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

62 BS- (Broadcasting Satellite)
to voice, high-speed data services, and interactive information
delivery services.
BS- (Broadcasting Satellite)
Experimental Japanese communications satellites, also
known by the national name Yuri (“lily”). Launched by
NASDA (National Space Development Agency), they
have been used to test technologies and techniques in
satellite TV broadcasting, including transmission to areas
with poor reception and of high-definition television signals.
(See table, “Broadcasting Satellite Series.”)
bubble colony
A proposed colony on the Moon or a planet consisting
of individual or group capsules in which an Earth-like living
environment is maintained, complete with people,
animals, and plants.
Buckley, Edmond C. (1904–1977)
A prominent engineering administrator in the American
space program. Buckley joined the Langley facility of
NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)
in 1930 after earning his B.S. in electrical engineering
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He became chief
of the instrument research division in 1943 and was
responsible for instrumentation at Wallops Island and at
the Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. In
1959, he became assistant director for spaceflight operations
at NASA headquarters. Two years later, his title
changed to director for tracking and data acquisition, and
from 1962 to 1968 he was associate administrator for
tracking and data acquisition. He retired in 1969 as special
assistant to administrator James Webb.
buffeting
The vibratory motion of a component or the airframe as
a whole when subjected to the vibratory impulses contained
within an aerodynamic wake.
Broadcasting Satellite Series
“Bug,” the
Colloquial early name for the Apollo Lunar Module.
bulge of the Earth
The extension of the equator caused by the centrifugal
force of Earth’s rotation, which slightly flattens our
planet’s spherical shape. This bulge causes the planes of
satellite orbits inclined to the equator (but not polar) to
rotate slowly around Earth’s axis. See station-keeping.
Bull, Gerald Vincent (1928–1990)
A Canadian aeronautical and artillery engineer at the
center of various schemes to develop space cannons.
Bull earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering and
spent the 1950s researching supersonic aerodynamics in
Canada. Inspired in his youth by reading Jules Verne’s
From the Earth to the Moon, Bull’s dream was to fire projectiles
from Earth’s surface directly into space. In 1961,
he set up HARP (High Altitude Research Project),
funded by McGill University in Montreal, where Bull
had become a professor in the mechanical engineering
department, with support from the Army Ballistic
Research Laboratory. Following the collapse of HARP in
1967, Bull set up Space Research Corporation, a private
enterprise through which he tried to sell his space cannon
ideas to various organizations and nations including the
Pentagon, China, Israel, and, finally, Iraq. Bull’s ultimate
goal was to put a cannon-round into orbit for scientific
purposes, but the military potential of his designs led
him to become an arms trader. He set up a weapons plant
in northern Vermont complete with workshops, artillery
range, launch-control buildings, and a radar tracking station.
In 1980, he was jailed in the United States for seven
months for a customs violation in supplying the South
African military. Once out of prison, he abandoned his
American enclave to work full-time in Brussels, Belgium.
In November 1987, he was contacted by the Iraqi
Embassy and was invited to Baghdad. Bull promised the
Iraqis a launch system that could place large numbers of
Spacecraft Date
Launch
Vehicle Site GSO Location Mass (kg)
BS-1 Apr. 8, 1977 Delta 2914 Cape Canaveral 110° E 350
BS-2A Jan. 23, 1984 N-2 Tanegashima 110° E 350
BS-2B Feb. 12, 1986 N-2 Tanegashima 110° E 350
BS-3A Aug. 28, 1990 H-1 Tanegashima 110° E 1,100
BS-3B Aug. 25, 1991 H-1 Tanegashima 110° E 1,100