Feb 22 1980
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA reported that the SMM launch February 14 was successful, the orbit close to prediction and no functional problems in spacecraft or experiment systems. The only anomaly during early orbits was inability to compute roll reference positions, a figure needed to conduct slew maneuvers. The cause was incorrect axis translation by ground processing of star-tracker output; the program was modified and all systems were now performing within specifications. (NASA MOR S-826-80-01 [postlaunch] Feb 22/80)
FBIS reported launch of Japan's second communications satellite CS-B from Tanegashima Island at 5:35 p.m. local time. CS-B would replace Ayame (Iris), whose signal was lost when it collided with its apogee motor 12 seconds after ignition February 5, 1979. Ayame 2 would reach stationary orbit over northern New Guinea by March 10. First stationary comsat designed to use millimeter wave transmissions in communications experiments, Ayame 2 was 1.4 meters long and 1.6 meters tall, weighed about 130 kilograms, and cost 6 billion yen; it would be Japan's fifth stationary satellite.
[FBIS reported February 25 that, 8 seconds after firing an apogee motor to put the spacecraft into a circular orbit, Japan's National Space Development Agency lost radio contact with Ayame 2 also. With 30 billion yen spent to build and launch the two experimental comsats, the successive failures were "a shock to the agency and the Science and Technology Agency." Japan's tracking stations continued to send radio signals in an effort to restore contact, officials said, but the two failures would cast a shadow on future satellite-launching plans.] (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Feb 22, 25/80)
Today newspaper said NASA Associate Administrator John Yardley had "acknowledged for the first time" that NASA engineers were so concerned with the Shuttle tiles guarding against heat of reentry that they "virtually ignored whether the tiles would remain stuck to the spaceship." Yardley said at a briefing that tiles still headed the list of Shuttle problems; he said NASA was studying alternative heat protection systems using technology unavailable 10 years ago. He added that "NASA and Rockwell both have to take a share" of blame for not testing the insulating system sooner. NASA originally estimated the cost of each custom-built tile covering the Shuttle at $500 for fabrication and installation; Yardley said that the tiles would now cost three to four times that much. The actual price tag for the Shuttle was now about $8.7 billion; the cost projected in 1971 was $5.2 billion. (Today, Feb 22/80, 18-A)
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