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#60 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:26
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PEGASUS CHALLENGE
When asked for his views on the Pegasus program in general, Gordon Fullerton had this to say: “Generally, it’s been a very interesting program to work on. I think it’s a great idea, a great capability. They’ve had a number of little Murphy’s Law-type gotchas all the way through here – in the mating and stuff that they stumble across, things that had to be fixed – and the Orbital Sciences people have been really good about leaping on every problem instantly and really getting at it. Of course, it’s in their interests to do so.”
“Since it’s a private company program, they can deal with problems without all the layers of review that a government program would have, so you see a lot more action a lot quicker when you have a problem. That’s been kinda pleasant,” said Fullerton and added, “We’ve had great work from our folks maintaining and modifying the bomber. There’s been quite an extensive modification of the bomber as far as equipment in the Launch Panel Operator’s station is concerned, running the cables and fitting the instrumentation package and all that. It’s been a challenge and the Dryden people have come through. – They’ve been ready to go every time Orbital Sciences has. We haven’t held anything up. I’m glad about that.”
PEGASUS PLANS
The use of small satellites is expected to increase, a market Pegasus could capture. NASA plans to launch a smaller explorer-type of craft sometime in 1993 after the Scout launchers are depleted. The 600- to 1,000-pound satellites would be placed in 400-mile polar orbits. NASA is planning to issue contracts for seven such satellites, with options for three more.
In the late to mid-1990s, DARPA will use the Pegasus to launch seven satellites known as microsats. These small communications satellites weigh less than 50 pound each. The design and development of smaller satellites known as lightsats are visioned by experts to dominate the marketplace within the next few years. Such smaller systems allow research and development programs to continue, while more complex and larger systems are being refurbished and face greater chances for delay. The reason their development encountered delay hinged upon the unavailability of a reliable and low-cost launcher.
An Earth-launched booster designed to loft small payloads costs $20,000 per pound, while the Pegasus only costs $6,000 per pound to launch a payload into orbit. Plus, the Pegasus system is less expensive and requires fewer personnel, since a launch pad does not need to be maintained. – If Pegasus becomes the wave of the future, space watchers may need airplane tickets to watch orbital launches.
(Martin A. Prisc, Countdown, May 1990; Nigel Macknight, Spaceflight News, February 1990 – edited)
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#61 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:27
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The Flying Mother Ship
“It’s an interesting airplane – flies well.”
- C. Gordon Fullerton
The B-52 is still a mainstay in the U.S. Air Force, though many of its duties have been taken over by the Rockwell B-1B. This particular airplane – tail number 008 – was the eighth “B” model built, and is by far the oldest B-52 still flying. Ironically, it also has – by far – the lowest number of flying hours on its airframe: a mere 2,200 hours. NASA’s B-52-008 has never been anything but a mother ship; it was never a bomber. It came right from the Boeing factory to be modified by North American Aviation into a mother ship for the legendary X-15.
Space Shuttle veteran and Air Force pilot Gordon Fullerton says of the B-52, “It’s got its own unique handling characteristics, particularly in the landing regime. Due to the tremendous length of its fuselage, most of which is behind the center-of-pressure rather than forward, it has a great amount of directional stability. Coupled with that, it has very small rudder and elevator surfaces, so certain aspects of the handling are – shall we say, noteworthy…”
“For instance, you can pull two outboard engines back with the others all set up at cruise thrust and leave your feet on the floor, and the airplane doesn’t yaw a whole lot. Then you can push in full rudder – trying to coordinate the airplane – and with full rudder right to the stop, it still doesn’t coordinate it. Most airplanes have lots more rudder power. This airplane doesn’t have much. However, it’s enough, just because of its basic directional stability. In addition to that, it has very heavy aileron forces on the wheel control column, so it’s a two-handed airplane to wrestle around.”
“Landing it… Because the inboard flap has a big notch cut out of it for the X-15’s tail – and now for the Pegasus tail – to stick up into, the inboard flaps are not operational. The outboard flaps don’t operate either, because the inboards don’t, so we always make our take-offs and landings without flaps. The airplane was designed to take off and land with full 100-percent flaps in a four-point attitude, so with no flaps you have to carry the nose higher to get the angle-of-attack to fly, and when the aft trucks touch down the nose just crashes down. There’s no stopping it with the small elevator surface; you don’t have the power to hardly cushion the blow. Every landing is kind of a semi-crash. Occasionally, one comes out smooth, but not very often.”
Adding to the spectacle that is a B-52 landing is the type’s highly unusual crosswind landing gear arrangement, whereby – in any kind of crosswind – instead of holding a wing down, or holding rudder (and remember, as Fullerton says, there’s hardly any rudder authority), all four landing gears are pivoted in the same direction and the airplane landed crabwise. Unsuspecting onlookers are amazed when they witness such landings, and Fullerton confirms, “it looks strange from inside the cockpit, as well as to someone outside!”
