide an enhanced capability for launching the Ariane 2, 3, and 4 and make it possible to reduce the interval between launches to one month and carry out up to ten launches per year at lower operating costs.
The new complex close to the current Ariane launch site had two separate zones, a launcher preparation zone and the launch zone, linked by a one-km rail line. This configuration made possible two simultaneous launch preparations and provided considerable operational flexibility. Arianespace could assemble one launcher in the preparation zone, while another, previously transported on a mobile table to the launch zone, underwent final checkout prior to launch.
The French National Space Centre (CNES) was prime contractor for ELA-2 construction, which took four years to complete. ELA-2 would become Europe's main launch complex; ELA-1 would serve as the backup. Arianespace scheduled the first launch from ELA-2 for December 1985, using an Ariane 3 to launch Brasilsat 2 and G-STAR 2. (ESA release Aug 1/85)
The White House announced that it had sent Congress a new Space Shuttle pricing policy that entailed, starting October 1, 1988, auctioning the Space Shuttle's cargo bay to commercial and foreign customers at a minimum rate of $74 million for a full bay, the Washington Times reported. This meant that owners of three satellites could share a mission and pay NASA a little less than $25 million apiece or about $1 million more than they presently paid for Space Shuttle launches. However, if demand for shuttle space exceeded its availability, the auction system would drive prices upward. Europe's Arianespace SA charged $25 million for a launch.
President Reagan, who earlier had suggested that space should be open to private enterprise and that the Space Shuttle might be turned over to industry, directed NASA under the new policy to establish auction procedures “to ensure maximum return to the government and equitable treatment for all potential launch customers.” The President also told NASA to review annually Space Shuttle costs and the effectiveness of its pricing policies and report its findings and recommendations to the president's national security adviser and the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The new policy represented a victory for NASA and defeat for the Transportation Department and Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who had argued for a full-bay price no lower than $129 million in order to encourage private industry to get into the launch vehicle business on its own, the Washington Post reported.
Two companies wanted to compete with NASA and Arianespace. General Dynamics signed a letter of intent with NASA to use the Atlas-Centaur rocket, and Transpace Carriers Inc. signed a similar letter to use the Delta rocket to launch satellites. Both companies said they could not compete with a Space Shuttle price of less than $40 million to send up a single satellite.
The Transportation Department argued for a higher Space Shuttle launch price to improve private industry's bargaining power. But NASA said a higher charge would send customers to Arianespace, which had booked more than a third of the world's future commercial satellite launch traffic. (W Times, Aug 2/85, 10C; W Post, Aug 7/85, A3)
Under-Secretary of the U.S. Air Force E. C. Aldridge, Jr. announced in an internal information memorandum that the policy of the U.S. Air Force was to “ensure that the unique capabilities that can be derived from the presence of military man in space shall be utilized to the extent feasible and practical to enhance existing and future missions in the interest of national security objectives.” The memorandum implied that U.S. Air Force would be committed to working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in its most recent manned space undertaking to deploy in orbit a manned, permanent orbiting space station in the early 1990s. Memorandum for the Vice Chief of Staff, USAF from Under-Secretary E. C. Aldridge, Jr., August 1, 1985.
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