April 1983:milestones

December 1982

17 West Germany announces that ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels will fly as payload specialist aboard their Spacelab D1 mission in 1985. Ockels is presently a backup for this September's Spacelab 1 mission.

18 Shuttle Orbiter Challenger’s three main engines are fired in a 20 sec test on the launch pad in preparation for the STS-6 flight on 27 January. This is the first time that all three have been ignited together. There is concern over a con¬ centration of hydrogen gas in the aft end after the firing.

20 The first of the US Air Force's Block 5D-2 polar-orbiting weather satellites is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by an Atlas E booster. The 750 kg craft has a design lifetime of 3 years.

27 Apollo 13 astronaut John Swigert dies from bone marrow cancer. He was to have been sworn in to the US Congress on 3 January.

28 Kosmos 1402, a nuclear-powered radar ocean surveillance satellite, fails to boost its fission reactor into a high orbit. This satellite type normally breaks up into sections at the end of operations, with the 45 kg of uranium being boosted into a safe orbit some 960 km high.

30 The £160 million contract for L-Sat, the large European communications satellite, is signed between ESA and British Aerospace. L-Sat 1 will be launched in 1986.

January 1983

10 The STS-6 Shuttle mission is postponed until late February because engineers are still searching for the cause of potentially explosive hydrogen gas build-up at the rear of Challenger. A second main engine test firing (see 18 December entry above) will now be held to look for further clues. The STS-7 and -8 launch dates in April and July may now be affected.

15 Soviet Weekly notes that Vladimir Shatalov, head of cosmonaut training, disclosed in a Moscow press conference last week that one of the two Indians now in training will fly to the Salyut 7 space station sometime in the first half of next year.