(Nigel Macknight, Spaceflight News, February 1990 – edited)
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#62 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:28
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April 7: MCCARTNEY TESTED FOR DRUGS
Kennedy Space Center Director Forrest McCartney was one of the first Space Center executives tested for drug use as part of the federal government's Drug-Free Work Place Program. Under this program, about 75 civil service employees in sensitive positions will be tested annually. The employees will be randomly chosen from 750 people who work with explosives, toxics or other dangerous material or are responsible for the protection of life and property, public health, safety and national security.
McCartney described the testing as "fair, comprehensive and private." The program involves testing for cocaine and marijuana and will be done for amphetamine use if an employee is suspected of taking that drug. Anyone found with illegal drugs in their systems will be disciplined or terminated. Employees will not be disciplined if they voluntarily identify themselves, request help, successfully complete counseling or rehabilitation and refrain from using illegal drugs. At Kennedy Space Center contact KSC Drug Program Coordinator David Dickinson at 867-9246. (Halvorson, Florida Today, Apr. 8, 1990)
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#63 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:29
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April 7: APOLLO ASTRONAUT RONALD EVANS DIES
Ronald E. Evans, Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot, died of a heart attack today. The 56-year-old former astronaut made the last flight to the Moon in December 1972, and considered it “the best experience I ever had in my life.” Serving as CMP, he kept orbital watch while fellow crewmen Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt spent three days on the Moon. Evans made one of only three spacewalks ever conducted in deep space, retrieving film and data canisters from the service module. He left the astronaut program in 1977 to become an officer with Western American Energy Corp. in Scottsdale, Arizona. Evans died in his sleep at his Arizona home. (Florida Today, Apr. 8, 1990; Countdown, May 1990 – edited)
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#64 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:31
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April 9: ARIANE V36 ACCIDENT CAUSED BY PIECE OF CLOTH
We now know what caused the loss of Ariane V36; the accident on February 22 resulted in the detonation of the booster, destroying two Japanese communications satellites about 100 seconds after lift-off. The first-stage Viking 5 engine D experienced a drop in combustion chamber pressure, and even gimballing the remaining engines to their maximum point was not enough to save the rocket. The inquiry board presented its report to Arianespace and ESA on Friday, March 30. After due deliberation, senior officials gave a press conference at Evry today.
It was confirmed that the inquiry board determined the cause of the V36 accident to be a blockage in the Viking 5 engine’s water supply line. The culprit was a piece of cloth which obstructed the main water valve. Water is fed via steel tubes from a mid-stage tank to the first-stage engines and to the strap-on boosters the water regulates propellant mixture for the Vikings and controls combustion pressure by regulating the gas generator. It is thought that the most likely reason for the cloth’s presence is linked to what the investigation board describes as “unusual servicing” of the water-supply tubing. This seems to suggest that an unapproved maintenance technique was employed.
The inquiry board issued 44 recommendations to prevent a repetition of the V36 incident, all of which were accepted by Arianespace and ESA; nine will have to be implemented before the V37 mission takes place. They mainly concern the integration and air-tightness verification procedures for the fluid circuits of the first and second stages, and of the liquid-propellant strap-on boosters. (Countdown, May 1990; Spaceflight News, June 1990 – edited)
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#65 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:31
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#66 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:35
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April 11: STACKSAT-TRIO LAUNCHED FROM VANDENBERG
An Atlas-E, successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, orbited three small scientific satellites today. The launch from Complex 3 at 2:00 a.m. PDT deployed the payload into a 460-mile-high orbit at 5:15 a.m. PDT. In order to carry the three satellites and to achieve proper orbit, the Atlas was fitted with the fourth stage of a Scout booster.
The payload, called the P87-2 mission, was coined Stacksat. The satellites weigh between 120 and 150 pounds each, and are designed to aid the accuracy of navigational charts and to test methods of overcoming communications interference caused by the Earth’s atmosphere.
The first satellite includes the Polar Orbiting Geomagnetic Survey (POGOS) and the Solid State Recorder (SSR). POGOS will study the extent of the Earth’s magnetic field, and data will be used for geomagnetic charts to aid global navigation. The SSR contains high speed integrated circuits to validate their use in space. The second satellite, the Transceiver Experiment (TEX), will reflect radio waves off the ionosphere to study irregularities which disrupt radio communications. The third satellite, the Selective Communications Experiment (SCE), will also bounce radio waves off the ionosphere, but in various directions.
A secondary experiment was located between the three satellites and the kick motor. The Prototype Deployment Device (PDD) will test a latch mechanism by deploying two objects in space. The total mission has a price tag of $22 million, and each satellite has about a one-year lifespan. (Countdown, May 1990 – edited)
April 13: WORK STARTS ON ASRM BOOSTER PLANT IN MISSISSIPPI
This week's start of construction of a $1.2 billion plant in Mississippi to build advanced solid-fuel boosters for the Space Shuttle doesn't mean Thiokol is out of the rocket business. But it does mean the loss of significant booster business in Utah. Thiokol, however, has other contracts and prospects for contracts.
At a groundbreaking ceremony in Iuka, Mississippi, Tuesday, Lowell Zoller, manager of the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor project office for NASA, said the region is on the threshold of new opportunities. The new plant is expected to create 1,500 permanent jobs and deliver an annual payroll of $45 million to the northern Mississippi-Tennessee-Alabama area.
Back at its Brigham City plant, Thiokol will continue making the current boosters until the advanced boosters are qualified for flight. "That's not expected to happen before 1996 or 1997," said a Thiokol spokesman in Ogden. By early May, NASA is expected to sign a contract with Lockheed and Aerojet Corp. to build the new motors. Even after the advanced motor is adopted, Thiokol will continue building the nozzle, under a subcontract with Lockheed.
Meanwhile, Thiokol has the military contract to build the MX Missile, officially called the Peacekeeper. It also has other tactical missile contracts, and is expected to be awarded the contract to build the Midgetman if Congress funds that system. The Thiokol spokesman said other large space vehicles are either being designed or have been proposed that could use the solid rocket motor that Thiokol presently builds for the shuttle. Also, the company could build new motors for proposed vehicles, he said. "We'd certainly like to," he said. "Certainly able to."
Thiokol has survived the controversy over the Challenger space shuttle disaster in January 1986, in which an O-ring on one of its solid rocket motors failed. The resulting explosion killed the space ship's seven astronauts. Thiokol did not bid on the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor project. The spokesman said this was because "at the time that the bid had to be prepared we were heavily engaged in the engineering work for the redesign of the existing motor . . . We simply did not have the resources to bid."
In October 1989, Senator Jake Garn, R-Utah, predicted that Thiokol probably would still be making Space Shuttle boosters long after the turn of the century because the new plant wouldn't meet its timetables. Garn, a former shuttle astronaut, believes the Mississippi plant was ill-conceived. By the year 2000, he said on the floor of the Senate, "the new ones (ASRM) won't be ready." (Joseph Bauman, Deseret News, Apr. 13, 1990 – edited)
April 13: DELTA II LAUNCH SCHEDULED TONIGHT
McDonnell Douglas's Delta II is ready for launch tonight from LC-17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between 6:28 and 9:38 p.m. EDT. The lift-off was previously scheduled for April 9, but was postponed so NASA could try to launch Discovery STS-31 on the 10th. The Delta will launch the Palapa B2-R, which was originally launched by Challenger in 1984. Subsequently it malfunctioned and was rescued by Discovery in the same year. (Countdown, May 1990; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
DELTA II ROCKET LAUNCHES USED SATELLITE BACK INTO ORBIT
A $60 million Indonesian satellite lost in space and rescued by shuttle astronauts six years ago was fired back into orbit today by a Delta II rocket in the final chapter of an unprecedented space success story. The successful Friday the 13th launch of the Palapa B-2R satellite brought the used spacecraft full circle and further cemented close ties between Indonesia and the United States, which has now launched six radio relay stations for the Pacific island nation since 1976.
"All right!" said launch commentator Ray Adams after confirmation the satellite was in the proper orbit. "It was a great success." The $50 million Delta 2 thundered to life at 6:28 p.m. EDT and quickly vaulted away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, six days after a Chinese Long March rocket successfully boosted an identical satellite into orbit that was stranded in space along with Palapa B-2R during shuttle mission STS 41-B in 1984. "The success is really very significant to our country," said Makarim Wibisomo, a spokesman for the Indonesian government. "We are right now in a very risky situation because we were supposed to launch this satellite several years ago. We consist of 13,677 islands. We have terrestrial communications but it is not sufficient," he said.
The slender blue-and-white Delta, equipped with nine strap-on solid-fuel boosters for extra power, majestically climbed away through a partly cloudy sky, arcing east over the Atlantic Ocean and putting on a spectacular sky show for local residents and tourists along area beaches. It was the ninth success in a row for the Delta 2 since the rocket's maiden launch one year ago.
"Now completely refurbished, Palapa is returning to space," said David Braverman, a vice president with Hughes Aircraft Co., builder of both satellites. "Today we are to witness the completion of this spectacular story."
Palapa B-2R was ejected into its preliminary egg-shaped orbit with a high point of 23,474 miles and a low point of 115 miles about 26 minutes after blastoff. An onboard rocket will fire Sunday to put the satellite into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the Pacific Ocean equator in the sky over Indonesia. Once checked out and in operation, Palapa B-2R - the "R" stands for re-flight - will replace an aging satellite launched from Challenger during STS-7 in 1983 and join one launched by a Delta in 1987 to help link Indonesia's islands with quality telephone, television and data communications service.
