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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #389

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 389

Today's Topics:
            space news from March 4 AW&ST

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Date: 10 Apr 91 05:31:35 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from March 4 AW&ST

DoT issues the first launch operator's license, to General Dynamics, after
two years of issuing licenses for individual launches.  [It is not clear
what this means, although the suggestion is clearly that GD won't have to
go through as much paperwork for each launch.  Hmm... I wonder if this was
a move to head off a confrontation with NASA, which has been insisting
that when it buys a commercial launch from GD, that somehow becomes a
government launch, exempt from licensing...]  Three more applications for
such licenses are under review, two [!] from OSC and one from McDonnell
Douglas.

American Physical Society complains of lack of scientific justification
for Fred.  [Reportedly the politics of envy at work again, i.e. they thought
less money for Fred would mean more for physics.  Rotsa ruck.]

Magellan is spending ten minutes of every second orbit cooling off, at
the expense of no mapping during those periods.  Sun angles are expected
to improve enough to eliminate the need by March.  (Magellan's insulation
blankets are not working nearly as well as expected, for unknown reasons.)

Early lessons from the Gulf war include a major need for better ways
of putting satellite data together with ground information, and an urgent
need to get more satellite pics to the tactical commanders sooner.  It's
good news for lightsats, though, as the tactical folks are screaming for
their own birds, and there was some (quite successful) experimental use
of a DARPA lightsat for logistics data relay between USN and USMC forces
and the US.

DoT wants to charge user fees for launch-license processing, $2500/year
for the operators and $2.50/lb of payload for the launches.  The proposed
fees are based on DoT's "assessment of the value of the benefit conferred".
[Talk about charging the duck for the orange sauce...]

Landsat image of oil spills in the Gulf, the first released.  Quite a bit
of it there, all right.  Picture taken Feb 16, three weeks after the Iraqis
started dumping oil.  Eosat and others are pleased with it, because satellite
imaging of oil spills is difficult -- there is little contrast in the visual
bands and long-wave IR bands.

Discovery goes back to the VAB for repairs to its cracked hinges, which
will probably cut the shuttle launch count this year from seven to six.
The conclusive factor was engineers' assessment that one of the cracks
was due to "a single unknown event" -- NASA wants to find out what happened.
One possibility is that the door is thought to have been ordered closed
once when it was already closed, although this should not have overstrained
the hinge.  Two other hinges had very small cracks, probably due to fatigue
from repeated cycling on the ground; these are considered trivial to repair
and would not have halted the launch.  Lenoir says that the door would have
operated successfully in free fall even with one hinge broken in
two, and he would not have hesitated to fly Discovery had there been a
critical reason to do so, such as an urgent military requirement.  Many
felt it was safe to fly Discovery with the crack.  Atlantis, crack-free,
will go up next, carrying GRO.  Small fatigue cracks have also been found
in Columbia's hinges, but they are not expected to cause delays.

Big writeup on the [postponed!] Discovery mission.  The primary mission
was deployment of several sensor subsatellites, followed by extensive
orbiter maneuvering and chemical releases to evaluate sensor performance.
Deployment of a small classified lightsat, and infrared observation of
the upper atmosphere with an experimental USAF infrared telescope were
also on the agenda.  Also aboard are a handful of military Getaway
Specials doing various experiments, including one on liquid flow in
free fall, one on the shuttle glow, and one testing an erasable optical
disk for data storage in future experiments.
--
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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End of SPACE Digest V13 #389
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