April 1980:milestones

January 1980

10 Reported in Washington that Intelsat consortium have placed order for ESA Ariane for launch of Ford Aerospace Intelsat 5 communications satellite in December 1981 and taken an option on two more of the European launchers. Options have also been taken for Atlas-Centaur and two Shuttles.

11 President Carter cuts Solar Electric Propulsion from NASA FY 1981 funding, placing doubt on ability to fly 1985 joint mission to Halley’s Comet and Tempel II, Reason is increasing cost of Space Shuttle programme now estimated at around $8000 million at 1979 prices. NASA has already requested an additional $198 million to cover overrun in 1979, plus an amendment to its 1980 budget taking $300 million from other agency projects.

13 Shanghai newspaper Wen Hui Bao publishes stills from documentary film showing "China’s first generation of spacemen.” Five men in spacesuits are seen undergoing various tests, including simulated weightlessness. Another paper, Liberation Daily, includes photograph of a dog in a harness “which returned safely from a flight in one of our rockets.”

14 British Aerospace Dynamics Group Stevenage Space division announces that the first two Spacelab pallets to be built to the full flight standard have been delivered to the prime contractor ERNO in Bremen. They are the first of five such pallets, the remainder of which will be completed early this year. The first flight of Spacelab is scheduled for 1982. The first flight of a pallet, however, will be somewhat earlier when a pallet with American instrumentation will be carried on a Shuttle Orbiter mission approximately six months after the first flight of the Shuttle Orbiter itself.

19 Dr. Konstantin Feoktistov, the cosmonaut and spacecraft designer, describes Soyuz-T spacecraft as being similar to earlier Soyuz craft in external appearance with many changes to the internal layout and equipment. “The onboard digital computer which does the manoeuvring and controls the systems also transmits processed data to Earth. When docking is underway, for example, the computer displays on a VDU at mission control information on how all main systems are working.” The same data are also displayed on an onboard screen. A new manoeuvring and propulsion system is utilized in which all engines — main propulsion,manoeuvre, and attitude control — use a common source of propellants. Parts of the life support, flight control and landing systems have been changed. The use of microelectronics has made it possible to reduce the weight of radio communications, life support and thermal controlmequipment.

21 A new documentary film, ‘Far, Far Into Space,’ had its premier in Moscow recently, reports the Novosti Press Agency. The film made by Vladimir Sivkov tells the story of the epic missions flown to the Salyut 6 spacestation — the 96-day flight of Georgi Grechko and Yury Romanenko and the 140-day flight of Vladimir Kovalyonok and Alexander Ivanchenkov. It also covers the visits to the station of the first Intercosmos crews. The scenes in space were shot by the cosmonauts.