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Europe in space (12)
Diagonal to space
July 4, 1976
"Jesus, this is like an idea out of a freakin' James Bond movie !" the American pilot shouted to his french copilot, covering the noise of the Tyne engines.
The French Air Force C-160 Transall had took of from Cayenne airport an hour earlier, and orbited a position out of the coast, trailing a cable between two poles sticking out of the back of the airplane. Their target now quietly swung under a large parachute. The Transall manoeuvered in a collision course trajectory, flew past the parachute, and snagged the payload. The parachute collapsed, with the heavy payload hanging hundreds of feet behind the plane.
"Be ready for the kick in the ass!" the pilot shouted.
"Quoi ? the what ?"
"Le coup de pied dans le cul !" he laughed. His french was improving, after all.
The Transall brutally jerked with the weight. A sergeant in the noisy open cargo bay of the plane started winching in the cable and the rocket bodyit trailed.
They landed the Transall at Cayenne airport without a glitch. The mission had been a success, a tremendous one.
DIAGONAL was the result of a cooperative venture between the French CNES and Lockheed, between Diamant L-17 press-fed stage 1 and Lockheed Agena space tug. Old Diamants had a couple of solid-fuel upper stages now replaced by the Agena. Specific impulse improved enormously, from a low 250 second to 325. Payload to orbit accordingly doubled, up to 500 kg.
Thanks to that superior performance it had been possible to integrate a recovery system within DIAGONAL first stage. As a pressure-fed rocket Diamant Amethyste was very strongly build, enough to withstand a spalshdown into the ocean under a parachute.
The alternative was to snatch the stage midair using a cargo plane. The CNES had been enthusiast about the project but funding was not coming – French President Giscard had made sure every penny flowed into Ariane.
That DIAGONAL second flight marked the end of the Diamant era. The launch pad was gone, and even the Kourou launch base was being mothballed until 1979 and Ariane first flight. There had been a program of job termination or freeze. Lockheed was ready to carry on DIAGONAL alone; their target was the all-solid SCOUT rocket.
Diagonal Agena second stage reached orbit with little propellant left in the tanks but that was still enough for on orbit testing and manoeuvering of the European space tug.
As for Diamant first stage, it is the only operational pressure-fed rocket in the world - despite Robert Truax best efforts to develop that technology in the United States.
July 4, 1976
"Jesus, this is like an idea out of a freakin' James Bond movie !" the American pilot shouted to his french copilot, covering the noise of the Tyne engines.
The French Air Force C-160 Transall had took of from Cayenne airport an hour earlier, and orbited a position out of the coast, trailing a cable between two poles sticking out of the back of the airplane. Their target now quietly swung under a large parachute. The Transall manoeuvered in a collision course trajectory, flew past the parachute, and snagged the payload. The parachute collapsed, with the heavy payload hanging hundreds of feet behind the plane.
"Be ready for the kick in the ass!" the pilot shouted.
"Quoi ? the what ?"
"Le coup de pied dans le cul !" he laughed. His french was improving, after all.
The Transall brutally jerked with the weight. A sergeant in the noisy open cargo bay of the plane started winching in the cable and the rocket bodyit trailed.
They landed the Transall at Cayenne airport without a glitch. The mission had been a success, a tremendous one.
DIAGONAL was the result of a cooperative venture between the French CNES and Lockheed, between Diamant L-17 press-fed stage 1 and Lockheed Agena space tug. Old Diamants had a couple of solid-fuel upper stages now replaced by the Agena. Specific impulse improved enormously, from a low 250 second to 325. Payload to orbit accordingly doubled, up to 500 kg.
Thanks to that superior performance it had been possible to integrate a recovery system within DIAGONAL first stage. As a pressure-fed rocket Diamant Amethyste was very strongly build, enough to withstand a spalshdown into the ocean under a parachute.
The alternative was to snatch the stage midair using a cargo plane. The CNES had been enthusiast about the project but funding was not coming – French President Giscard had made sure every penny flowed into Ariane.
That DIAGONAL second flight marked the end of the Diamant era. The launch pad was gone, and even the Kourou launch base was being mothballed until 1979 and Ariane first flight. There had been a program of job termination or freeze. Lockheed was ready to carry on DIAGONAL alone; their target was the all-solid SCOUT rocket.
Diagonal Agena second stage reached orbit with little propellant left in the tanks but that was still enough for on orbit testing and manoeuvering of the European space tug.
As for Diamant first stage, it is the only operational pressure-fed rocket in the world - despite Robert Truax best efforts to develop that technology in the United States.
- Archibald
- Word Count: 440