A preparatory program for economical utilization of Spacelab
- Paper ID
1976-IAF-262
- author
- company
BMFT
- country
Federal Republic of Germany
- year
1976
- abstract
The TEXUG project is to perform technological experiments under O-g-gravity with sounding rocket flights. Recent study analyses and the successful! participation in the first flight of the NASA SPAR program showed obviously that such a project is a necessary step towards SPACELAB utilization in the areas of material science, space processing and technology. There are several objectives, in particular : - Preliminary experiments on sounding rockets provide criteria for the selection of proposed SPACELAB experiments and support the experimenters motivation. - Former experiments on SKYLAB and ASTP showed the difficulty in predicting experimental processes under absence of gravity. With TEXUS-obtainëd data, the experiment layout for future SPACELAB missions can by optimized. » The development and fabrication of experimental equipment for SPACELAB missions will be supported by findings from TEXUS test flights with equivalent instrumentation. A definition study for the TEXUS project was carried out by DFVLR and German industry on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT). The work statement covered the specification of the basic concept of the technological payload and the sounding rocket systems and the definition of the mission parameters. Specifically a mission approach for the first TEXUS campaign was involved including the experiments selection. Preliminary plans envisage two sounding rocket flights per year, the first flight scheduled prior to the end of 1977. The presentation will deal with the results of the , accomplished definition study and the resulting TEXUS project plan. The TEXUS project will be implemented within the framework of the German Space Program sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT). For the first TEXUS campaign cooperation with the Swedish Board of Space Activities is arranged. The cooperating agencies are the German Aerospace Establishment (DFVLR) and the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC).