The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

304 OKB-1
OKB-1
The classified Soviet name of Sergei Korolev’s design
bureau in Kalinigrad, near Moscow, formed in 1950
within Department 3 of the Special Design Bureau of
NII-88. It later evolved to become the Energia Rocket &
Space Corporation (Energia RSC). Its rivals were Yangel’s
OKB-586 and, later, Chelomei’s OKB-52.
OKB-52
The classified Soviet name of Vladimir Chelomei’s
design bureau in Moscow. OKB-52, which became NPO
Saliout, was mainly responsible for producing navy missiles.
Among its greatest legacies are the Proton (UR-500)
and Rockot (based on the SS-19 Stilleto intercontinental
ballistic missile).
OKB-586
The classified Soviet name of Mikhai Yangel’s design
bureau in Dnepropetrovsk in the Ukraine. It later became
NPO Yuzhnoye.
Okean
A series of Soviet oceanographic and naval radar satellites,
the first of which was placed in orbit in the 1980s.
Okean-O, launched on July 17, 1999, marked the start of
a new generation of larger Okean spacecraft that carry
side-looking radar and a set of visible and infrared scanners
and radiometers.
O’Keefe, Sean (1956–)
NASA’s current administrator; he replaced the previous
incumbent, Daniel Goldin, in December 2001. O’Keefe
previously served as deputy director of the Office of
Management and Budget, overseeing the management of
the federal budget under the Bush (junior) administration
and, before that, was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of
Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University.
Earlier still he had served as the secretary of the navy
under George Bush (senior) and in a variety of other government
posts. O’Keefe has been charged with sorting
out NASA’s accounting system and chronic overspending
on the International Space Station. He earned a B.A.
from Loyola University (1977) and a Master of Public
Administration degree from the Maxwell School (1978).
Oko
Russian military satellites placed in Molniya-type orbits.
They are equipped with an infrared telescope and are
intended to provide early warning of missile attacks.
“Oko” means “eye.”
Olympus
An experimental communications satellite, originally
known as LSAT and launched by ESA (European Space
Agency). One of the largest comsats ever built, Olympus
was primarily designed as a technology demonstrator. Its
platform and payloads were built to test a range of space
hardware and components, which would be necessary
elements of future telecommunications satellites in
Europe. As such, it tested new concepts in orbit, such as
steerable spot beams, 20 to 30 GHz repeaters, high-speed
switchable multiplexers, and very high power traveling
wave tube amplifiers. A dust grain from the Perseid
meteor stream was blamed for ending its mission.
Although Olympus remained intact after the collision, it
lost so much thruster fuel in trying to correct its attitude
that it became unmanageable.
Launch
Date: July 12, 1989
Vehicle: Ariane 2
Site: Kourou
Orbit: GSO at 19° W
Mass: 2,595 kg
omnidirectional antenna
A simple antenna, mounted on a spacecraft, that radiates
energy equally in all directions.
O’Neill, Gerard Kitchen (1927–1992)
A particle physicist at Princeton University who worked
out a strategy for the future expansion of the human
race into space. He championed the idea of orbital settlements
in several papers and in his book The High
Frontier. 225 The L5 Society was formed to advocate and
to develop his schemes, although O’Neill never served
as officer in this organization. See O’Neill-type space
colony.
O’Neill-type space colony
A large orbiting space colony, of the kind proposed by
Princeton’s Gerard K. O’Neill, consisting of an immense
rotating aluminum cylinder, the inner wall of which
would be inhabited. The structure would be built of
material mined from the Moon or asteroids. O’Neill
linked his ideas with Peter Glaser’s Solar Power Satellite
(SPS) concept. SPSs are large solar collectors in space
that would beam energy for use on Earth or in space.
O’Neill suggested that they, too, could be manufactured
of extraterrestrial material and could provide an export
valuable enough to make a colony economically selfsustaining.
In 1973, George Hazelrigg, also of Princeton,
suggested that the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points might be
ideal places for O’Neill’s large habitats. (The idea of situating
a large structure at one of these special orbital locations
can be traced back to the 1961 novel A Fall of