Conference 7.286::space

                As a semi-educated guess, the Japanese Amateur Radio 
        Satellite was originaly due to be launched on 1 Aug, rescheduled 
        to 8 Aug, and again rescheduled to 12 Aug (I think). Since these 
        satellites must go for a very low cost (giveaway if possible), 
        one of the places they go for is first launches (yes, it IS 
        risky, but it is also cheap!).
                
                        /s/     Bob

No Ariane flight will take place until next year.  This is the time estimated
to sort out the problems with the third stage engine (or failure of same).

Of 4 Ariane flights that have been lost, three were due to third stage engine
failure of some kind or another.

jb

    re .1
    
    Yes, I think the amsat is on the first H-1, along with the Engineering
    Test Satellite.
    
    gary

    re: .0 & .2                   
    
    I had the great privilege to visit the European launching site
    in Kourou (french Guiana) in a call somewhat related to Ariane 4.
    Perhaps you might be interested to hear some comments.
    
    The french have build a second launching facility called ELA-2.
    (ELA= ensemble de lancement). This will allow to double the launch
    frequency but also ELA-2 will specifically be used for ARIANE 4
    launches.
    
    Now DECCIES, all launching controls are performed by small 64K french
    computers (Mitra) with RK03 style disk cartridges. Software development
    for those machine were made in Belgium (an ACEC subsidiary called
    ETCA) on a bunch of *VAX 11750* running VMS. One of those VAXen is
    presently in KOUROU and is used to test the software modules and
    to transfer them on the small [home] computers. :-)   
    
    So if VAXen are helping NASA to refurbish orbiters (as one fellow
    noter said) they also help Europe to launch their stuff. 
    
    An interesting aspect concerns export licensing. As far as I know, 
    if the American department of commerce considers France as a 'A'
    country, French Guiana is considered as a 'C' country. Yet it i a 
    real french territory, whose only Hi-Tech industry is space.
    (protecting NASA?)
    
    When I was there, I had the chance to see the two first stages of
    Vehicle #17, wich was an ARIANE 3. When the launch was first attempted
    last february (?) the countdown stopped at 00:00:00. Misinformed
    journalists talk about a computer failure, but I see it more as a
    computer success. Perhaps, the computers have saved the mission.
    Ariane mission #17 was launched a few days later with (I think)
    two American telecom satellite aboard. Up to now it is the only
    launch from ELA-2. A subsequent launch from ELA-1 (the first site)
    failed hence the present grounding.
    
    ARIANE 4 Configurations:
    ------------------------
    
    Ariane 4 will constitue the final stage of development of the first
    generation of those vehicles. Extended to up to 60.4 meters high,
    ariane 4 will come in 6 configurations:
    
    40 		no boosters		1900 kgs
    42 P	2 solid fuel boosters	2600 kgs
    44 P	4 solid fuel boosters	3000 kgs
    42 L	2 liquid fuel boosters	3200 kgs
    44 LP	2 solid + 2 liquid      3700 kgs
    		fuel boosters		        
    44 L	4 liquid fuel boosters	4200 kgs.
    
    The weight figures correspond to a payload transfered to synchronous
    orbit.
    
    If somebody is interested I've got also plenty of data on the ARIANE-5
    project wich could in ten years from now give a ride to European
    astronauts on their way to whatever space station might be there
    at that time. Mail or reply and I will post another note.
                                  

    The US has a history of refusing to export launcher technology and
    launch capacity to France (or Europe in general) which is what lead to
    the Diamant series, the logical predecessor to the Ariane.
    
    It is more likely to be a bureaucratic screwup though. We probably
    can't export computers to the French Virgin Islands, either.
    
    gary

    re .4:  Wow!  Another one.  I wonder how many VAXes are sitting
    around Plesstsk, and Tyuratum :-).
    
    A question:  I looked on the map the other day to find French Guiana
    and discovered to my surprise that it is on the western bulge of
    Africa.  And yet they do launch over the ocean.  I should think
    that since this site is nearly equatorial, they would need to launch
    nearly due east to get into a reasonable orbit for transfer to geosync.
    
    Does anyone know anything about the launch direction?
    
    Burns

    Arianespace had a full-page ad in this week's AWST about their new
    launch site (?) with a capability to launch into equatorial or
    polar orbit.  Glance over that and maybe it might contain something
    informative.
    

    re:-2
    If I'm not mistaken French Guiana is in South America, not Africa.
    
    Svein.
    

    re .8:  I have never felt so stupid in my entire life!  Between
    Guyana (also in S.A.), French Guiana, and Guinea (the one in Africa)
    I got fuddled.  That makes a GREAT DEAL more sense.
    
    Sigh.
    
