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News ofApril 1999 |
April 30
- Boeing decides to postpone the second flight of its Delta 3 launcher to May 5 at the earliest in order to assess any potential implication of the Titan 4B/Centaur failure. The Delta 3’s new second stage is powered by a RL10-B2 engine provided by Pratt&Whitney. The Centaur upper stage was powered by a pair of RL10-A3s.
- (see the Launch Log)
- A Lockheed Martin Astronautics Titan 401B/Centaur heavy-lift failed to release its payload, the US$800-million Milstar 2-F1 military communication satellite, into its targeted geostationary orbit. According to the commander of U.S. Air Force‘s 45th Space Wing, the vehicle’s Centaur upper stage performed its three burns but earlier than planned. Ther payload was thus released on 740 x 4,997 km orbit. Total cost of the mission amounted to US$1.23 billion. This is the third failure of a Titan 4 vehicle mission in a row. Total cost of this string of failures exceeds US$3 billion.
- (see the Launch Log)
- Orbital Sciences Corp. will begin preliminary design work on a commercial reusable launch vehicle able to loft up to 3,600kg to orbit at half or one third the cost of current launchers. This project was unveiled during the roll-out ceremony, at NASA‘s Dryden Flight Research Center, of the first of three X-34 reusable hypersonic demonstrators built by OSC. During the next few months, the X-34 will undergo captive carry tests underneath OSC’s "Stargazer" carrier aircraft in order to get a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the carrier aircraft’s modifications.
- Globalstar LP has decided to revise its launch plan for the deployment of its low Earth orbit constellation. A Soyuz-Ikar launch contracted from Starsem is postponed from May to September whilst a Delta launch provided by Boeing Expendable Launch Systems is moved from early November to mid-July. Globalstar’s new schedule, described below, no longer includes an Ariane 4 launch, tentatively planned in September, which will be used by Space Systems/Loral to loft another satellite.
Date Vehicle Provider Constellation June Delta 2/7420 Boeing 24 July Delta 2/7420 Boeing 28 July Delta 2/7420 Boeing 32* August Delta 2/7420 Boeing 36 September Soyuz-Ikar Starsem 40 October Soyuz-Ikar Starsem 44 November Soyuz-Ikar Starsem 48** December Delta 2/7420 Boeing 52 (*) Minimum for initial operations. (**) Nominal constellation.
- The U.S. Navy has successfully completed two test flights of its Trident 2-D5 sea-launched ballistic missile off the coasts of Florida. These were the 84th and 85th consecutive successful tests of the Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Trident 2-D5.
- Snecma‘s Rocket Motor Division (former SEP), DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, FiatAvio, Volvo Aero and TechSpace Aero unveil their new integrated team center in Vernon, Normandy, which will be in charge of developing the 155-kN Vesco restartable cryogenic engine for Ariane 5’s new ESC-B upper stage.
- NASA unveils the new US$200-million "glass cockpit" developed to upgrade its fleet of space shuttle orbiters and recently mounted on Atlantis.
- The United States and South Korea have agreed to sign a MoU lifting all existing restrictions on the development of commercial rockets in South Korea.
- The Lockheed Martin Astronautics Anomaly Investigation Team determines that on the Athena 2 (LM-005) vehicle launched on April 27, the 518-kg payload fairing failed to separate and prevented the upper stage, the Primex-built Orbital Adjust Module (OAM) to reach orbital velocity.
- NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center issues a Request for Quotation for a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) cryogenic thrust chamber demonstration unit.
- NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center completes negotiations with Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems for a US$625.6-million contract to purchase materials needed to build 60 space shuttle External Tanks (ETs). This is the last of three procurements which will allow Lockheed Martin Michoud to proceed with a sixth production batch of ETs, the first to comprise only Super Lightweight Tanks (SLTs). The current fifth production batch will be completed in August 2001 with the delivery of the 119th ET.
- Waiting for the results of an investigation on the April 9 failure of a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), NASA has decided not to mate its US$1.5-billion Chandra X-ray Observatory to its own IUS, thus delaying the launch of the STS-93 shuttle mission previously due on July 9.
- AKO Polyot’s Kosmos 3M launcher makes a successful entry in the world of commercial launch systems by lofting DLR‘s Abrixas astronomy satellite. The launch was provided by Cosmos International GmbH, a subsidiary of OHB-System which manufactured the Abrixas spacecraft.
- The European Commission gives its green light for the merger of Aerospatiale, parent company of Aerospatiale Lanceurs Stratégiques & Spatiaux (L2S), and Matra Hautes Technologies, parent company of Matra Marconi Space (MMS).
- Telemetry contact with a Lockheed Martin Astronautics Athena 2 (LM-005) vehicle, carrying Space Imaging‘s Ikonos 1 high-esolution remote sensing satellite, was lost 8 minutes into flight and could not be restored though downrange ground stations. Status of the payload is now unknown. An investigation is underway.
- Alliant TechSystems delivers the first of the X-33 hypersonic demonstrator‘s two composite liquid hydrogen tanks to NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center. Built by Alliant in Clearfield, Utah, and bonded by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space in Sunnyvale, Calif., the 2,000-kg tank will undergo pressure and load tests before being shipped to Lockheed Martin Skunk Works‘ facility, in Palmdale, Calif., for integration in the X-33. The second tank is scheduled for delivery during the third quarter.
- Kistler Aerospace may raise some US$50-million from Taiwan to develop its K-1 two-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle, in exchange for some technology transfer. Kistler still needs to find an additional US$200 million to complete its project.