Palapa B-2R, a cylindrical 1,437-pound satellite measuring 22 feet long and 7 feet wide, is equipped with 24 radio transponders, each one capable of carrying 1,000 one-way voice circuits or a color television transmission. The operational two-satellite constellation is used to support domestic Indonesian communications as well as those of other nations in the area. The rebuilt Palapa B-2R satellite was valued at roughly $60 million. Throwing in the cost of the rocket and a $27.5 million insurance premium, the flight today represented a $137.5 million project.
Palapa – the name means "national unity" – and an identical satellite called Westar VI, originally owned by Western Union, were stranded in useless, lopsided orbits in February 1984 when their solid-fuel boosters, built by McDonnell Douglas, misfired after launch from the shuttle Challenger. The aerospace insurance industry was forced to pay out $105 million to Western Union, the owner of the Westar VI satellite, and some $75 million to Perumtel, the state-owned Indonesian telecommunications agency.
Nine months later, after around-the-clock work by NASA, Hughes and the underwriters, who now owned both relay stations, the two satellites were rescued by spacewalkers Joe Allen and Dale Gardner, who pulled them aboard the shuttle Discovery in one of the most dramatic space missions ever conducted. The satellites then were carried back to Earth and returned to Hughes for refurbishment and eventual re-launch.
Westar VI later was sold to a consortium based in Hong Kong, renamed Asiasat 1 and successfully launched last Saturday, April 7, by a Chinese Long March rocket. Palapa B-2R was bought by Sattel Technologies Inc., a private company that contracted with the government of Indonesia to refurbish and re-launch the satellite. "The spacecraft was in super shape," said Braverman. "The nine months of orbital exposure it had were very benign and basically we only had to replace the items we used extensively during the nine months, the batteries, the on-board propulsion system."
The Delta II, an upgraded version of the workhorse Delta rockets launched for years by NASA, was designed to carry military Global Positioning System Navstar satellites into orbit for the Air Force. But the $669 million contract to build and launch 20 Delta IIs for the Navstar program required McDonnell Douglas to make the rockets available on a commercial basis as part of a program to encourage development of a private-sector launch industry. (Deseret News, Apr. 14, 1990 – edited)
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#67 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:37
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April 14: ATLANTIS FUEL CELL ACCIDENT TO BE INVESTIGATED
NASA has appointed a board to investigate an accident that occurred inside the OPF on April 4. A fuel cell that failed a post-flight inspection was damaged while workers were preparing to remove it from the orbiter Atlantis. George Abbey, Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight, will head a six-member board which will submit its findings by April 30. (Florida Today, Apr. 15, 1990 – edited)
April 14: RESISTORS CAUSE NO PROBLEMS
NASA said that a Federal investigation of a Florida company accused of providing faulty parts for shuttles will not halt launch plans. "We've used the resistors on the orbiters over and over again and we have not seen any significant problems," said NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown. "Right now, we're not looking at any critical safety issues because if they worked the first time, there's a good high-percentage chance they are going to keep working."
NASA Inspector General Bill Colvin is investigating Impala Electronics Co., Tampa, Florida. The resistors are used to send correct amounts of current to various shuttle electrical systems. Each orbiter uses tens of thousands of resistors from a variety of manufacturers, Brown said. NASA will, however, halt purchases of resistors from Impala Electronics until the investigation is completed. (Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
April 20: SPEEDERS BEWARE – JSC CRACKDOWN AWAITS THE UNWARY
If you haven’t already noticed – or been caught – JSC’s security officers have begun a crackdown on speeders, especially those on Fifth Street. There has been a significant increase in the number of “near misses” reported by pedestrians using crosswalks along Fifth Street, and by those using the crosswalk on Second Street near Building 45, said Bob Gaffney of JSC’s Security Operations Branch.
“We have increases our enforcement activities on Fifth Street because of concern for pedestrians using the new parking lots,” Gaffney said, “but you never know where we’re going to hit.” During a normal workday, more than 15,000 vehicles use the center’s roads; security officers normally write about three tickets a day. In the first three days of this crackdown, officers issued between 25 and 440 tickets a day, Gaffney said.
Security is using radar detectors to catch speeders, which means violators are clocked long before being stopped by a security officer. Once the radar equipment has clocked a vehicle, the officer locks the speed on the digital display until the citation is served.
JSC’s traffic safety enforcement is based on a point system. Two points are assessed for driving 1-5 miles an hour over the posted speed limit, 3 points are assessed for going 6-10 miles an hour over; and five points are assessed for traveling 11 miles an hour or more over the limit. Anyone with 10 or more points within 12 months faces temporary suspension of on-site driving privileges.
