Feb 27 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced a new launch date of no earlier than March 7 from KSC for the 51-E Space Shuttle mission with landing at KSC on March 11.
Routine checkout of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite had disclosed that one cell in a 24-cell flight battery would not accept a charge. Rescheduling the launch would permit battery repair and retesting. The three nickel-cadmium batteries would supply full power to the satellite during orbital-flight, solar-eclipse periods when its solar panels could not provide the required electrical power. Final checkout of the Space Shuttle orbiter systems was progressing satisfactorily.
The 51-E launch date would cause an STS 51-D launch date of no earlier than March 22. (NASA Release 85-29)
NASA and U.S. Air Force As a result of White House prodding, the Air Force had signed an agreement to use NASA's Space Shuttle for at least eight flights a year for 10 years starting in 1988, and the Air Force would get a discount when NASA worked out a new pricing policy for the start of FY 89, the Washington Post reported. The Air Force would pay a fixed fee at the start of each fiscal year, then a per-flight charge less than commercial and other government customers would pay.
Under the agreement, NASA would drop opposition to an Air Force plan to buy 10 single-use unmanned rockets to orbit two satellites a year for five years starting in 1988, and NASA and the Department of Defense would work together to ensure a fully-operational and cost-effective Space Shuttle.
NASA hoped the Space Shuttle would begin to break even in 1987, as the agency anticipated making from that time on 24 Space Shuttle flights yearly for 10 years. The new agreement called for the Air Force to use one third of all Space Shuttle flights for the 10 years starting in 1988.
The agreement also permitted the Air Force to pick the single-use rocket it would use to orbit secret satellites too small for economical use of the Space Shuttle. (W Post, Feb 27/85, A22)
In its just-released annual "Aviation Forecasts," which covered FY 85-86, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forecasted healthy growth for the nation's major air carriers in the next dozen years and slow but steady growth for general aviation (private and business flying).
The agency noted that U.S.-certificated air carriers had recorded passenger gains in each of the previous three years and in FY 84 achieved their largest operating profit in history-$2 billion. The FAA said airlines, over the 12-year forecast period, would increase passenger enplanements at better than 4.5% annually, from 336 million in FY 84 to 573 million in FY 96. Commuter airlines had increased passenger boardings 14% in FY 84, a figure expected to more than double during the forecast period to 54.2 million in FY 96.
The FAA expected the general-aviation fleet to increase from 213,300 aircraft in 1984 to 270,500 in 1996, an annual growth rate of 2%.
FAA projections for takeoffs and landings at airports with FAA control towers indicated an increase from 57 to 92 million, as the number of aircraft handled by the agency's en route control facilities would rise from 31.6 to 45.7 million. (FAA Release 8-85)
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