Word: payloaders
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rental of work space on a space platform in the next decade could run to $50 million a year. NASA's own proposed pricing schedule, which has not yet been approved by the Government, calls for a fee of $71 million for renting the shuttle's full payload for each flight up to 1988, and perhaps $100 million after that. NASA is mindful of competition from launch vehicles like the European Space Agency's Ariane series (see following story), which charges $25 million to $30 million to put satellites in orbit...
Prices aside, Ariane has an edge over the space shuttle in doing certain kinds of work. A conventional three-stage rocket, Ariane can put its satellites into what scientists call geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles above the earth. The shuttle, by contrast, is designed to take payloads to near earth orbit, between 150 and 700 miles. Ariane's launch site on the equator means that a gentler trajectory, and consequently less fuel, is required to boost a payload into stationary orbit. In addition, satellites positioned farther from earth, where there are fewer molecules to cause friction, tend to last...
...Ariane, simplicity is an Important virtue. The European rocket releases a satellite directly into orbit, dumping the payload at the correct height. The shuttle is launched by conventional rocket and then depends on rocket boosters to maneuver the satellite to its destination. That two-step process, critics say, is so complicated that the possibility of mishap is increased. Shuttle loyalists, however, insist that Ariane lacks the flexibility of the U.S. craft, and they point to last week's retrieval as an example of its wide range of capabilities. "That's the kind of thing...
Perhaps the next avenue of competition between Ariane and the space shuttle will be weight. Ariane V 11 carried a payload of 2.5 tons last week, while Discovery carried only 1.4 tons. The Europeans are planning to put more powerful rocket engines on the next Ariane, scheduled for 1986, allowing it to handle a payload of 4.2 tons. NASA's plans call for a more modest increase in capacity, to between 1.75 and 2 tons by 1986. In addition, Arianespace officials expect that by the mid-1990s they will be able to place heavy loads with great precision into...
...therefore might predispose them toward a policy of "launch first, ask questions later." And we are told that SALT II left the Soviets with a five-to-two edge in land-based warheads and in "throw-weight," the ability of a rocket to launch a certain amount of payload...