All employees should remember that the on-site speed limit is 25 miles an hour unless otherwise posted, Gaffney said. He also wants drivers to be aware of new “SLOW” signs at JSC’s Third Street and West Avenue B entry gates. The new signs are a reminder for drivers to slow down so they can be properly identified by the security officers on duty. (JSC Space News Roundup, Apr. 4, 1990 – edited)
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#68 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:38
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The 90s – Decade of Opportunity
27TH ANNUAL SPACE CONGRESS AT COCOA BEACH
The opening of the 27th Space Congress coincided with the launch of Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope. Congress Event Chairman Doug Sargent joked, “We spared no expense.” Sargent is head of Lockheed Space Operations Co., Titusville, Florida. This year’s theme is “The 90s – Decade of Opportunity.” Sargent said, “We deliberately selected that theme as opposed to “Challenge” or various other themes that might indicate tough going. We really do believe that the 1990s, with the increased outward look into space, it will be a decade of opportunities.”
For more than 25 years, the Canaveral Council of Technical Societies, with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense, has sponsored and conducted the Space Congress. The CCTS consists of 28 technical and professional societies. It was founded in 1960 and incorporated formally in 1965. In October 1962, with the support of the fledgling CCTS, the first Space Congress was held at Daytona Beach. Beginning in 1964, the annual meetings have been held in Cocoa Beach during the last week of April.
The Congress features authoritative presentations on the technical activities and accomplishments of a broad spectrum of space programs. The information presented covers recent space missions and experiments, details the status of development programs, and outlines the future direction of the program.
STICK TO THAT DREAM
Astronauts Michael McCulley, Mario Runco, Jr., and Norman Thagard spoke to students and space enthusiasts at the Space Congress. Thagard told the audience which included science fair winners, “In this country, perhaps we haven’t done as good a job educating students, but you all are doing the right thing.” Astronaut Mario Runco told the audience that he had to apply five times before NASA accepted him as an astronaut, “Stick to that dream and don’t lose sight of it because it is attainable.”
FUTURE NEEDS
“We’ve got to maintain the capabilities that we have. But in order to support the Space Station Freedom program, we’ve got to develop the capability to get more payload to orbit,” said Kennedy Space Center’s Jay Honeycutt, speaking to the Space Congress. Honeycutt is Director of Shuttle Management and Operations at KSC. He went on to say that the shuttle flight rate can be picked up safely by streamlining processing and trimming voluminous paperwork.
Johnson Space Center’s Assistant Director for Space Shuttle Programs, Tommy Holloway, said, “Getting ready to fly a Space Shuttle today takes too long, is too complex and does not offer the flexibility we need to meet future needs.” He said that shuttle missions take as long as two years to plan, train for and execute and that upgrading computer hardware and software at JSC will reduce the total preparation time required.
TO GO, TO EXPLORE AND TO SAFELY RETURN
NASA’s Deputy Administrator J.R. Thompson told the Space Congress how he envisioned the space program in the year 2000. He foresaw a shuttle fleet of five, with two more on order and said that by the end of the century, NASA would have completed 129 shuttle flights and would be preparing to deliver third-generation instruments to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Thompson went on to say that by 2000, the National Aerospace Plane will be built and about to begin test flights and that the first flight to a permanent scientific base on the Moon would be just a few years away. “Let’s not make technology alone the end product,” Thompson said. “To go, to explore and to safely return is the mission and it is that on which we will be judged.”
He went on to say that NASA’s 15% budget increase requested this year is by no means assured, but “how we end up in Congress will go a long way toward setting the tone of this decade.”
(Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
May 9: ANOTHER SCOUT SUCCESS AT VANDENBERG
Two Multiple Access Communications Satellites (MACSATs) were successfully launched today by NASA aboard the four-stage Scout rocket. The launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:50 a.m. PDT. The MACSATs will relay communication messages at UHF frequencies for Department of Defense users, and were developed by Defense Systems, Inc. The Navy-owned Scout rockets are 73ft.-long solid-propellant boosters which were first used in 1960. Built by LTV Missiles and Electronics Group of Dallas, Texas, the launch vehicle has made 56 error-free launches out of 57 since 1967. (Countdown, June 1990 – edited)
May 11: ASTRONAUT HALL OF FAME DEDICATED
Five of the six living Mercury Astronauts attended the dedication of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and U.S. Space Camp Florida. Those present were U.S. Senator John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Donald “Deke” Slayton; Walter Schirra was unable to attend because of a previous engagement.
The astronauts, in their remarks, focused on the future of spaceflight and exploration. “None of us need the memorial. We don’t need an exhibit. We all have the Mercury days so firmly, indelibly imprinted on our minds and our memories. We can just close our yes and almost sense what it was like back in those days,” said Senator John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. “But if this can help inspire someone to get a better education and inspire some of our young people to do some research, then this will all be worthwhile.”
The hall is open from 8:00 a.m. to dusk daily. Admission is $4.95 for adults and $2.95 for children 3 to 12. (Halvorson, Florida Today, May 12, 1990; Minor, The Orlando Sentinel, May 12, 1990)
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#69 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:40
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May 22: ATLANTIS FUEL CELL ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT
A NASA accident investigation board has determined that the April 4 accident which damaged one of orbiter Atlantis’ three fuel cells was caused by a lack of training and failure to follow specific procedures. The cell was damaged as technicians and inspectors prepared to remove the cell for shipment back to its manufacturer because of problems which emerged during post-flight inspections. Karl Kristofferson, NASA spokesman, said, “It had to be replaced anyway because it had a short-circuit in it.”
