Balky Satellite Finally Fired Up, Heads for Orbit

Two record-making attempts by two space shuttle crews to rescue a balky Hughes Communications Co. satellite earlier this year appeared to have paid off Sunday when Hughes successfully fired the main rocket motor aboard the satellite and it did not explode.

The satellite, known both as Leasat 3 and Syncom 3, has been drifting around the Earth since it was released from the space shuttle last April and failed to start itself. During that six-month odyssey, the satellite was exposed to extremely cold temperatures as it drifted through the Earth’s shadow, and some Hughes engineers feared that the fuel system aboard the satellite had been so severely damaged from the freeze that the rocket would explode upon ignition.

But in one of the few bits of good news Hughes has had in recent months, the rocket appeared to have functioned normally Sunday, sending the satellite on the first leg of a trip to its permanent position 22,300 miles above the Earth.

“It’s a super day,” said Albert Wheelon, president of the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Co.

Series of Maneuvers

However, the satellite must still go through a series of complex orbit maneuvers, using different rockets than the one fired Sunday, to reach its assigned altitude. On Friday, it should reach that altitude at a spot over the Pacific Ocean where it will remain fixed in relation to the Earth. Hughes engineers will then begin a monthlong shakedown cruise to test out the sophisticated electronic components and control systems aboard the $85-million bird.

“There are still uncertainties in the health of the satellite,” said Steven Dorfman, president of Hughes Communications.

Hughes is under contract to the U.S. Navy to have four satellites in operation by March, but there is no way the company can meet that commitment. The first two satellites are already in orbit and functioning properly. The third of the series was the one fired Sunday. The fourth failed after it reached orbit earlier this month, and a replacement cannot be launched until next September. That could subject the El Segundo firm to stiff fines from the Navy, but Wheelon said he was not sure what course the Navy would take.

“We’re going to be late (in meeting the contract deadline),” Wheelon said.

The Navy, which will use the satellites for communications and data relay, could fine Hughes as much as $10,000 a day, up to a total of $5 million, for each satellite that is not in service.

Back-to-Back Failures

Hughes passed up a chance to launch the replacement satellite in December to allow more time for research, in the hope of preventing lightning from striking yet again. The back-to-back failures of the third and fourth satellites stunned the space insurance industry, the commercial satellite business and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In a single week earlier this month, insurance underwriters paid out more than $234 million for satellite failures, culminating the worst week in the history of the commercial satellite industry.

That was in addition to the $85 million paid earlier for Leasat 3, which was the target of two dramatic rescue attempts by two separate missions of the space shuttle. If, in the end, the satellite works well enough to return a profit to Hughes, the underwriters will be able to recover up to $65 million under a complex agreement worked out between Hughes and the insurers.

The satellite, however, has already proved its propensity for surprises. It stole the show from the first U.S. senator to fly in space when it failed to activate itself after it was released from the cargo bay of the shuttle Discovery last April. Crewmen aboard the Discovery, including Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah), cut up plastic book covers to make crude devices that resembled fly swatters to try to snag a lever on the side of the satellite in hopes of starting it up. That effort resulted in the first unscheduled spacewalks in the history of the U.S. space program. But despite the attempt, the satellite failed to start and drifted lifelessly in an orbit about 200 miles above the Earth.

Late last month, Discovery was back on the scene again, with a different crew and a different plan. Two astronauts, James D. van Hoften and William F. Fisher, went out and captured the satellite, and then “hot wired” it with an electronic panel that allowed ground controllers to issue commands to the balky bird. That effort also resulted in a NASA record--the longest spacewalk ever by astronauts orbiting the Earth.

Hughes engineers at four stations scattered around the globe then took over, using small maneuvering jets aboard the satellite to spin it slowly, exposing different areas to the sun, to warm its rocket.

Main Engine Fires

At 8:53 a.m. Sunday, the command was given through a Hughes station in Guam, and the main engine fired.

Telemetry data collected by the four stations indicate that the rocket worked perfectly, sending the satellite up to about 10,000 miles above the Earth. Smaller rockets aboard the craft will be used to push it on up to 22,300 miles, where its orbiting speed will match the speed of the rotation of the Earth, leaving it in a relatively fixed position. If all goes according to plan, on Friday morning the satellite will be ordered to deploy its main antenna. Engineers will then spend about a month checking out its systems.