January 29, 1990

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HEADLINE NEWS

SR-71 Blackbirds Return To U. S. From England

SUFFOLK, ENGLAND 'Two U. S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird T reconnaissance aircraft based in England for more than eight years have made their last flights from the British base to return to the U. S. Col. Tom Henichek, commander of Detachment 4 of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, said the two aircraft would fly to their home base at Beale AFB, Calif., in about 4 hr., 30 min., with two aerial refuellings, one over the United Kingdom and one over the east coast of the U. S.

By RAF MILDENHALL,

HEADLINE NEWS

Problems With Rocket Motor Delay Initial Flight of SRAM 2

WASHINGTON First flight of the Boeing Short-Range Attack Missile 2 has been delayed by seven months due to problems with the missile’s two-pulse rocket motor developed by Hercules Aerospace. Flight testing delays, combined with congressional cuts in funding for integration of SRAM 2 onto B-1B bombers, mean the Air Force will not begin fielding the strategic missiles until April, 1994, one year later than previously planned.

By JOHN D. MORROCCO,

HEADLINE NEWS

Contractors Agree to Unite NASP Development Efforts

NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES The five prime contractors participating in the National Aero-Space Plane program have submitted an interim teaming agreement to the Air Force which would allow them to eliminate competition and unite to develop an X-30 hypersonic research vehicle.

By STANLEY W. KANDEBO,,MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

HEADLINE NEWS

Scaled’s Low-Cost CAS Concept Aircraft To Make Initial Flight Next Month

Scaled Composites, Inc., expects to fly its low-cost close air support concept aircraft for the first time within the next few weeks. A rollout for invited guests is planned for Feb. 26. The single-engine demonstrator-redesignated the Agile Responsive Effective Support (ARES) aircraft-now features a fully mechanical, reversible flight control system, large, hydraulically activated speedbrakes located on the wing trailing edge between the tail booms and ailerons, and custom landing gear that will retract in 6 sec.

By MOJAVE, CALIF.

HEADLINE NEWS

$250-Million LACE Satellite To Carry 3 SDI Experiments

WASHINGTON A spacecraft to be used in three experiments for the Strategic Defense Initiative is being readied for launch at Cape Canaveral next month. The launch, set for no earlier than Feb. 8, would begin a $250-million SDI mission to gather data useful in three different phases of the missile defense scheme under development.

By JAMES R. ASKER

HEADLINE NEWS

Columbia Returns LDEF Payload In Record-Breaking Mission

CALIF. The landing of the orbiter Columbia with its LDEF payload clears the way for detailed assessment of the effects of the space environment on a wide range of materials that will dictate the structure of future space vehicles. The 57 experiments from the Long-Duration Exposure Facility will be distributed to the respective research scientists within several weeks following disassembly of LDEF at Kennedy Space Center (AW&ST Apr. 16, 1984, p. 20).

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIMI,EDWARDS AFB

HEADLINE NEWS

NASA Delays Launch Of Hubble Telescope

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed four weeks until Apr. 19 to replace a space shuttle booster segment that had incomplete joint leak test data. Launch of a secret Defense Dept. satellite with two types of sensors also has been delayed six days until Feb. 22, at the earliest.

By EDWARD H. KOLCUM,

HEADLINE NEWS

Seven-Satellite Payload Orbited In First Ariane Mission of 1990

KoURou, FRENCH GUIANA Europe has performed the first Ariane launch of 1990 with a mission that successfully injected a seven-satellite payload into Sun synchronous orbit. The Ariane V35 vehicle, fired from Guiana Space Center here Jan. 21, carried the French CNES national space agency’s Spot 2 Earth resources platform and six auxiliary UoSAT/Microsat satellites.

By JEFFREY M. LENOROVITZ,

January 221990

February 51990

January 29, 1990

January 29, 1990