Aug 2 1985
From The Space Library
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) service and contractor personnel completed within 90 days installation of a launch environment instrumentation system (LEIS) for Space Shuttle launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Spaceport News reported. The LEIS, a 400-channel instrumented system, was designed to acquire data on the environment in the vicinity of the launch pad and support facilities during launch.
The system's transducers measured in the launch pad vicinity pressure, acoustics, strain, vibration, and temperature for use in determining baseline data, sources of problems, and possible solutions. Such equipment at KSC, for example, pinpointed engine gas leaks during the first mission of the orbiter Challenger and provided design measurements of the overpressure problem that occurred during the first Space Shuttle launch.
The KSC engineering development directorate, with the assistance of Planning Research Corp., completed design, management, and integration of the system, which Fairchild Weston Systems Inc. built under the direction of KSC for the Air Force. Fairchild began work on the system in March 1984 under a $4,549,256 contract. (Spaceport News, Aug 2/85, 7)
Crew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission 51-F made major progress in fixing the instrument pointing system (IPS) for a $60 million solar telescope, the Washington Post reported; and flight planners moved closer to extending the mission one day to make up for lost sun-watching time. The extension would have Challenger landing in California after eight days in orbit.
The IPS's improved operation enabled the astronauts to increase the pace of their observations of the sun, the only star close enough for detailed study. Although the balky telescope mount late in the evening again failed to work properly, the Space Shuttle scientists manually locked the telescope on target. New computer commands radioed earlier from earth had helped solve some initial problems with the IPS, and it aimed its three solar telescopes precisely at specific spots on the sun, holding them there for a few minutes each time. However, the steadiness did not last.
During one long sun-sighting period, astronaut-physicist Loren Acton said the solar chronosphere, a layer of gas that resembled a flaming forest, appeared more active than he had suspected. The phenomenon was dubbed the “Acton effect.” A decision to extend Challengers's mission depended largely on the orbiter's supply of hydrogen for generating electricity. (W Post, Aug 3/85, A10)
Federal investigation of the Delta Air Line Lockheed 1-1011-1 crash August 2 at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport showed strong evidence of wind shear and microburst in the aircraft's landing path, Aviation Week reported, which raised issues concerning the adequacy of detection and training of pilots to respond to violent weather. The Delta TriStar crashed at 6:05 p.m. CDT on final approach to runway 17L after entering a suddenly developed violent thunderstorm cell that eluded detection by ground-based sensors and was not reported by pilots.
The problems posed by wind shear would force the government in the following weeks to deal with procurement of Doppler radar systems (which the Federal Aviation Administration successfully tested as a wind-shear and microburst detector), regulations requiring simulator training and cockpit resource management instructions to prepare pilots for wind shear, and enhancement of the low-level, wind-shear alert system (LLWAS) to broaden coverage of the detection system.
Rep. Mickey Edwards (R.-Okla.) had called for investigations to go beyond the direct cause of the Delta accident to “basic airline and government operating procedures and priorities” in responding to weather hazards. (Av Wk, Aug 12/85, 16)
In a letter to the editor in the NY Times, Saunders Kramer, a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, commented on the NY Time's report of speculation in a London newspaper that debris from a satellite reentering the atmosphere may have struck the Air-India jetliner that crashed in July [see Aviation/Civil Aviation, July 29]. “You dismiss that possibility as 'bizarre;” Kramer wrote, “Not quite.” Kramer then related a tale of an incident that occurred in the early 1960s, when passengers on a airline flight from Honolulu to Tokyo saw at 30,000 feet a white flash and heard a thud.
“After they landed at Tokyo, inspection revealed a smooth dished-in area (about 18 inches across) on the plane's right wing leading edge between the two starboard engines,” Kramer continued. There was no evidence of a bird collision.
When the navigator returned home, he related the tale to Kramer, who checked North American Air Defense Command's (NORAD) space-tracking data bulletins, which showed reentry of satellite debris at the time and location of the Pan Am flight. “We concluded that the debris had indeed struck the plane,” Kramer wrote.
“The propulsion section of the last stage of a satellite booster is frequently massive enough to survive reentry. Had it struck the tail section severely or struck the cockpit from above, it is certainly conceivable, however remote, that destruction of the aircraft could have been instantaneous,” Kramer concluded. (NYT, Aug 2/85, A24)
NASA Administrator James Beggs met with planetary science experts to discuss a plan to develop a spacecraft capable of flying in formation with a comet known as Wild-2 and dropping a probe down onto its surface in hopes of bringing back samples, the Washington Times reported.
Space scientists said NASA wanted to launch the $400 million mission in the early 1990s. NASA hoped to get about $30 million in start-up money earmarked for the project in the agency's FY 87 budget.
The mission would be an important space first, because none of the previous spacecraft launched toward Halley’s Comet would fly alongside that comet, launch a probe, or return to earth after rendezvous. (W Times, Aug 2/ 85, 10A)
NASA announced that a Scout vehicle today launched the Navy SOOS-I spacecraft from the Western Space and Missile Center (WSMC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
As a result of a 1962 NASA/Department of Defense (DOD) agreement for joint use of the Scout launch vehicle, the U.S. Navy asked NASA to provide Scout launches for the Navy Transit and NOVA programs. The Navy reimbursed NASA for the cost of Scout launch vehicles, WSMC launch services, and mission support requirements as needed.
The Navy and other vessels used the Transit program, an operational navigation system, for worldwide ocean navigation. Prior to the August 1 launch there were six operating satellites in the system. NASA maintained two Scout vehicles on standby status to launch replacement satellites to fill any operational gaps occurring in the system.
The Navy SOOS-1 mission had two Transit satellites in a stacked configuration. The spacecraft, which weighed 283 lb., had orbital parameters of 670 km, apogee; 554 km, perigee; and 89.83°, inclination. (NASA MOR M490-606-85-01 [postlaunch] Sept 30, [prelaunch] July28/85)
NASA announced that NASA, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Defense (DOD) selected the reactor thermoelectric power system concept for further design, development, and ground demonstration testing in Phase II of the SP-100 space reactor power program. The SP-100 program required developing and demonstrating a compact nuclear power system that would provide a safe and highly reliable source of hundreds of kilowatts of electric power for a broad range of civilian and military space applications including the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in the early to mid-1990s and beyond.
In the past, lower power nuclear sources provided the electric power for several NASA and DOD missions including Transit, Pioneer, Apollo, Viking, Voyager, and Lincoln Experimental satellites. The Galileo and Ulysses missions would also use nuclear electric power sources.
The selection of the reactor thermoelectric power system concept followed three years of Phase I data collection and technical investigation. The three agencies considered four reference reactor system concepts employing different power conversion techniques: in-core thermionics and out-of-core thermoelectrics, which were both static energy conversion processes, and Stirling and Brayton cycle engines, which were both dynamic energy conversion machines.
Selection criteria included safety; reliability; the capability of the system to meet mission power requirements; the potential for the technology to cover a range of power requirements up to 1000 kw; cost, schedule, and programmatic risks; survivability; and launch operations. The three agencies determined all of the power system technologies were adequate under those criteria; however, they ranked the reactor thermoelectric power system as having the greatest potential to fulfill reliably the overall requirements for future space power needs with minimum performance and schedule risk.
The next steps in the SP-100 program required DOE to prepare the request for proposals and, pending the availability of funds, to select competitively a contractor to design, develop, fabricate, and test during the period FY 19861991 the major systems of the selected concept. DOE would select shortly a site for the reactor system program test. (NASA Release 85-116)
The European Space Agency announced that it had signed with the Commission of the European Communities an agreement to cooperate on the APOLLO project, which would provide, through the EUTELSAT 1 series of communications satellites developed by ESA and European industry, a high speed digital information transfer system suitable for long data messages, particularly document facsimiles, transmitted from a small number of information providers (up to 10) to many widely dispersed users.
The agreement provided for development as specified by ESA of prototype equipment by European industry and for the Commission with the assistance of ESA to provide overall coordination of APOLLO, including archives planned for the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in Luxembourg and for several other large document archives in Europe.
The commission estimated that APOLLO would help to provide a long term infrastructure for a market expected to expand greatly over the next five years and to contribute to experience in the design, costing, and operation of small dish earth terminals and other equipment developed for APOLLO. APOLLO could also stimulate the creation of a market for European earth stations and associated equipment.
Trial users transferring digital records, documents, and computer files would assess the system for high-speed and high-quality information. (ESA release Aug 2/85)
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