Asri-unix.1123
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!TAW@S1-A
Thu Apr  1 10:18:14 1982
Long article on Shuttle Usage
a007  2221  30 Mar 82
PM-Shuttle-Cargoes, Bjt,710
No Room on Shuttle until September 1987
By HOWARD BENEDICT
AP Aerospace Writer
   CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA expects the successful third test
of Columbia to generate more customer interest in the space shuttle,
but no one need apply for a flight until after September 1987.
   The 70 flights until then are fully booked with communications,
weather and military satellites, space probes, planetary missions,
science labs, and materials-processing payloads.
   The space agency is now working on manifests to accommodate those
who want to launch payloads in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many
have expressed an interest since the shuttle began flying a year ago.
   Columbia's third flight, which ended Tuesday, ''advanced the shuttle
a significant step toward operational missions,'' said flight
director Neil Hutchinson. After one more test flight, scheduled for
late June, the spacecraft will be ready.
   The final shakedown flight is set to last seven days. It is to land
at a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., providing the
final confidence for bringing the ship back to a 15,000-foot concrete
runway near the Cape Canaveral launch site. Edwards was washed out by
rain for Flight 3 and Columbia returned to another desert runway at
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
   In the cargo bay for the fourth flight will be a classified Defense
Department payload, reportedly testing infrared sensors for a future
spy satellite.
   Asked about secrecy surrounding that package, NASA's Glynn Lunney
said Monday: ''We're flying a DOD payload. Other than that I won't say
anything about it, per our arrangement with them. We will fly a lot
of DOD payloads, and we'll tell you the same thing on each.''
   Twenty-five of those 70 flights have been reserved by the Pentagon
to carry up reconnaissance, military communications, navigation and
other satellites and to test space weapons such as laser beams.
   Columbia's first commercial flight is set for Nov. 11, the cargo a
pair of communications satellites to be lofted into orbit for
Satellite Business Systems Inc. and Telesat of Canada.
   Meanwhile, the second shuttle, Challenger, is to make its debut next
Jan. 20, hauling into space a large tracking and data-relay
satellite, one of two that will provide almost constant communications
between spaceships and Mission Control in Houston, eliminating the
need for most of NASA's expensive network of ground stations.
   Lunney said Challenger could be launched in December, but its
satellite and a new lightweight external fuel tank probably won't be
ready.
   Four shuttles are being built, and the space agency and Pentagon
will ask later this year for money to start a fifth. The Discovery is
to be flying in January 1984 and the Atlantis in April 1985.
   The cost of renting a cargo bay for a single flight is $35 million
until 1985, when the prices will increase to about $50 million. If
there is more than one user, they split the cost. A user can launch a
payload on the shuttle for as little as a fourth of the cost on
conventional throwaway rockets.
   The first of several Spacelab launches is set for Sept. 30, 1983.
Spacelab will serve as a reusable laboratory for as many as four
scientists or medical experts. A huge space telescope will be orbited
from Challenger and the Galileo space probe will be dispatched from
Atlantis, both in 1985.
   The Air Force is building a second shuttle launch complex at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Discovery is to use it first,
hauling a military satellite into orbit on Oct. 25, 1985, according to
the current schedule.
   That schedule calls for two more launches in 1982, six in 1983, 11
in 1984, 16 in 1985, 18 in 1986 and 16 through Sept. 15, 1987.
   NASA later this year will request funds to start development of a
space station to be used for scientific, military and industrial
projects. The shuttle, capable of lifting up to 65,000 pounds in its
bay, would be the ferry ship for building materials, construction
workers and station occupants.
   Christopher C. Kraft, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston, said if money is approved for the project in fiscal year
1984, ''we could have a basic modular station up in seven to eight
years.''
   Kraft predicted the present shuttle design will be flying for 30
years. Each of the vehicles is designed for 100 roundtrips into orbit.
   ''By 1990 we might start thinking about a follow-on vehicle,'' he
said. ''We could probably develop a derivitive of the shuttle that
would lift 200,000 pounds.''


-----------------------------------------------------------------
gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <[email protected]>
of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/


This Usenet Oldnews Archive
article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996
Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.quux.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.