Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from holmes.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Thu, 20 Apr 89 03:16:50 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <8YHMDMy00UkZ0DRU5d@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 20 Apr 89 03:16:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #382 SPACE Digest Volume 9 : Issue 382 Today's Topics: Re: 'Europe stuff' (was: Re: UK astronaut...) Re: Ariane Disarmament and Outer Space Space Shuttle Attacked by 200-foot UFO! Re: URGENT -- SPACE STATION FUNDING VOTE ON TUESDAY!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 89 09:26:40 From: Lutz Massonne (+49-6151-886-701) Subject: Re: 'Europe stuff' (was: Re: UK astronaut...) (Flame on) I am surprised to see Hermes being launched from a butter mountain instead of a Ariane 5 ... The US people should not mix up the EC bureaucracy with the ESA bureaucracy. ESA is not the EC, it has different member states and there is one big difference: ESA works. The European Space Program has perhaps more limited goals than the US and USSR programs, but the science program as well as the commercial programs have produced a lot of remarkable results. The manned space effort of ESA has just started (not counting the Spacelab which is infrequently launched by a shuttle), but its prospects of getting astronauts into space are not worse than those of Arianespace to get a significant part of the worlds commercial launch market. (Flame off) To be serious: for a entirely civilian program (as far as this is possible) the ESA space program is remarkably well funded and successful. Regards, Lutz Disclaimer: This mailing expresses my personal opinions only, neither mbp's nor ESA's. I accept no liability for any of my statements and give no guarantee for their correctness. Some parts of this mail may be meant humorous or are simply cynic. +------------------------------------------------------+ | Address: Dr. Lutz Massonne, OAD/mbp, ESOC, | | Robert-Bosch-Str.5, D-6100 Darmstadt, FRG | +------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 89 09:15:19 From: Lutz Massonne (+49-6151-886-701) Subject: Re: Ariane A good description of the Ariane 4 manufacturing and transportation can be found in the 'esa bulletin' no. 55 from august 1988. The 1st stage of the launcher is is integrated at Aerospatiale in France, the 2nd stage is integrated at MBB-Erno in the Fed. Rep. of Germany and the 3rd stage is again integrated at Aerospatiale. The liquid strap-on boosters are integrated at MBB-ERNO (FRG) and the solid strap-ons are integrated at SNIA-BPD in Italy. All Ariane launcher parts are brought to the port of Le Havre by vessel from Les Mureaux on the river Seine about nine weeks prior to the launch. The all is shipped in special containers (including the propellants except the liquid oxygen, which is produced in Kourou) to Cayenne in French Guiana. Some ten days later the vessel arrives at the port of Cayenne and launcher and propellants are transferred by road to the launch site, some 15km west of Kourou. Transfer to the launch pad takes place about two weeks before launch. The payload will be flown to Kourou. The industrial capabilities allow at present the production of eight Ariane-4 launchers in a nominal production cycle and up to ten per year by shift working. The ELA-2 launch complex at Kourou is also capable of supporting ten launches per year. Arianespace plans to produce and launch about 70 Ariane-4's. In overall 50 european companies are involved in Ariane-4 production, providing employment for about 10000 people. Eight firms are main contractors for the major elemtens of the launcher. However, I have no information about the inner-european transport of the launcher parts prior to the final integration and shipping from Les Mureaux. Personally I suspect that the involved firms follow the normal european customs and transport by road or railway, and use air transport for time-critical items. I hope this provides some more information Lutz +------------------------------------------------------+ | Address: Dr. Lutz Massonne, OAD/mbp, ESOC, | | Robert-Bosch-Str.5, D-6100 Darmstadt, FRG | +------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 18 Apr 89 20:37:58 GMT From: ccnysci!patth@nyu.edu (Patt Haring) Subject: Disarmament and Outer Space Ported to UseNET from UNITEX Network 201-795-0733 via Rutgers FidoGATEway *DISARMAMENT and OUTER SPACE GENEVA, 11 April -- The Conference on Disarmament heard a statement today by the representative of the Federal Republic of Germany on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. Paul Joachim von Stuelpnagel (Federal Republic of Germany) said increasing numbers of States were becoming space Powers or were participating in important programmes for the exploration and utilization of outer space. All States