Word: payloads
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
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...
...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...
...actual design of the satellite has not yet been chosen, but its scientific payload--four highly advanced telescopes and a spectrometer--is known and NASA says that the EUV Explorer (EUVE) will be launched by the space shuttle...
...later the crew got down to work, releasing a Satellite Business Systems Comsat, the first of three communications devices to be deployed. The 1,069-lb. cylinder, to the intense relief of everyone involved, went toward its proper geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above earth without a hitch: the payload assist module (PAM) used for the launching was the same kind of device that had shoved two satellites into uselessly low orbits last February. A second satellite was sprung successfully on Friday, this one employing the new so-called Frisbee launcher. The mechanism, designed especially for the shuttle, acts...