THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508120038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
It's ready to go. Then it's not. Then it is. Hold on: There's an equipment failure - and a hurricane's coming.
That's rocket science for you.
Despite three recent delays, the Conestoga rocket finally appears ready for liftoff from NASA's Wallops Island range today, sometime after 5 p.m. Officials of the manufacturer and parent company, EER Systems, Inc., have set the Conestoga's launch for 6:20 p.m., although the vehicle has a three-hour launch ``window'' that will remain open until 8 tonight.
``We're still on course for a flight on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.,'' said Jim Hengle, vice president and general manager of EER Space Systems. ``Barring any weather problems or (equipment) hiccups, I see this as a go.''
Three launch days - July 29, Sunday and Wednesday - have come and gone without blastoff. The causes for the postponements were a combination of bad weather, longer-than-expected equipment checks and a crowded launch schedule out of Cape Canaveral in Florida, which tied up NASA's worldwide system of radar-tracking stations.
``We think we're at the end of a campaign,'' Hengle said. ``We've very excited and happy. We're ready to get this thing out of here.''
As skywatchers and rocket fans juggle their weekend schedules and Saturday beach parties to try to get a glimpse of the blastoff, the question for many is: If we can drag ourselves out of bed in the morning to get to work on time, why is it so hard to get a rocket into space on schedule?
The short answer, say experts, is because getting into orbit is a lot harder than getting to the office during rush hour. Spaceflight requires meticulous planning. You have to carry with you all of your supplies, power and, if you're an astronaut, air, water and food as well.
Forget any one of a thousand details and you flirt with disaster.
In EER's case, engineers have had to figure how to integrate and guarantee the smooth operation of 14 different experiments that the Conestoga will be carrying.
``It's almost like loading up Noah's Ark with animals,'' Hengle said. ``They all want to do different things. We have to get all 14 experiments checked in, bedded down and ready to go.''
Putting any new vehicle into space is ``very challenging,'' according to David Thompson, chairman of Orbital Sciences Corp., a Fairfax County aerospace company with 2,000 employees.
``With the first launch of a new vehicle, there are things you can't predict or anticipate,'' he said.
Thompson's firm is still working the kinks out of one of its young space vehicles, the air-launched Pegasus booster, now undergoing a design review after a June 22 mishap. The craft was destroyed in flight 65 miles off the coast of Monterey, Calif., when instruments on board reported a malfunction.
``History shows that you go through a bad phase - a shakedown period when you have to be prepared for failure to expose itself,'' said Ray Stanley, a senior official at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. ``The launch business . . . is very difficult to get to a routine.''
With the summertime release of ``Apollo 13,'' moviegoers have been reminded how dangerous space missions can be. The real-life story of three American astronauts who narrowly escaped death on their way to the moon has packed theaters, even though many patrons know the tale ends happily.
Those who plan rocket launches take their time because they don't want to endanger human life or risk the loss of expensive, one-of-a-kind equipment. Routine, airline-type schedules may one day be commonplace for space missions, but only if new, low-risk, low-cost, low-maintenance launch systems are developed. And that doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.
``I don't see any real breakthrough in propulsion technology for at least 10 years,'' said Michael W. Miller, president and CEO of Spatial Positioning Systems, Inc. in Reston. ``We're going to have to improve what we have.''
Hengle of EER said the mission's latest delay was caused in part by the 26-day heat wave that ended earlier this week. As the Conestoga broiled on its seaside launch pad, 95-degree-plus temperatures caused a small crack to open up in a connecting cable that attached to an essential piece of navigation gear. The entire assembly, cable and all, has since been replaced, Hengle said.
By Friday afternoon, the first of three phases of an 11-hour countdown had concluded. The second phase was to have begun at 6 this morning and end shortly after noon.
The third and final phase begins at 2 p.m. today and is scheduled to hold, with 30 minutes left on the clock, beginning at 4 p.m. Launch can come no later than 8 tonight.
Although Hurricane Felix was gathering strength Friday in the south Atlantic, the storm was not expected to affect liftoff because of its distance from the eastern seaboard. Should a weather-related postponement occur, local conditions - an intense thunderstorm or lightning strikes - would be the more likely culprit. ILLUSTRATION: COUNTDOWN TO CONESTOGA LAUNCH
Staff GRAPHIC
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB