Sep 30 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that Spacelab 2, which flew onboard the Space Shuttle Challenger that was launched on July 29 from KSC on mission 51-F, completed the second of two planned Design Verification Flights required by the Spacelab Verification Flight Test (VFT) program. Monitoring of mission activities and quick-look analysis of data confirmed that the mission achieved the 13 specific VFT requirements and performed the planned multidiscipline science. Based on these results, NASA judged the Spacelab-2 mission objectives accomplished.
NASA researchers were continuing detailed analysis of all data, and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) would produce additional documents when results were finalized for the Spacelab system, payload integration, and the Spacelab-2 experiments managed by MSFC. Principal investigators would produce separate documentation for their experiments. (NASA MOR M-977-51F-03 [postlaunch] Sept 30/85)
The U.S. Commerce Department announced it signed a contract with Earth Observation Satellite Co. (Eosat) to pay $250 million over the next five years for Eosat to construct two new Landsat satellites (Landsat 6 and 7); provide a ground system to operate and process data from the new spacecraft; and operate, process, and market data from Landsats 4, 5, 6, and 7 the Washington Post reported. Eosat, a joint venture of RCA Corp., which would build the new spacecraft, and Hughes Aircraft Co., which would provide satellite instrumentation including the thematic mappers, would operate the orbiting Landsat 4 and 5 for their anticipated lifetime at a cost to the government similar to the government's projected cost. The Commerce Department said the new satellites, Landsat 6 scheduled for launch in 1988 and Landsat 7 scheduled for launch when Landsat 6 neared the end of its approximately five-year lifetime, should provide sharper images and enhance the value of the system for agricultural uses.
The U.S. government would launch the new satellites from the Space Shuttle at an estimated cost of $44.9 million and also pay for any Space Shuttle system modifications necessary for the launches.
Although the contract called for Eosat to market and operate the four Landsats, it allowed the company to terminate date marketing for Landsat 4 and 5 if cumulative revenue was below 65% of the mutually agreed upon projected revenues for data sales for the two satellites and to terminate operations and data marketing for Landsat 6 and 7 if total cumulative revenue fell below 60% of projected revenue after launch of Landsat 6, Defense Daily reported.
Landsats used cameras and other scanners to produce pictures in various wavelengths for many uses, including agriculture, mineral explorations, fishing, forestry, snow cover and surface water surveys, and land use and city planning. NASA developed the Landsat system and in 1983 transferred it to the Commerce Department. (W Post, Oct 1/85, B3; D/D, Oct 1/85, 153)
NASA announced that, since adverse weather conditions such as rain, mist, or ice could damage Space Shuttle tiles, its Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, using an F-104 aircraft as a testbed, would test Space Shuttle thermal protection system tiles for moisture impact damage and to verify techniques to record and measure atmospheric moisture. NASA researchers would then correlate this information with existing Space Shuttle launch criteria and determine the need for further tests.
Researchers would install actual Space Shuttle tiles on the leading edge of a flight test fixture mounted below the F-104's fuselage. Some tiles were unused; others had flown in space on the orbiter Columbia.
During initial flights in the 16-to-18 flight test program, the F-104 would fly at subsonic speeds behind a KC-135 tanker aircraft, which would emit a water spray to create artificial rain. Tanker personnel could control the flow rate, nozzle pressures, and size of the artificial raindrops.
Pilots would fly additional flights at subsonic speeds near Vandenberg Air Force Base, a future Space Shuttle launch site, to observe and measure the effects of mist and low stratus clouds. Pilots later would fly at transonic and supersonic speeds flights at high altitude through ice particles in clouds.
A particle-measurement probe located on the 1-104's wing pylon would record moisture particle size, while high-frequency load sensors would measure impact forces. A noseboom on the flight test fixture would record velocity, and test fixture pressure orifices would measure pressure distribution. Video cameras, one pylon-mounted and one mounted on the F-104's lower fuselage looking back at the flight test fixture, would also record data. (NASA Release 85-135)
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