    Burns

re.9
    
    Never mind, many people I know have no idea about where Massachussets
    is located not speaking about french guiana. 
    
    The guiana's (or is it guyana's) were originally three colonies
    stuck between Venezuela and Brazil. From North to South, first the
    british one became independent and seems to be a very closed and
    dangerous country. The Dutch one became an independant republic
    (=dictatorship ) seems to be more open except for dutch people.
    They need a special visa!. French guyana is still a french territory.
    It still has a bad reputation as up to fifty years ago all criminals
    were sent over there to serve life sentence. (Most famous jails
    were Cayenne, les iles du Diable (or Devil's Islands) and St Laurent).
    
    Now this site is so close to the equator that you really don't need
    a watch to know the time. Just look at the sun. I guess that this
    fact has a lot of impact on ARIANE performance in terms of weight
    ratio and on its competitiveness against the Shuttle. On the other
    hand, it is quite a remote place and transportation costs for vehicles
    and material must be quite high.

    I guess what really got me hooked was that I fancied the name
    Kourou to have an "African flavor" to it.  I feel very ethnocentric,
    which is one of the things that I pride myself on avoiding.
    
    Burns

RE .1

Associated Press       Fri 15-AUG-1986 20:57         Mysterious Light

   Space Expert: Mystery Light Was Fuel Dumped From Japanese Rocket

                            By R.D. GERSH

                       Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE,  Ky.  (AP)  - The mysterious glow that flashed across the
sky in the east this week was  fuel  being  dumped  from  a  Japanese
rocket  that  boosted  a  satellite into orbit, an aerospace engineer
said Friday.

For more than 20  years,  Australians  have  seen  similar  nighttime
flashes  from  fuel  dumps  of  U.S.  rockets,  and Argentinians have
watched the effect from Soviet  boosters,  said  James  E.  Oberg,  a
civilian contractor on the space shuttle program.

"Not  until  now  have  we been in somebody else's down range," Oberg
said in a telephone interview from Houston.

The light Tuesday night was described as everything from  a  pinpoint
to  a  moving  spiral  to  a  glowing cloud to a big ball of fire. It
elicited speculation of hovering UFOs, exploding satellites  and  the
annual Perseid meteor shower.

But  Oberg,  who  delights  in  the folklore of the space age and has
written books on foreign space programs, said the glow was vaporizing
liquid hydrogen fuel from the Japanese  booster  illuminated  by  the
sun.

"You  never  run  your tanks on dry, just like in your car or you get
gunk in your lines," he said. "There's always 1 or 2 percent  of  the
fuel left over."

Once  the  rocket  hits  orbit,  its  supercold fuel heats up, pops a
pressure-sensitive valve and boils out, he said.

"Some people were fortunate enough to see this streamer coming out of
the rocket, rotating ... because the booster was slowly tumbling.  It
took about two minutes to make one full sweep," he said.

The  launch  was  a  test of a new Japanese rocket, Oberg said. "They
wanted to see how high it would go." It went 1,000 miles and was five
hours into orbit before the fuel was dumped.

"No one had expected it to  vent  this  long  into  the  flight.  The
Japanese were probably as surprised as we were," he said.

The  Japanese,  not  wanting to risk an expensive satellite on a test
rocket launch, gave a free  ride  to  a  satellite  put  together  by
amateur radio operators.

"So  on  Tuesday  there  were  a couple of hundred ... hams tuned in,
waiting for the launch and hearing signals,  and  a  couple  of  them
noticed the fuss over the cloud," he said.

    AW&ST report that the first flight of the H-1 was successful with
    the LE-5 restarting after following a 44 minute coast after its
    initial burn.
    
    Maybe the Japanese should be invited to bid on the new MLV.
    
    gary

    re: "Maybe the Japanese should be invited to bid on the new MLV"
    I thought that was what Ronnie proposed when he took NASA out of
    the "commercial" launch business.  The Europeans are already booked
    solid.                                          
        John Sauter

    I was thinking more in terms of selling the H-1 to the US as its
    new MLV, somewhat facetiously. There has been serious talk of mating
    the LE-5 to a US built Delta 3900 series first stage however.
    
    I would not be very surprised if the Japanese announced that they
    will sell space on H-1 flights in a couple of years.
    
    A successful restart of a LH2/LOX engine on its first flight is quite
    an achievement, even with all the technology and experience that
    they could draw upon. The Centaur had several attempts before it
    got that working. They have yet to demonstrate a restart after a
    long coast however. This is not necessary for geosynch satellites
    but often is for deep space and some other missions.
    
    gary

    I believe the Japanese plan on 9 H1 launches over the next 5 years.
    I don't have my AW&ST issue here to confirm that.
    
    						-Dave