July-August 1983:milestones

April 1983

9 Shuttle Orbiter Challenger lands in California to end the sucessful STS-5 mission after 5d 23m 42s. On 4 April (the launch day) the 20,400 kg TRDS satellite and its IUS propulsion stages were released; a failure during the second stage burn left it in an orbit of 35,000 by 22,00 km, instead of a geostationary path. Controllers believe they can use the satellites own thrusters to correct the orbit over the next 2 weeks. On 7 April, Musgrave and Peterson make a 3 hr EVA to test equipment and procedures.

11 Engineers conclude that contact with the Viking 1 Mars lander, lost since last November, will probably not be reestablished. There is a possibility, however, that Viking's own memory will cause transmissions to begin again on 5 May.

11 President Reagan requests the US Interagency Group for Space to study the possibilities for the US manned space programme, including a permanent space station. The report will be made this autumn.

16 Shuttle Challenger returns to the Kennedy Space Center to begin processing for the 9 June launch of STS-7.

17 NSA's Solar System Exploration Committee's report recommends four low-cost projects: Venus Radar Mapper (1988); Mars orbiter (1990); Mars orbiter (1990); comet rendezvous/asteroid flyby (mid-1990's); and a Titan probe (c. 1990).

20 Soyuz T-8 cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Alexander Serebrov fail to approach close enough to Salyut 7 to dock. They land the following day.

21 The NOAA-E weather satellite is now stable in orbit following problems after separation from its Atlas E launcher on 28 March.

26 The final launch readiness review on Europe's Ariane L6 is delayed until 17 May because of schedule slippages. The 3 June launch target is now “tight".

28 The GEOS 6 geostationary meteorological satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 3914. It is due to arrive at its operating position at 135 deg. West on 12 May.

May 1983

2 Two 40 minute test burns of small thrusters aboard the TDRS satellite orbited by Shuttle STS-6 indicate their prolonged use can shift the satellite to its geostationary target orbit. Launch target for STS-7 is 16 June, for STS-8 11 August.