April 1982:milestones

January 1982

2 The Marecs 1 maritime communications satellite arrives at its geostationary position of 26 degrees west longitude. The European Space Operations Centre immediately begin testing to verify that the satellite is functioning according to specifications. Formal acceptance testing will be carried out in February by INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite Organisation) which will lease the communications capacity over the Atlantic Ocean area. Marecs B is due for launch by Ariane L5 in April and will be stationed over the Pacific Ocean area.

5 British Aerospace announce that they have received the go-ahead to .begin the construction of L-Sat 1, the first of the most powerful communications satellites in the world. L-Sat 1, weighing about 2300 kg and launched by Ariane in 1986, will demonstrate direct broadcasting to homes, business communications and new high frequency usage. BAe expect that more than 150 satellites of the L-Sat class will be required by the end of this century, worth about £5,000 million at today’s prices. BAe have also received an £80 million contract for the Skynet 4A and 4B military communications satellites, due for launch in 1985.

11 Launch of Exosat, Europe’s X-ray astronomy satellite, is delayed until October because of problems with one of the experiments. The original August launch date could have been met but an ESA meeting last month decided that the schedule would have been too tight.

12 The Soviet Cosmos 1332 satellite is launched into a 224 X 235 km orbit inclined at 82.3 degrees. The parameters are consistent with the craft being an imaging reconnaissance satellite.

17 The External Tank for the fourth Shuttle flight begins its five day journey from the Michond Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the Kennedy Space Center.

18 It is reported that Swedish students at a practical astronomy class at the University of Umea photographed the launch of the Meteor 2 satellite from Plesetsk last May.

21 A US high resolution reconnaissance satellite is launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB by a Titan IIIB.

25 A meeting of representatives from ESA’s Member States participating in the Ariane programme declares the launcher to be operational. Ariane L5, due for launch at the end of April, will be the first of the seven-vehicle "promotion series.” Thereafter, the private Arianespace company will handle the launcher.