could be threatened by a possible misuse of outer space. Despite the special responsibility and obligation of the two principal space Powers, the regulation of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space could not be left entirely to bilateral negotiations between the two major Powers. At a propitious time, the Conference on Disarmament had to play its role in that field. Nothing, however, should be done that would hinder the success of bilateral negotiations on outer space issues. One of the most important permanent obligations of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space was to examine ways and means of developing and broadening the basis of consensus, he said. As long as divergencies on substance and methodology prevailed, it did not make sense to call for "negotiations" without knowing precisely what objective was to be reached nor having agreed on the need, purpose and prospect for any of the intended conventions, treaties, amendments or regulations that were urged to be elaborated. * Press Release DC/2239 of 5 April should have had the symbol DCF/22. Press Release DCF/22 of 7 April should have had the symbol DCF/23. The work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space would, inevitably, be incomplete and not succeed in making substantial progress unless a real effort was made to analyse the nature and completeness of the existing outer space legal regime. The Committee needed to consider whether the legal outer space regime needed to be complemented and how it could be improved. He said two approaches, which were principally different, had been taken by the Ad Hoc Committee to the objective of improving the protection for satellites: the prohibition of ASATs or of all weapons that could attack objects in outer space; and the indirect protection of satellites to minimize the possibility of hostile action against them (for example, by agreed "rules of the road"). It had become evident that it was technically difficult to distinguish between satellites that needed to be protected and satellites that would not be covered by a possible legal "immunity". Because many non-dedicated ASATs existed (for example, anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems, any kind of long-range ballistic missiles, satellites with inherent ASAT capabilities, and so on), a comprehensive ban on all of those systems would be neither verifiable nor acceptable to all parties concerned. The Federal Republic of Germany had conducted research and was prepared to offer its findings by contributions of scientific experts during the summer session of the Conference. It may be difficult to accept, but it seemed that a ban on ASAT means would only be effective if all weapons were prohibited that were capable of attacking objects in relevant orbits, he said. The subject of an ASAT ban concerned basic questions of the strategic stability between the major nuclear Powers. Those questions were still under consideration in the bilateral negotiations. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space should make a comprehensive effort to determine to what extent the existing legal regime could be completed and reinforced, he said. It should work for a greater observance of the existing provisions of the outer space legal regime, for more precise definitions, for more commonly shared interpretations, for improving norms and, finally, for elaborating more provisions of a legal nature. * Origin: UNITEX --> Crime Stoppers Against the New Age Hustle (1:107/501) -- unitex - via FidoNet node 1:107/520 UUCP: ...!rutgers!rubbs!unitex ARPA: unitex@rubbs.FIDONET.ORG -- Patt Haring rutgers!cmcl2!ccnysci!patth patth@ccnysci.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 89 23:07:02 GMT From: haven!vrdxhq!daitc!ida.org!roskos@purdue.edu (Eric Roskos) Subject: Space Shuttle Attacked by 200-foot UFO! Well, I scoffed when I read the recent postings in rec.ham-radio about the UFO, but then I was standing in the check-out line at Giant (world's slowest cashiers) and saw the following headline on "Weekly World News": "US Astronauts' close encounter rocks NASA! SPACE SHUTTLE WAS INVADED BY ALIENS Star creatures boarded discovery -- and ... radio conversations prove it, experts say". Here's a short excerpt from the article, which closely parallels what was reported earlier in sci.space and rec.ham-radio: A 200-foot UFO buzzed last month's space shuttle flight and there are even more serious allegations that a pair of bug-eyed extraterrestrials took control of the craft while they inspected its cargo! London's respected Daily Star newspaper, which has a circulation of 1.3 million, broke the story that included sensational testimony from a stable of scientists and UFO researchers who claim to have tapes of conversations between the shuttle and mission control. In a