The investigation board was headed by George Abbey, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight. The board recommended that: supervisors monitoring fuel cell removal operations be on hand when such operations are proceeding and that engineers walk through the procedures to be followed by technicians and inspectors prior to removing the fuel cell. (Halvorson, Florida Today, May 23, 1990 – edited)
May 23: CHLORINE LEAK NEAR KSC
A small chlorine leak discovered at a water pump station near Kennedy Space Center caused disruption in traffic and the precautionary evacuation of a family living nearby. The leak occurred about noon at a pump station south of Gate 2 on State Road 3. Dick Young, spokesman for NASA, said, “It was a very minor leak. We sent the firefighters in and they capped it within ten minutes. We wanted to make sure there was nobody within a half-mile of the pump station while the firefighters were doing the repair work.” Traffic in the area was stopped for about 30 minutes and no injuries resulted from the incident. (Halvorson, Florida Today, May 25, 1990)
May 23: KSC SHUTTLE LANDINGS – 1991 MAYBE
“Everybody would like to start landing at Kennedy again, but some people feel we need to proceed cautiously because there is inherently more risk,” said shuttle astronaut Brewster Shaw, who is also Deputy Director of Shuttle Program Management at Kennedy Space Center. “We have to convince ourselves that whatever additional risk we would be accepting is worth the gain we would be getting,” he said. Top program managers will meet in June to consider the question of KSC landings.
The dry lake bed runways at Edwards Air Force Base, California, have been preferred because they offer 22 landing options on runways that range up to 7 1/2 miles long and are twice as wide as KSC’s concrete strip. “People like the Edwards lake-bed complex largely for that reason. Kennedy gives us two ends of the same runway to work with and that’s it,” said Shaw.
Landing at KSC are being reconsidered in part because of the improvements which have been made to the orbiter’s brakes and in its nosewheel steering system. If improvements can be made in forecasting fast-changing weather patterns in Florida, then Kennedy Space Center landings could come as early as 1991. (Halvorson, Florida Today, May 26, 1990)
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#70 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:42
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May 31: APOLLO 1 SPACECRAFT STAYS AT LANGLEY
By order of Congress, the remains of the Apollo 1 crew capsule (CM #012), destroyed during the deadly fire accident on January 27, 1967, were mandated to be preserved and protected for a period of no less than ten years following the conclusion of the Apollo 204 Review Board findings and hearings. To comply with this mandate, they were loaded into a specially sealed container, capable of maintaining a low-pressure nitrogen atmosphere to help minimize corrosion to the spacecraft and its components. An old Convair storage hangar at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, was designated to hold the spacecraft’s charred remains, which arrived there by barge on July 18, 1967.
By July of 1977, the nitrogen purge was removed. The container has been deteriorating since and small leaks have developed. Routine repairs were made, but due to its age it cannot be effectively maintained. For several years NASA has contemplated various options, some rather controversial, for dealing with the spacecraft and its remains. Suggested plans included taking the capsule out to sea and sinking it among the remains of the nuclear-powered submarine U.S.S. Thresher.
While family members of all three fallen astronauts appear unified in their quest to prevent further destruction of the Apollo 1 spacecraft, they hold differing opinions as to if, how, when and where it should be displayed. Recently, in order to recover storage area – the CM, heatshield, booster protective cover and additional material take up about 3,300 cubic feet – and to gain relief from the open-ended maintenance required on the storage containers, NASA has renewed its efforts to dispose of the vehicle. This time, plans were made to bury Apollo 1 in one of two abandoned Minuteman missile silos at Cape Canaveral, which also hold debris from another dark chapter in the history of the U.S. manned space program.
“It seems like this is the most reasonable place to put it since we have the other debris from the Challenger accident there,” said NASA spokesman Mark Hess. The silos are about five miles from Launch Complex 34, where Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were killed in the capsule fire.
Thirty-one shipping crates containing 81 cartons of interior spacecraft components and investigation data from the Apollo 204 fire arrived at Kennedy Space Center on April 26, 1990. They were taken to the low bay of the Vehicle Assembly Building for bonded storage. In preparation for transport and disposal in the missile silo, NASA directed that both crew compartment and aft ablative heatshields be cut in two.
The media picked up on this and, as a result, NASA was inundated with requests to preserve the spacecraft. On May 16, John Lawrence, Chief of Congressional Affairs for NASA’s Office of Space Flight in Washington, said that the Smithsonian Institution would “pull together their committee of administrators and curators to think once again whether they want to accept the hardware.”
