Long-delayed shuttle begins countdown

Press, 31 December 1980, Page 6

Long-delayed shuttle begins countdown

NZPA Cape Canaveral, Florida Columbia, the space shuttle expected to carry Americans into space for the first time in five years, was transported to its launch site at Cape Canaveral yesterday, beginning the countdown expected to culminate with the spacecraft’s launch on March 14 or shortly thereafter. The move to the launch pad was a sign that Federal space officials believe th? worst of the space shuttle’s problems are behind it. The hybrid rocket-aero-plane, poised vertically for flight, was carried on the back of a giant crawlertransporter, as though on a moving football field, to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It had spent five weeks in the cavernous vehicle assembly building 5.5 km away, undergoing checks. Present to watch its creeping journey, at I.skm/h were the two astronauts scheduled to fly it, United States Navy Commander John Young and Robert Crippen, as well as Dr Robert Frosch, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other officials. “We are now at the threshold of a new capability tc investigate the universe,” Dr Frosch said. One of the space shuttle’s missions will be to orbit the space t descope that wil! bring into view countless ce-

lestial features that are (invisible from Earth. The move of Columbia to 'its launch site follows several years of frustrating setbacks and cost overuns, first involving its five rocket engines, and then thousands of tiles designed to protect it from heat on reentry. Assuming that there are I no further delays, the launch will still be three years behind its original schedule. To date, the shuttle programme has cost $B3OO million, considerably more than its original budget of $5lOO million, even allowing for inflation. It ,s expected that another $5OO million will bi (needed to complete the three remaining shuttles in the programme. The Apollo programme that put a man on the moon cost more than $20,000 million. The transporter on which Columbia stands and the pad beneath it were i sed to launch each of the Apollo missions, including one that carried Commander Young, as well as the Apollo-Soyuz mission that orbited the Earth from July 15 to 24, 1975. On that, the last American manned space flight, Soviet and American craft joined in space and exchanged visits. In contrast to the space spectaculars of the past, the shuttle is designed to make (operations in Earth orbit I relatively routine. It should

enable American astronauts to perform new roles in space, relating to defence as well as science that in recent years have been a Soviet monopoly. A procession of commercial scientific and military projects is awaiting the first shuttle flights, whose (delay has disrupted a number of them. In earlier manned American space flights, only thei small, conica" command! module returned into the atmosphere and parachuted into the sea with its astronaut passengers. The booster rockets f ell into the sea or disintegrated in the atmosphere. "None of the modules flew a second time.

The space shuttle is a 75tonne rocket ship with stubby wings that enable it to return and land on a runway. Each of the four space shuttles is expected to fly at least 100 such missions. With no propulsion system, once the craft returns into the atmosphere, it will have, only limited manoeuvrability. It will be landed in the manner of a glider, but at a speed of 320 km/h or more.

Columbia now stands vertically with a fat, expendable fuel tank'47m long mated to its belly. On either side of that tank are recoverable, solid fuelled rockets that will boost the vehicle to a height of about 40km, then parachute into the sea to be towed back for reuse.