February 1981:milestones

October 1980

23 ESA announces that the launch of Ariane 03 at Kourou, French Guiana, will take place no earlier than 20 March. This follows a postponement from November 1980 resulting from the loss of the second flight vehicle in May and the subsequent enquiry.The problem was traced to combustion instability in one of the first stage engines 5.75 seconds after ignition. Damage to the injector led to the engine’s destruction 64 seconds later and started a fire in the engine bay. This fire caused the breakup of Ariane 108 seconds after lift-off. Engineers have now tightened up on injector manufacturing tolerances and static tests of each Ariane engine will be made before the next launch which will carry the geostationary satellites APPLE and METEOSAT 2. French rocket engines say the combustion instability was caused “by an unfavourable combination of manufacturing tolerances in the system which injects fuel into the combustion chamber. The problem did not show up in nearly 200 static engine tests, which indicates the subtlety of the problem.

24 NASA delays launch of “Columbia" at Cape Canaveral by four days to allow more checkout time on the pad. The launch is now scheduled for 14 March 1981 (but could still be delayed a few weeks more as technical snags are ironed out).

26 NASA confirms discovery of two new moons of Saturn from Voyager far encounter photos. They are relatively small bodies located on either side of the F-ring.

28 U.S. Defence Department reveals that four new Soviet ICBMs of a “fifth generation” are under development in USSR, two solid and two liquid fuelled. One of the latter is described as “particularly large”. '

November 1980

7 Another new moon is discovered near the rings of Saturn in Voyager photographs. It appears to be about 50 miles (80.5 km) in diameter. This brings the total of known moons of Saturn to 15. Scientists at JPL say many others may be present.

10 Pictures from Voyager 1 show ‘red spot’ some 10,000 miles (16,090 km) across in the clouds of Saturn. White spots are also discernible. Rings of Saturn are more homogeneous than previously believed, joined together by hitherto invisible rings.

10 European Space Agency selects British Aerospace Dynamics Group & Communications Division to head development of the Giotto space probe that will intercept Halley’s Comet in 1985/86. The work will be led by the Division’s Bristol factory. Total value of the contract will be about £27 million shared between European aerospace companies.

11 Voyager 1 passes within 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of Titan, the largest moon in the Solar System. Surface is concealed by thick nitrogen smog (not methane as previously believed, which accounts for less than 1%). Measured surface pressure is 2.75 atmospheres, temperature 300°F below zero. Possibly there are oceans of liquid nitrogen.

12 Voyager 1 passes within 77,174 miles (124,200 km) of the planet Saturn.