THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512250024
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
Rocket manufacturer EER Systems Inc. has a modest Christmas gift list. Just a couple of items, really: Two rocket motors that lie somewhere on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, 15 miles east of Assateague Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
``We know where they are,'' said Jim Hengle, an EER vice president. ``But we can't find either one at the moment, either with sonar or magnetics. They must have buried deep in the sea floor.''
Finding the two motors would answer some nagging safety questions about why neither of them blew apart when EER's Conestoga rocket exploded Oct. 23 just after liftoff from NASA's Wallops rocket range.
For the first 45 seconds after the launch, everything appeared normal. Then, one second later, the craft self-destructed.
As throngs of people watched from area beaches, back roads and fields, the $20 million Conestoga, carrying 14 experiments, came apart in spectacular fashion. On-board munitions separated the six boosters propelling the craft. Two of the six continued to fire, however, corkscrewing into the Atlantic.
Despite the October setback, EER is vowing to press ahead with another Wallops launch, perhaps by the spring of 1998. According to Hengle, the company has already signed up two experimenters and will be seeking more in 1996.
``We are explaining to potential clients what the problems were and what it is we are doing to prevent another occurrence,'' he said. ``The experimenters had a reason to fly with us the first time. Those needs are still there today.''
The company has traced the malfunction to errant electronic signals generated by vehicle vibration as the Conestoga passed rapidly through the atmosphere. The signals misled an onboard navigation computer to think the Conestoga was off course when it was not.
So the computer directed the craft's steering nozzles to rapidly pivot, exhausting the reservoir of hydraulic fluid that enabled the nozzles to move in the first place.
In short order, the nozzles froze in place, and the Conestoga began to drift to the right. Shortly thereafter, as the craft entered a realm of severe aerodynamic pressure, its front end began to crumple.
Within milliseconds, on-board auto-destruct systems were activated. First, the motors were blown clear of each other. Then, explosive charges tore a gash in the side of each booster to rapidly dissipate thrust - except, that is, in the case of the two rockets that wound up plunging into the ocean.
``There were motors burning,'' said senior NASA Wallops official H. Ray Stanley. ``They weren't supposed to.''
Why the self-destruct mechanisms did not work perfectly remains a mystery. But in order to fly again, the company will need to provide answers.
That's why EER will keep a team of Navy divers busy throughout the winter, weather permitting, until at least one of the two motors has been located and studied. Meantime, debris from the explosion continues to be found in Eastern Shore waters and on area beaches.
``There is an awful lot of stuff fishermen are bringing in, and washing up on shore,'' Stanley said. ``It's mostly pieces and parts of casings and protective shrouds - honeycomb structures that are pretty lightweight.''
EER appears eager to fly again. According to vice president Hengle, a crew of five launch specialists and technicians from the company is setting up permanent shop at the Wallops rocket range. That complement could be expanded to 10 by mid-'96, he said, depending on the progress the company makes in arranging a second Conestoga flight.
One of EER's most important challenges is to assemble a manifest of experimenters willing to risk a second flight.
At least one seems ready to try again. Francis Wessling, associate director of the Consortium for Materials Development in Space, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, lost a microgravity experiment in the Conestoga explosion.
While he has yet to be formally approached, Wessling said a second Conestoga mission may be in the cards for his university group.
``The Conestoga is still a good concept,'' he said. ``It's like any new rocket. The problems have to be worked out. It's the price you have to pay. Nobody guarantees it will work the first time.''
News of a second Conestoga flight would be welcome for both NASA - in wake of budget cuts and restructuring, the space agency is looking to expand partnerships with private industry - and the fledgling Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which would like to see a multitude of commercial space missions launch from Wallops.
``There's still a demand to get stuff into space,'' said Billie Reed, the authority's acting executive director and an assistant professor of engineering management at Old Dominion University. ``The market won't go away. But if we can't get the U.S. fleet up and running, customers will go elsewhere: to the French, to the Russians.''
As EER positions itself for another space run, Hengle said, the company will design a new computerized filter to screen out the vibration-related noise. To guard against running out of steering fluid, the hydraulic reservoirs that feed the rocket nozzles will be substantially enlarged.
Hengle calls the fixes the ``belt-and-suspenders'' approach: If one item fails, the other will be able to support the mission.
Even though the Conestoga's first mission ended in catastrophe, Hengle contended that the experience has boosted EER ahead of its competition. Nearly every other outfit in the small-to-medium rocket business has also suffered setbacks, he said, including explosions or in-flight malfunctions.
``These vehicles are complex,'' Hengle said. ``People coming behind us will trip and stumble, trying to get over the technological hurdles. I think we've overcome ours - and they've been painful.'' ILLUSTRATION: FILE
The Conestoga rocket shown here exploded Oct. 23 just after liftoff
from NASA's Wallops Island rocket range. EER, which manufactured the
rocket, is trying to explain the problems precisely.
by CNB