May 1982:milestones

January 1982

26 ESA decides to go ahead with the development of its Ariane 4 launcher. This new version, due for a first launch in 1985, will carry a larger first stage, liquid and/or solid boosters (up to four) and a larger payload fairing.

February 1982

3 Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia is towed from its Processing Facility into the Vehicle Assembly Building for mating with its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Launch of mission STS-3, with astronauts Lousma and Fullerton, is set for 22 March.

5 NASA formally accepts the first Spacelab unit - scheduled for launch as Spacelab 1 on STS-9 in September next year - from ESA. It will now be prepared for flight by NASA and McDonnell Douglas engineers.

12 INTELSAT announces that it will negotiate with the Hughes Aircraft Company for the Intelsat VI series of communications satellites. While the initial contract will be for five craft, the total value could amount to more than $1,000 million. The VI series, which is expected to go into operation from 1986, will be capable of relaying the equivalent of more than 30,000 telephone calls simultaneously as well as several colour TV programmes. INTELSAT called for proposals for the new series early in 1981 and in that July began assessment of the two proposals received, one from Hughes and the other from the Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation. The satellite will be capable of launch aboard the NASA Shuttle or Europe's Ariane 4 launcher. The current Hughes version of Intelsat VI is a spin- stabilised satellite weighing over 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) measuring 3.6 m (11.8 ft) in diameter and standing 11.8 m (38.7 ft) nigh when fully deployed in orbit.

15 It is reported that Anatoliy Skripko, science and technology attache at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, has acknowledged the development of a Soviet winged reusable spacecraft. He said the first launch could come within five years.

16 STS-3 is transferred from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39A, three days ahead of schedule. A countdown demonstration test involving astronauts Lousma and Fullerton followed. A cryogenics loading test is scheduled for 26 February and hypergolics will be pumped into the fuel tank on 4 March. If no problems are encountered during these critical functions. Page said that Columbia could be launched on 20 March, two days earlier than announced. That decision, he added, would await completion of the tests. Launch director George Page noted that it took 12 days of VAB processing to assemble the vehicle, compared to 18 days for STS-2.

18 NASA announces that Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury astronauts, will leave the space agency on 1 March after 23 years’ service. Because of a suspected heart condition, he was prevented from flying in space until the joint Soviet-American mission of 1975. He was then manager ot the approach and landing tests of the Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise and the Orbital Flight Test programme of Columbia. Following retirement, he will act as an aerospace consultant.

22 Europe's first coast Earth station for maritime satellite communications is inaugerated at Eik in Norway. It will initially serve the Atlantic Ocean Inmarsat satellite but will switch to the Indian Ocean service later this year when a new station at Coonhilly takes over the Atlantic region.

25 The British Ariel 6 satellite, launched in June 1979 to study celestial X- and cosmic rays, is switched off because its pointing accuracy is no longer adequate. This is the last of the UK/Ariel satellites, a series stretching bacls some 20 years, but British astronomers are participating in the Europeati Exosat X-ray observatory due for launch next October.