THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020444
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Hurricane Erin, heavy space traffic and a minor payload glitch has set back by three days the launch of a Conestoga rocket from NASA's Wallops Island rocket range on the Eastern Shore.
Barring other delays, liftoff is now scheduled for 6:20 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The postponement is the second in as many weeks. Launch was originally set for July 29, then pushed back to Sunday, Aug. 6, because of bad weather and longer-than-expected equipment checks.
``Everything's the same. We just moved down three days,'' said Jim Hengle, vice president and general manager of EER Space Systems Group, a subsidiary of Conestoga manufacturer EER Systems Inc. ``We're being very careful across the board before we go. We want to be very cautious.''
Hengle said the payload problem developed Friday. Routine tests uncovered communications difficulties with one of Conestoga's 14 on-board experiments. Key equipment wouldn't respond to radio commands. Technicians were forced to remove an access panel on the Conestoga's nose cone and use instruments to pinpoint the source of the malfunction.
The flaw wasn't on board the Conestoga, but rather in defective ground-station equipment that has since been repaired.
Determining that no rocket system was at fault ``made us happy,'' Hengle said. ``But we had to go back in and button up the spacecraft.'' The procedure wasn't completed until late Sunday.
Contributing to the delay is the launch of at least two rockets from Cape Canaveral; those flights will occupy NASA's worldwide system of radar-tracking stations, which will be involved in the flight of the Conestoga.
More ominous is the track of Hurricane Erin, forecast to hit the South Florida coast early this morning. Should the storm alter track or reform over warmer waters, NASA's Florida facilities could be affected.
The Conestoga will be the first rocket in 10 years sent into orbit from Wallops, one of just three rocket-launch bases in the continental United States. Cape Canaveral, site of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California are the other two.
Although Wallops has overseen the flight of 15,000 small research rockets since its founding in 1945, the Conestoga flight will be the first large-scale commercial launch at the Eastern Shore facility. The vehicle's one-ton payload will be the heaviest ever launched from Wallops.
Roughly 120 people from EER and NASA are involved in preparations for the Conestoga flight.
``We're not willing to cut corners and skip over things,'' said Ray Stanley, a senior NASA Wallops official. ``There's nothing broke and nothing wrong. We just need a little more breathing room.'' by CNB