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From: dietz%USC-CSE@ECLA.ECLnet
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Shuttle Follies
Message-ID: <16488@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Feb-84 11:56:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16488
Posted: Tue Feb  7 11:56:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 06:34:12 EST
Lines: 34

Well, now they've lost two satellites and a balloon (the spacewalk seems
to be going well, though).

The satellites used identical PAM's, with fuel from the same batch.
This seems to be a problem with the shuttle: since satellites are
launched in groups if problems are found with one you can't easily fix
the others without bringing them back to Earth and lanuching again --
very expensive.

One news story I heard suggested the PAM nozzles shattered.  Could the
PAM failures have been caused by damage inflicted during the shuttle
launch?  I wonder -- maybe the vibrations were very bad in the payload
bay this time.  Were the satellites stored at the rear end of the cargo
bay?  This would be very bad news for the shuttle program (and very
goods for Ariane).

The use of a balloon for a radar target was pretty stupid.  Why not
just use a radar corner reflector?

The Westar (at least) seems to be in a low elliptical orbit, reachable
from the shuttle.  Unfortunately, no one imagined that the satellites
could end up in such orbits, so neither satellite has an adaptor for
repairmen to grab onto (like Solar Max does).  As a result, they can't
be despun safely to be put back into the shuttle.  I've heard future
satellites will have such devices, which should help reduce insurance
rates.

Some other shuttle problems (not related to this flight):  recall that
UV telescope on the Spacelab mission?  It failed completely.  One
theory on why it failed was interference from the surface glow detected
on forward facing shuttle surfaces, possibly caused by the interaction
of high velocity oxygen atoms with the shuttle.  There is some concern
that this glow will make the Space Telescope useless in low orbits (in
orbits the shuttle can reach).