Feb 4 1983
From The Space Library
Japan launched its first "practical communications satellite, Cs2A, at 5:37 p.m. local time from its Tanegashima space center on a three-stage rocket toward a stationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers over New Guinea. It would be Japan's sixth in stationary orbit, although it would be the first used for practical purposes.
Cs2A carried eight transponders with communications capacity equal to 4,000 telephone circuits, to improve links between the mainland and outlying islands in the Pacific south of Tokyo. It would be used by government agencies and public transportation rather than by the public sector for research to develop new media such as television communications links, electronic mail, high-speed datafax, and color television. (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Feb 4/83)
NASA announced crew selections for STS-11 and STS-12, both to be commanded by veterans of earlier shuttle missions. The crew for STS-11 in January 1984, led by Vance D. Brand, who commanded STS-5 in November 1982, would include pilot Robert L. Gibson and mission specialists Bruce McCandless II, Robert L. Stewart, and Dr. Ronald E. McNair. STS-11 would be the fifth flight of Challenger, and its seven-day mission would launch an Indonesian communications satellite.
The crew for STS-12, led by Henry W. Hartsfield, who commanded STS-4 in June 1982, would include pilot Michael L. Coats and mission specialists Dr. Judith A. Resnik, Dr. Steven A. Hawley, and Richard M. Mullane. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) said that a sixth crewman might be added later under a new NASA policy permitting major customers to send a payload specialist along. To be launched in March 1984, STS-12 would be the first flight of a new orbiter, Discovery; its 5-day mission would include deployment of the third tracking and data-relay satellite. (NASA Release 83-15; MSFC Release 83-6)
MSFC announced that it would begin drop tests in cooperation with Dryden Flight Research Facility (DFRF) to try out larger parachutes for Shuttle boosters. The current means of slowing booster descent after launch into the ocean for retrieval and later use consisted of small pilot chutes, a drogue, and three main chutes 115 feet in diameter. The new main chutes being tested would be 13 feet in diameter. Use of larger chutes would slow velocity at impact from 89 feet per second to about 75 feet per second, reducing loads on (and amount of damage to) boosters that had occurred during Shuttle flight tests, officials said.
A modified B-52 aircraft from DFRF would fly the test article to about 20,000-feet altitude and release it. Both ground-based and airborne cameras would record the mock booster's descent to evaluate design, deployment, and parachute performance. (MSFC Release 83-9; DFRF Release 83-1)
NASA announced its decision to locate a refurbishment and assembly facility for Shuttle solid-fuel rocket boosters elsewhere than in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC. High production rates required in the 1986-and-later timeframe could not occur in the available space; also, the VAB did not lend itself to efficient "factory operation" for refurbishment of the solid-fuel rocket boosters.
NASA had considered alternate locations, such as a complex on government property. at KSC or Canaveral Air Force Station or an off-site location near KSC. All these sites had problems, and the search had expanded to include some partially empty industrial facilities formerly used to build Saturn rockets at MSFC. The location chosen would be cost-effective as well as the best for recompeting the contract. (NASA Release 83-17; MSFC Release 83-7)
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