Launchpad Space News, July 2001

The big news this month is the installation of the Joint Airlock Module (JAM) on the International Space Station (ISS), which completes "Phase One" of the complex. What that means in English is that the ISS now has everything it needs to add bits on to itself, and to allow the people inside to maintain the workings of it. They've got an arm, and airlock and enough solar panels to power it all. Half of the station is now in place.

Putting the 6 tonne airlock (seen here on the left in its hangar on Earth) in place was quite an intricate task requiring three spacewalks. Susan Helms (who has been up on the ISS for a few months now) steered the new Canadian arm and attached the JAM to the "Unity" module. I watched the NASA TV coverage as she slowly moved the module and later the repressurising gas tanks over one bit at a time using the ISS's own robot arm - which fortunately behaved itself. It moved with a snail's pace; once you've got 6 ton on the move, it's kinda hard to stop it in a hurry even in zero-g. Occasionally there would be a sharp ">Crack!<" broadcast over the voice channel as the shuttle's manoeuvreing thrusters fired to keep the station in position. At times it sounded like there was a small war going on up there, and apparently things don't get any quieter when the astronauts want to get to sleep.

The shuttle Atlantis used its own arm to bring universal autonomous assembly tools (also known of as a guy in a spacesuit) to the right place on the ISS so that various catches and bolts could be done up. A strange sight, seeing a robot use a human as a tool, but the astronaut out on the end was getting a heck of a view. With the new airlock, both cosmonauts and astronauts will be able to use their respective country's spacesuits to go out for a peek. As things stand, only US-made spacesuits can be used safely - some assembly is still required. Michael Gernhardt (seen exiting here on the right) and James Reilly used their suits in it, and were the first ones out over the threshold.

Assembly went relatively smoothly and everything pretty much fitted. There was one minor leak, some hasty patching, an extra day aloft and an incident where some valves had been mis-labeled, so the JAM didn't fill with air when operated as per the manual. A bit of prodding and checking soon fixed the problem though. The next step is to add on various international support modules, now that the core is complete and they've got something to hang onto. But not for a while yet; both of this year's remaining shuttle flights will be taking cargo & experiments to the ISS in the Italian Leonardo delivery van that we've covered before. The next flight, STS105, scheduled for the 9^th August will also deliver the third crew to the ISS and - one hopes - bring the second crew safely back down again.

Artemis Almost Aloft

But unfortunately not The Artemis Project that I know and love. This is the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rocket launch that almost worked, but the upper stage (shown here on the right, courtesy of Arianespace) lost power and then cut out too early when it was expected to burn for even longer to compensate. The Japanese BSAT-2b direct-to-home TV satellite is now in a useless orbit, but the Artemis multi-purpose communications satellite may be recovered at the cost of using up most of the fuel is needs for its normal operational life.

Space Tourist Strike Two

The candidate for the second space tourist has been named. He is 27 year old Mark Shuttleworth, a South African of considerable means, who acquired his fortune through selling internet companies he had established to US corporates such as VeriSign- moves which caused some controversy in South Africa.

Of more controversy is his eventual destination. The US & Russia have agreed not to send more tourists to The ISS, and the US is in the process of passing a bill worded to sound like it encourages commercial space activity, but which basically prevents any space-bourne NASA equipment being used commercially.

Russia, however, is very keen on taking tourists into space, and it would not surprise me if they make flights specifically for that purpose.

Thunderbirds Are Go

EZ-Rocket

Another private rocket has just had its first test flight, but this one was actually manned. It's not an X-Prize competitor, but XCOR's EZ-Rocket - piloted by retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Dick Rutan - blazed its rockets down Mojave Airport on the 21^st July, took off and landed after a brief flight as per the book.

The rocket is a commercial Long-EZ light kit aircraft (which Rutan has previously flown around the world), modified to carry two rockets that use liquid oxygen to burn alcohol-based fuels to give 400lb of thrust each. This gives about the same thrust as the first ever jet aircraft, but will work above the point where jet engines run out of oxygen. XCOR hopes to use it for sightseeing tours, and the best of luck to them.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz. vik@olliver.family.gen.nz.