Conceived as ``the next logical step'' after the Apollo lunar program, the International Space Station has been a NASA objective for nearly three decades and a formal project since 1984. After 15 years of controversy, it is finally on the verge of flight. A six-member Aviation Week&Space Technology editorial team, headed by Senior Editor Craig Covault, examines the station effort in this special report covering the assembly, technology, utilization and international participation involved with the largest aerospace program in the world.
Grade LP is a water-based, microfine graphite dispersion forging lubricant. The material can be used to wet dies with temperatures as high as 700F. The high-purity graphite is combined with three binders that are able to wet dies with high temperatures, as well as a special ingredient to prevent flash rusting. The new lubricant can be used when forging both ferrous and nonferrous metals. Dylon Industries Inc., 7700 Clinton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44144-1045.
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest international aerospace industry project ever undertaken. Contractors and suppliers from 15 countries are involved. Of the $17.4 billion U.S. development, about $11 billion remains still to be spent. This 5-page list cites some of the major ISS contractors and suppliers from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada. Except for Boeing's $7 billion, which represents its total contract value, this list is meant to characterize an approximate level of effort.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has embarked on a strategic alliance with computer game maker Nova Logic Inc. that has resulted in a highly realistic game in which players fly simulated F-22s in combat. The game, called F-22 Raptor, also could lead to development of low-cost, widely dispersed simulation for the military.
NASA's dependence on the military's Space Surveillance Network could be risky, the General Accounting Office warns. The congressional auditors find that the network's sensors and processing capabilities, designed with Defense Dept. needs in mind, are inadequate to protect vital NASA hardware like the International Space Station. While station shielding can withstand hits from objects as large as 1 cm., the network can't routinely track 93% of objects 1-10 cm.
Donovan B. Hicks, chairman of EarthWatch, Longmont, Colo., also has become CEO/president and Douglas B. Gerull executive vice president-product operations. Former CEO Richard N. Herring will remain as a consultant. Hicks was president/CEO of the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Broomfield, Colo.
Edward A. Long has become president of Accudyne Operations of the Alliant Techsystems Defense Systems Group of Minneapolis. He was plant manager in Rockford, Ill., for the Sundstrand Corp.
Boeing has developed a cellular wing design to limit vulnerability of new fighters, possibly including its new Joint Strike Fighter design, to enemy ground fire and missiles. The concept uses a wing structure that resembles several adjoining square tubes, according to James Childress, an engineer at Boeing Phantom Works. Representative wings have been tested using live rounds of Soviet bloc-type 30-mm. high explosive at Boeing's Tulalip test facility, near Seattle.
A subsidiary of the San Diego-based Cubic Corp. is up for sale, company officials said--not the entire company, as recently reported (AW&ST Dec. 1, p. 43).
The sequence covering the first three years of International Space Station assembly is shown in this chart by aerospace artist Daniel James Gauthier and Senior Editor Craig Covault. The chart takes the buildup through the launch of the Japanese module, set for August 2001, midway through Phase 3. Each new element is shown in red. Progress and Soyuz flights are also shown through mid-1999. All drawings are to scale. 1A/R Functional Cargo Block (FGB) June 1998 - Russian Proton Booster
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION Safety Board cited faulty coordination between civil and military ATC in its recommendations on a Feb. 5 incident involving an Air National Guard F-16 and a Nations Air 727. The F-16 intercepted the 727 in a warning area over the Atlantic Ocean and activated the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System on the 727, prompting the Nations Air pilot to take evasive action. The NTSB called for the Defense Dept. to educate all military pilots on TCAS.
All Nippon Airways has begun testing Japan's first airborne wind shear detection radar, in an Airbus A320. Wind shear detection is a new concept in Japan. Doppler radar systems have been installed at Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports and Osaka's Kansai--the country's three busiest. The ANA system senses movements of vapor particles and is activated when an aircraft is flying at below 1,500 ft. Japan Airlines also is considering its use.
Terry Lewis has been named head of production for the Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Co., Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was engineering manager for British Aerospace Aviation Services.
The first production version of the Dyna-Cam reciprocating engine has been tested to full performance. The engine relies on six double-headed pistons, which produce power at both ends of their stroke. Energy is transmitted from the piston to main shaft via trunnion rollers. The 373-cu.-in. displacement engine produces 200 hp. at 2,000 rpm. and 650 ft.-lb. of torque at 1,200 rpm. The manufacturer says because there are 12 impulses per revolution, versus three in a conventional engine, that the Dyna-Cam offers smoother and quieter operation. Dyna-Cam Engines, P.O.
FLIR SYSTEMS INC. shareholders last week approved the company's proposed acquisition of Agema Infrared Systems of Stockholm, Sweden. The $80-million merger creates the world's largest commercial infrared imaging company.
NASA has promised to commercialize the International Space Station to the fullest extent possible, but the agency's tangled bureaucracy threatens to strangle those efforts and its station commercialization chief is threatening to quit.
NASA is looking more and more to Canadian robotics to make International Space Station plans work. The Mobile Servicing System (MSS), composed of a much more capable manipulator arm than the one on the shuttle and a base system that can travel along the station's long central truss, will be vital for station construction and operations (see p. 71). The MSS has an artificial vision system that allows it to be run from a workstation inside.
The need to demonstrate as much International Space Station extravehicular activity hardware as possible before the start of station assembly forced NASA last week to send the Columbia Mission 87 astronauts outside for a previously unplanned EVA to further evaluate station crane operations. Columbia was scheduled to end its 16-day flight with a landing here Dec. 5. on a mission that also provided extensive materials science data.
The SE-23000 HDR is a 23-gigabyte, rugged, removable magnetic hard drive. The drive fits in a standard three-quarter avionics transport requirement (ATR) rack. A nonremovable version fits in a five-eighth ATR enclosure. The unit, coupled with Mountain Optech's Intelligent Controller, can collect data at 5 megabits/sec. The high-capacity hard drive has been selected for an airborne radar data collection program. It is designed to meet the Mil-E-5400 shock and vibration standard. Mountain Optech Inc., 4775 Walnut St., Suite A, Boulder, Colo. 80301.
Tests of the initial configuration of Raytheon's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System are slated this week. Stars is to be installed at National Airport in six months. Controllers complain that the system designers lack their input. Controllers will run through scenarios using simulated sections of Boston Center airspace, including one to locate which aircraft is declaring an emergency.
Damage to wiring for a backup brake system in a British Aerospace ATP transport was under investigation last week by the FBI. UFS Inc., a Chicago-based United Express carrier, operates the 64-seat twin-engine transport. A mechanic for UFS reported finding five severed wires in a wiring bundle of the ATP on the morning of Nov. 29. The aircraft had overnighted at O'Hare International Airport after a flight from South Bend, Ind. The wires, bundled in the nose gear well, had been connected to the brake isolation valve, part of the backup braking system.
MiG-MAPO has test-flown an improved attack version of the MiG-29 that includes an open-architecture avionics suite to make it easier to switch from air-to-air to air-to-surface weapons of either Russian or foreign manufacture. Called the MiG-29-917 internally, the experimental version was test-flown at Zhukovsky near Moscow on Nov. 29. The -917 designation is intended to supercede the MiG-29SMT designation for the aircraft that was presented in Moscow this summer at the MAKS-97 air show (AW&ST Aug. 25, p. 21).
