May 1980:milestones

January 1980

31 NASA announces that it has signed a $183,960,000 contract with the European Space Agency calling for manufacture and delivery in 1984 of a second Spacelab.

February 1980

1 A planned 560 sec firing of the Space Shuttle three main engines at the National Space Technology Laboratories is terminated after 4.6 sec. Reason for the automatic shutdown is a higher than nominal temperature indication.

7 US Air Force launches KH-11 reconnaissance satellite by Titan IIID from Vandenberg AFB, California. The satellite entered an initial orbit of 220 x 498 km inclined at 97 deg to the equator: later the orbit was changed by a manoeuvre to 304 x 469 km x 97.05 deg. Unlike photo-reconnaissance satellites which supply high-resolution images of surface targets by ejecting film capsules, KH-11 obtains its high-resolution imagery by digital transmission. A similar satellite was launched on 14 June 1978.

12 NASA issues a request for proposals for the administration of a Shuttle Student Involvement Project. The project will be a nationwide competition within the United States, to begin September 1980, for the opportunity to submit proposals for scientific and engineering experiments to be flown on the Space Shuttle in late 1981 or 1982.

13 Third and final test firing of Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster is successfully completed at Thiokol Corporation’s test site near Brigham City,Utah. Burn duration was just under 120 sec; peak-level thrust approximately 1,390,000 kgf; specific impulse 263 (vacuum). Thiokol achieved a planned 2 per cent increase in burn rate by adding iron oxide to the propellant mix (which slightly shortens thrust duration). This is designed to increase the Shuttle’s payload delivered to polar orbit by 1,500-1,600 lb (680- 725 kg). Present aim is to lift payloads of 14,500 kg into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB.

13 NASA defers Orbital Cloud Physics Experiment scheduled to fly as a Spacelab payload aboard the Space Shuttle in 1982 because '’technical problems in the transition from ground laboratory to a space flight environment have resulted in increased cost and schedule risks ...” Instead, the specially-built equipment will be used in ground-based laboratories in the agency’s weather and climate research programmes. It is hoped to fly a cloud physics experiment on a future Spacelab mission.