(Henry Spencer) wrote in
:

In article ,
Herb Schaltegger wrote:
Lockheed-designed "service module" to perform the task later given to
FGB. It was not divulged how and why Lockheed had designed such a
module nor were we encouraged to ask; it was enough that we were told:
"It works and this is what it can do . . ."

Aviation Week speculated that it was the KH-11 spysat bus; the numbers
seemed about right.

Given that Lockheed was the prime contractor on KH-11, HST, and Bus-1, that
KH-11 is said to closely resemble HST, and that Bus-1's cylindrical shape
seems to be a good fit for the base of HST, that sounds reasonable.

...It's unclear if NRO
simply refused or if they place so many roadblocks in the way of its
use that NASA was forced to go to the Russians on this aspect of the
program.

I don't think they were *forced* to do it, so much as they found it a
more attractive alternative. The FGB module had in-orbit refueling
capability, had rather more ACS authority than the Lockheed bus (which
was marginal in this area and might have needed upgrading), and looked
cheaper. Moreover, NASA historically has been very reluctant to get
involved with highly classified stuff, just because it is so much
hassle.

Case in point being the compartmentalization within HST contractors
Lockheed and Perkin-Elmer.

Interestingly, in 1997, when NASA was looking for backup options in the
event the Russians failed to launch the ISS service module, rather than
going back to Lockheed/Bus-1, they went to the Naval Research Laboratory
and their Interim Control Module (ICM). Like Bus-1, ICM is a propulsion
module used on some top-secret NRO birds, and was designed to be compatible
with both the Space Shuttle and Titan launch vehicles.

Should be an interesting story why NASA preferred to deal with NRL vice
Lockheed.

--
JRF

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