NASA, Hughes Considering Satellite Rescue Mission

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          NASA, Hughes Considering Satellite Rescue Mission

	Officials at Hughes Space and Communications and at NASA are
considering the possibility of a shuttle mission to rescue a
communications satellite stranded in low-Earth orbit, two
publications reported last week.

	In its August 23 issue, Space News said Hughes officials were
investigating the possibility of a shuttle mission that would go to
the Orion 3 communications satellite, attach a new kick stage to it,
and boost it into geosynchronous orbit as planned.

	The satellite was launched on a Delta 3 in May, but was left
in low-earth orbit when an engine on the booster's upper stage
apparently exploded at the beginning of the second of two planned
burns.  The satellite has been written off as a total loss.

	Under the proposal, a shuttle mission, likely no sooner than
2001, would go to the satellite.  Spacewalking astronauts would
retrieve the satellite and attach it to a new upper stage carried
into orbit by the shuttle.  The satellite and upper stage would
separate from the shuttle and, once a safe distance away, the upper
stage would boost the satellite into its intended orbit.

	Hughes was able to rescue another satellite, AsiaSat 3,
through an innovative series of orbit adjustments including two lunar
flybys after it was stranded in a transfer orbit by a failed Proton
upper stage.  However, that satellite, now known as HGS-1, was
already in an elliptical transfer orbit that could be changed using a
relatively small amount of propellant, a situation that's not true
for Orion 3, which is in a roughly circular low orbit.

	In an article in the Saturday, August 21 issue of Florida
Today, NASA officials confirmed that it was looking into the
possibility of such a mission.  "The folks here are looking at what a
mission like that would take in terms of crew training," spokesperson
Kirsten Williams told the paper.

	Such a rescue mission would not be the first for the shuttle,
although the last such effort was in 1992, when astronauts on mission
STS-49, shuttle Endeavour's maiden flight, retrieved a stranded
Intelsat communications satellite and attached it to a booster stage
that sent it into its proper orbit.

	Hughes, who also built the Intelsat spacecraft, paid NASA $96
million for the rescue.  However, Florida Today noted that a later
study of the mission concluded that the mission wasn't worth the
cost, given that estimates of the cost of a shuttle mission go as
high as $500 million each.

	If such a mission is attempted, some analysts believe that
private companies should pay the true cost of the shuttle mission or
make similar arrangements.  "Hughes, Boeing, the satellite customer's
insurer, or someone else needs to pay the United States government
the actual cost of this (apparently) dedicated Shuttle mission," said
Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch. "Or, a plan needs to be devised
wherein revenues from the satellite's operations over a finite period
of time... are paid (according to current law) to the U.S. Treasury."

	"Anything less," Cowing claimed, "is simply a sham attempt by
NASA to claim momentary notoriety for appearing to commercialize
space when in reality its simply another NASA fiscal shell game at
the expense of U.S. taxpayers."



   John Carberry

"A good way to judge the distance to a star would
be to keep watching it until you see it explode,
and then count the seconds till you hear the bang."
	- Edwin Evans

ICQ#: 21551658

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