Conference 7.286::space

    Soviet Military Power 1986 stock number 008-000-00410-2  $7.00
    mastercard/visa phone orders us Gov Print Office Was DC 
    202-783-3238  monday throught friday 8-4 est
    
    also of interest could be
    Soviet Space programs Vol 2  052-070-05963-0  $8.00
    Soviet Space programs Vol 3  052-070-06029-8  $8.50
    Vol 1 is out of print
    Vol 2 is man flight
    Vol 3 is unmanned space Activites (up to 83)
    
    They have lots of good book relating to space, and at 
    resonable prices, you may want to ask for the following
    catalogs and or subject areas
    SOVIET UNION
    SPACE HUTTLE PUBLICATIONS
    NASA SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL PUB
    NASA EDUCATION PUB
    SPACE ROCKETS AND SATELLITES
    
    Phone order are accept instantly, takes 10 days to get to the 
    shipping desk, and then via book rate forever mail, typical
    turn around time 30 to 60 days
    
    if you live near a Gov Pub you can pick them up in person
    
    jb
    

    I ordered the 1985 one from the Boston US Govt Printing Office and
    got it in a couple of days.
    
    gary

    I did not know there was a local US Govt Printing Office in Boston
    do you know the telephone number and address.  Can you stop by and
    pick up what you want if it is in stock???
    
    john
    

    The Boston US GPO is (617) 223 6071. I think they are in the Govt
    Centre downtown. They have Soviet Military Power in stock and they
    take phone orders. They said it would be quicker to order the other
    items directly from DC.
    
    gary

    	The Soviets have completed final static tests on their Space
    Shuttle.
    
    	Larry
    

    Last I heard the initial launch was expected to be in early 1988
    (I wonder if that was why NASA chose that as a target date for a
    first shuttle flight after the Challenger accident?).  Has the
    expected launch date for the Soviet shuttle changed?
    

      There is a nice article in the current issue of POPULAR SCIENCE
    (MARCH 87) concerning the SOVIET, EUROPEAN, and JAPANESE shuttles.
     They also talk about the mini-soviet shuttles.  have fun   FRANK
    

VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Nashua, NH, USA               ]

    Soviets Fly Jet Powered Space Shuttle Testbed
    
    Cosomonaut crews are conducting runway takeoff and landing
    test with a jet engine powered version of the Soviet Union's
    space shuttle orbiter in preparation for the shuttle's first
    orbital launch, which may not occur until 1989, depending on
    resolution of problems with the orbiter's digital  flight
    control system and availability of the shuttle's ENERGIA
    launcher.
    
    The flight tests are beign conducted from the 15,000 ft
    shuttle landing strip recently constructed at the Baikonur
    Cosmodrome in Tyuratam.  Cosmonaut Igor Volt is the chief
    pilot in the shuttle flight test program and will be the
    leading candidate to fly the shuttle on its first orbital
    mission. The flight testbed orbiter has been  fitted with
    four 20,000 lb class Lyulka engines that provide sufficient
    thrust to power the vehicle through a convential runway
    takeoff to an altitude from which it can simulate the
    approach and landing profiles it will fly when returning from
    orbit, according to officials.  
    {AW&ST October 12, 1987}
        
    Several small, commerically important experiments will be
    flown on US Space Shuttle mission STS-26, but the reduced flight 
    rate in upcoming years has forced NASA to delay of cancel more than
    350 small commerical and technical payloads that earlier would have 
    been launched on that shuttle.  
    {AW&ST October 12, 1987}

  <><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 1431     Tuesday 27-Oct-1987   <><><><><><><>

    So the Space-race is reSTARted, who will first get a shuttle in
    orbit? Europe, USSR or U 'knighted' states.
    
    Re: .8 - "difficulties with digital flight control system".
    
    So, all that work that went into "confusing the russians" finally
    starts to pay of - or maybe they are waiting for 'VS-6000'.

    "Nuts In Space ..." 

                 AEROSPACE INDUSTRY WEEKLY NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
  
                     For the Week of November 23, 1987
                  
                                Sponsored by

                        Aerospace Industry Marketing

                                Provided By
 
                            CSP Associates, Inc.
                            Cambridge, MA  02140
                                      
    CHALLENGER ACCIDENT SLOWED SOVIET SHUTTLE PROGRAM

    Roald Sagdeyev, head of the Soviet Space Research Institute, said in
    Washington that the CHALLENGER crash prompted the Soviet Union to more
    carefully assess their own Shuttle program and the cost-effectiveness
    and advisability of depending solely on a shuttle to get into space.
    He also noted that the Soviets had a lot of work to do before launching
    their first shuttle.
 
    WEINBERGER SAYS SOVIETS ARE BUILDING COVERT SPACE LAUNCH CAPABILITY

    Based on the fact that the Soviets are making major investments in the
    fighting ability of their space systems, former Defense Secretary
    Caspar Weinberger said he believes the USSR is developing a covert
    mobile space launch capability in addition to its three main fixed
    space launch sites.  He also noted their larger and more dispersed
    number of launch complexes and their mobile ICBMs with potential for
    conversion to space launch as additional causes for concern.
 

    reprinted in part from tuesday aug 15  1989 NY times
    
NY TIMEs articles
The Soviet Union has significantly scaled back its space shuttle program
and deferred a manned shuttle mission until 1992, a senior Soviet officials 
said yesterday. The plans were reported as senior Soviet rocket scientists led
an American Congressional delegation and military specialist above through a
top secret site in Baikonur for assembling space vehicles, including the 
shuttle...

Soviet technicians in white laboratory jackets stared in seeming disbelief as
Boris I. Gubanov, the chief designer for the Energiya rocket program,
led members of the house Armed Service Committee, a team of American 
specialists and a group of American reporters on a brisk tour.

Earlier in the day,  Maj. Gen. Vladimir Gudilin, the head of the space shuttle
program, led the Americans on a tour of a mammoth, hangarlike structure
that houses the Soviet Unions's two space shuttles, one of which has 
already flown, and a third mock shuttle that is used for research and 
development purposes.

The American Congression delegation which is on a 10 day tour of Soviet 
Military sites, flew this morning to an airport near the space center,
a sprawling complex situated on the stepps of Central Asia, near the
city of Tyuratam about 15000 miles southeast of Moscow.

The American were asked not to take any pictures form the air of the complex, 
which is also used to test the Soviet's military's long-range missiles.
Bun on the ground, the Americans were allowed to take photographs.

On a 45 minute bus ride from the airport the Americans passed thorough a dusty
city that houses the 75,000 specialist who work here and their dependents.

....cut

Here at Baikonur, General Gudilin portrayed the shuttles abilities more
favorable, noting its ability to recover expensive space-based systems
and return them to earth.  ( Sagadeyev argued against the shuttle
in favor of expendable rockets on Sunday)

The general also said the shuttle could be used for reconnaissance satellites, 
twice mentioning the American Lacrosse satellite, which can reportedly look
through clouds by developing images through radar. But it was not clear 
whether the general meant that the shuttle should be used to deploy such
satellites or retrieve them for maintenance.

......

Next flight in 1991. Soviets officials said the Baikonur complex can launch 12
shuttles a year at the two launching pads but General Gudilin said that the 
next shuttle flight would not take place until 1991, when an unmanned shuttle
would be sent into space and would dock with the space station, linking 
itself to the station through a special device in the Shuttle's cargo bay...

Astronauts in the space stations would operate some of the docked Shuttle's
systems before it returned unmanned to earth.  This would be the
second flight of the shuttle, which orbited the earth on an unmanned
mission last year.

The first manned shuttle mission will be carried out in 1992, the general said.
Such a mission, with three crew members, could last 7 to 30 days, he said.

After that, one shuttle a year will be launch until the year 2000, the
general said.

Earlier plans were far more ambititious, said Vladimir L. Lapygin the 
chairman of the Supreme Soviets's newly formed Defense and State Security
Committee.  He said today that Soviet authorities had initially planned to 
carry out 10 shuttle launches by 1997.

If Soviet shuttle plans are scaled back, officials said, Moscow has several
alternatives.  The Energiya launching system, which uses powerful strapped-on 
booster rockets to lift the the Soviet shuttle into space , can operated
independently of the shuttle, as Marcia S. Smith an expert on Soviet 
space program at the Congressional Research Service, has noted..