Smithsonian officials turned down a chance to take the materials in five years ago. They had to weigh any restrictions NASA imposes on displaying the Apollo crew module. “They are not asking to display it. They’re interested in storing it,” said Bill Sheehan, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Communications.
“NASA is still thinking over what it wants to do with it,” said Martin Harwit, Director of the National Air & Space Museum. “We’re not sure exactly what is involved in taking it – how much material would have to come along with it and what the costs to preserve it will be.” Harwit also said that it was not unusual for a museum to accept donations with the precondition the material not be displayed for a period of time. “It was a tragedy and there are family members who would be hurt by a public display. That has to be handled with sensitivity.”
For the present though, NASA has chosen not to move the Apollo 1 spacecraft to Cape Canaveral and will not offer it to the National Air & Space Museum. Bill Sheehan said, “Leaving everything as it is will keep everyone happy. We thought it wise.” Lin Ezell, Assistant Director for Collections Management at the Smithsonian, said the museum still wants it. “At the appropriate time the museum looks forward to making a responsible decision about whether it wishes to assume the role of caretaker of this historic artifact.”
NASA spokesman Mark Hess said the decision to keep the capsule at Langley indefinitely was made after conferring with relatives of the three astronauts who died and former Apollo astronauts. “They just asked us to reconsider and keep it, or store it in another way.” Displaying the capsule at the Smithsonian or anywhere else was never seriously considered, Hess said. Earlier this month a Kansas museum had sent a letter also requesting to store the capsule. “I don’t think you’d find a soul in NASA who thought that was an appropriate alternative,” Hess said.
The thirty-one shipping crates of hardware and investigative material moved to KSC in late April for burial with the Apollo 1 capsule will be returned to Langley.
(JSC Space News Roundup, May 4, 1990; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991; Glen E. Swanson, “Should Apollo 1 be displayed?” [Editorial] / “Tracing Apollo 1: A Spacecraft Chronology,” Quest, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1996 – edited)
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#71 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:42
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#72 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:43
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#73 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:44
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June 1: DELTA 195 LIFTS ROSAT INTO ORBIT – AND THERE’S A BUSY ELV SEASON AHEAD
At 5:48 p.m. EDT today, the Air Force launched a Delta II rocket which carried a spacecraft that will picture for humans the usually invisible X-ray and extreme ultraviolet light. The Roentgen satellite ROSAT is a joint venture of West Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. During its one-and-a-half-year mission the spacecraft will focus X-ray and extreme ultraviolet telescopes on outer space to search for clues about the origins an evolution of the Universe.
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#74 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:45
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The first commercial Atlas-Centaur which General Dynamics was to have been launched June 23 has been delayed at least 16 days because of minor damage to the rocket. General dynamics spokesman Jack Isabel said a helium line failed when it was being pressurized on May 30. The failure caused two small holes to form in an adapter between the rocket and its Centaur upper stage, he said. The adapter is to be repaired at its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Complex 36B pad.
Sitting atop the Atlas-Centaur rocket is the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES). Developed by Ball Aerospace, CRRES will investigate the environment of the upper atmosphere. The spacecraft contains five major experiments and more than 50 devices to study the electrical, magnetic and particle conditions at 250 miles above the Earth. Data received from CRRES is expected to provide insight on ways of designing satellites to last longer, and to improve their efficiency while in geosynchronous orbits.
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#75 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:45
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Scheduled for early June, a Titan IV will loft a secret Department of Defense payload from Cape Canaveral. Rumors indicate it will carry either a missile warning satellite or a reconnaissance spacecraft. A Delta II booster is planned to launch an Indian communications satellite on June 12 from the Cape. McDonnell Douglas was scheduled to launch the Insat-1D a year ago, but the satellite was damaged while on the pad.
Martin Marietta plans to launch its second Intelsat communications satellite on June 21, at 7:18 p.m. EDT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The first Intelsat launch on March 14 was an unsuccessful mission when the spacecraft failed to separate from its upper-stage booster. The same problem was discovered in the Commercial Titan CT-3 rocket being prepared for the upcoming launch.
(Countdown, June & July 1990; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
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#76 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:46
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June 7: OMV – GONE WITH THE BUDGET
NASA has announced that to cut costs, it has canceled plans to develop an unmanned, remotely controlled space tug called the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle. Once scheduled for an inaugural flight in 1995, the tug's satellite retrieval and servicing duties can be performed temporarily by the Space Shuttle, said William Lenoir, NASA's Associate Administrator for Spaceflight.
However, the space tug was also intended to carry satellites to a higher orbit than can be achieved by the shuttle. Under the management of the Marshall Space Flight Center the OMV was to be built by TRW; it was billed as cost effective for about nine scheduled missions, including the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). Those projects will now depend on orbital reboost using the shuttle.
The OMV was intended for use in the building of Freedom Station and as a tug for station resupply vehicles, but NASA had yet to resolve safety concerns about ground controllers operating it around the Space Station. The White House had initially requested about $85 million for the doomed OMV, which is half of what Marshall needed to keep the program on schedule.
“It, or something similar, eventually will be needed in our space infrastructure;” said Lenoir. He stated that “this has been a difficult decision to make, but I feel that it is a necessary step in order to keep the overall space flight program healthy, on firm footing and capable of delivering on schedule and on budget.” (The Houston Chronicle, June 8, 1990; Countdown, July 1990 – edited)
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#77 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:47
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June 8: TITAN IV ROCKET BLASTS OFF WITH A SECRET PAYLOAD
America's mightiest unmanned space rocket, a Titan IV, blasted off today with a secret military payload. It was the second launch of a Titan IV. The giant rocket boosted a missile-warning satellite into orbit in June 1989.The rocket was launched at 1:22 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, lighting up the sky as it thundered toward orbit. The Air Force refused to discuss or even acknowledge the flight until about twenty minutes later, when a statement was issued. The payload was not disclosed.
"This was an important launch for America's space program," said Martin C. Faga, the Air Force's Assistant Secretary for Space. "The Titan IV is the largest booster ever launched by the Air Force and is the backbone of our space booster family. The Titan IV provides our nation a vital path to space for critical national security payloads."
John Pike, director of the Federation of American Scientists' space policy project, said the rocket's cargo probably is a $500 million electronic eavesdropping satellite capable of intercepting missile telemetry and radio communications. Since 1986 Martin Marietta’s Air Force contract has grown from $2 billion for ten to $7.1 billion for 41 Titan IV rockets, with an option for eight more. (Deseret News, June 8, 1990; Countdown, June & July 1990; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
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#78 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:48
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June 8: HAWLEY DEPARTS JSC TO BECOME DIRECTOR AT AMES
Three-time shuttle flight veteran Steven A Hawley, PhD, will depart the Astronaut Office in July to become Associate Director (Acting) of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. The appointment as Ames’ third-ranking executive under Director Dale Compton becomes effective July 29. The 38-year-old Kansas native will be returning to the San Francisco bay area, where he earned his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1977.
“It was a very difficult decision to leave JSC,” Hawley said. “The nature of the job we do and the quality of the people we work with is without equal. However, at this point in my career, the Ames position is a unique opportunity to apply some of my knowledge and experience to a different part of what NASA does. I am looking forward to the new challenge and career options that may result. Eileen and I will miss all of our friends here at JSC.” (Jeff Carr, JSC Space News Roundup, June 8, 1990 – edited)
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#79 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 20:50
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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS: June 1990 – July 1990
Columbia to stand aside for Atlantis
“Unfortunately, we don’t like what we found.”
- Launch Director Bob Sieck, following the June 6 tanking test on Columbia
Columbia's mechanical difficulties will delay her STS-35/Astro-1 astronomy mission until mid-August, NASA announced June 7. Atlantis will move to the fore, launching in mid-July with a secret Defense Department payload.
"From a scheduling standpoint, the obvious thing for us to do is to go ahead and proceed with the Atlantis mission," Navy Captain Robert Crippen, NASA's Shuttle Program Director.
The decision was made after a tanking test on June 6 confirmed a leak in the 17-inch disconnect area between the orbiter and the External Tank. “I feel very good in that we have found the problem and can go fix it and deal with the manifest in orderly fashion, Crippen said.
Shuttle engineers do not believe a design defect that could affect future missions is responsible for the liquid hydrogen leak that stopped Columbia's STS-35 countdown May 29. Testing has focused the search for the leak on a cavity on the right underside of Columbia where fuel lines and an electrical conduit link the ship and its big external fuel tank. Crippen said Columbia will return to the Vehicle Assembly Building and probably be fitted with a new fuel tank before she flies again, as well as a new fuel line fitting on the orbiter that attaches to the tank.
"We have certified these umbilicals for super cold temperatures. They worked very well in the past, but something is different about this one," Crippen said. "I feel there is no problem proceeding with other missons while we go off and isolate this specific problem.”
Engineers are considering further tests with additional sensors at the launch pad in an effort to pinpoint the leak within the hydrogen fueling cavity, but want to be sure they can get Columbia off pad 39A by June 14, so that Atlantis can be rolled to the pad June 15, Crippen said. The current schedule shows the earliest Columbia could be back in the VAB is at 4:00 a.m. EDT June 12.
Prior to that, a Solid Rocket Booster stack that was allocated for the Spacelab Life Sciences SLS-1 flight will be rolled atop its Mobile Launch Platform to pad 39B to make room for Columbia in the VAB. The lightning protection system at the pad will help shield the partial stack, Crippen said.
Once demated in the VAB, the cavity area on Columbia and her External Tank will be inspected for any abnormalities in the valves and seals. If possible, repairs would be made in the transfer aisle of the VAB. Otherwise, the orbiter would be returned to the OPF for further work to ready it for another launch attempt in mid-August.