mind-blowing interview, former NASA mission specialist Bob Oechsler of Baltimore, MD stunned Daily Star readers when he revealed that he was in posession of a tape that described the shuttle's incredible UFO encounter. The veteran space flight specialist, who worked at the famed Goddard Space Flight Center located near Washington, DC, refused to say where he got the explosive tape. But he told The NEWS in a telephone interview that he has commissioned a sophisticated voice-print analysis to determine if it really is the shuttle telling mission control: "Houston, this is Discovery. We still have the alien spacecraft under observation." * * * The Daily Star rocked Europe by additionally reporting that a *ham radio operator* claims to have heard a shuttle astronaut say: "Houston, we have a `fire'" -- which is widely believed to be a NASA [term] for a UFO. Those reports, while sensational, paled before yet another allegation from Dr. Marcel Ponte. In Paris, the founder and president of the watchdog group, UFO Truth, said he can prove that space aliens boarded the shuttle and inspected its cargo.... He also claimed to have heard an alleged conversation between the shuttle and mission control that says: "Houston, this is Discovery. We have alien spacecraft. 200 feet. Blue. Cargo hold. Controls useless. A pair. Bug eyed. We are invaded." The brief transmission was allegedly made when the Discovery was in the 20th hour of its five-day mission. [End of excerpt.] The article also includes an "artist's conception of chilling encounter in space," depicting an object resembling a plumber's helper with a disc brake rotor attached to the bottom of it, pointing a long, antenna-like object at the shuttle, which has its cargo door open and and astronaut precariously perched on the back, near the tail fin, as if he is about to fall backward with surprise. He appears to be holding a suitcase. A few pages later in the newspaper, it has this testimonial from a reader in Wales: Editors: I am 14 years old and have never been to America, but I can see your country must be a truly exciting place to live. My dad went to New York for business and brought me a Weekly World News so I could read about life in America. I have read the stories over and over. The people there do such wonderful things, and I know it is a fascinating place to be. The newspapers here don't tell us about things like space ships and space aliens and reincarnation. I'm going to save all my money and come to America, where life must be great fun. [End of quote.] It certainly is inspiring that one can read news reports in the Usenet weeks before they appear in the Weekly World News. -- Eric Roskos (roskos@CS.IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.ARPA) ------------------------------ Date: 18 Apr 89 22:17:56 GMT From: agate!web%garnet.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (William Baxter) Subject: Re: URGENT -- SPACE STATION FUNDING VOTE ON TUESDAY!! In article <7967@pucc.Princeton.EDU>, EWTILENI@pucc (Eric William Tilenius) writes: >The National Space Society has initiated a phone tree alert >Say that you urge the Congressman to "SUPPORT FULL FUNDING FOR THE >SPACE STATION." -------------------- >------------- In discussing the budget priorities for NASA in FY 1989, the HUD Independant Agencies Committee Chairman, Mr. Boland, pointed out that full funding of the Space Station and protection of the Space Shuttle program from cuts would require elimination of every other increase over FY 1988. Here is a list of (most of) those other programs: Orbital Manouvering Vehicle Tethered Satellite System Hubble Space Telescope Development Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility Global Geospace Science Program Explorer Development Suborbital Program Life Sciences Flight Experiments Galileo Development Ulysses Mars Observer Airborne Science and Application Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite Ocean Topography Experiment Materials Processing Information Systems Technology Utilization Materials and Structures Research and Technology Rotocraft systems Technology Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Space Propulsion Research Space Vehicle Research Large Structures and Control Power Systems Automation and Robotics Pathfinder Program Transatmospheric Research and Technology Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance Tracking and Data Advanced Systems ELVs Second TDRS CDSF Remember this when somebody tells you that full funding for THE space station is vitally important to our future in space. Given the proposed funding curve for the space station, it will only get worse. William Baxter ARPA: web@{garnet,brahms,math}.Berkeley.EDU UUCP: {sun,dual,decwrl,decvax,hplabs,...}!ucbvax!garnet!web ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V9 #382 *******************