Apr 10 1985
From The Space Library
The U.S. Navy implemented a plan announced earlier by Navy Secretary John Lehman to abolish the Naval Material Command and to restructure the Naval Electronics Systems Command to integrate space systems, force ships, and aircraft systems into a Space and Warfare Systems Command, Defense Daily reported. The actions were part of a two-war-old plan to decentralize acquisition management in the Navy and streamline the decision making process. Defense Daily reported the Navy as saying a major impact of the reorganization of Navy acquisition management would be improved accountability by eliminating a reporting layer.
Adm. James Watkins, chief of Naval Operations, said the space aspect of the reorganization was part of a total package intended to bring the Navy "up to speed" in addressing space needs. "We are trying now to put our act together. We have established the Navy Space Command. . .putting in my office the Space and C3 Directorate, rather than just C3," Watkins said. "The Space and Warfare Systems Command will be our technical depository, working with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and other laboratories to work our projects in space, of which there are many. . .This is a nice stepping stone on the route to a unified space command,' Watkins added.
He also pointed out that the Navy and the Air Force, and perhaps the Army, would rotate into the unified space command that President Reagan would establish on October 1, 1985. Therefore, Watkins said, he saw the reorganization as important not only within the Navy, but also within the unified command system to achieve a higher level of command decision. (D/D, Apr 10/85, 225)
NASA announced selection of RMS Associates for negotiations leading to award of a contract for the operation and maintenance of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Facility (STIF), which acquired, organized, processed and stored worldwide aerospace information including published articles, papers, books, and reports. STIF is located near the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Under the contract terms, RMS Associates would acquire and process documents and data approved by NASA for entry into the collection; catalog, abstract, index, announce, and disseminate these materials; maintain a supporting reference service; compile specialized bibliographies; and provide other technical support.
The one-year contract, commencing July 1, 1985, and preceded by a one-month phase in, included provision for two one-year priced option extensions and two one-year unpriced options. RMS Associates estimated the one-year contract value at about $5 million, with a total of approximately $15 million for the first three years. (NASA Release 85-54)
NASA announced that observations by the international ultraviolet explorer (IUE) satellite revealed what appeared to be a variable gas cloud surrounding the star Beta Pictoris in the constellation Pictor in the southern hemisphere, a star that many astronomers considered a leading candidate for a planetary system resembling earth's. Scientists using the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) and ground-based telescopes previously had reported large particles of dust around the star.
The IUE findings of coexisting dust and gas clouds were consistent with scientific theories of planetary system formation, noted Dr. Yoji Kondo, IUE project scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center. In general, theories predicted that planets evolved from large stellar clouds of dust and gas that gradually condensed into orbiting planetary bodies. Observations with the IRAS strengthened this theory by suggesting that planetary disks surrounded a number of nearby stars. Also, astrometric measurements of the movement of several stars indicated the possible presence about each star of a planetary body several times more massive than Jupiter.
Kondo and his associate Dr. F. C. Bruhweiler of Catholic University, Washington, D.C., used the IUE telescope to obtain the ultraviolet spectra of Beta Pictoris to determine the manner in which ultraviolet light was absorbed by the gas cloud and the extinction of the light by the dust cloud. The ultraviolet spectra showed an absence of selective extinction of the light at shorter wavelengths, evidence that the star's light was being blocked evenly at all wavelengths by dust particles greater than one micron (millionth of a meter), as infrared data had reported.
"The IUE observation," Kondo said, "indicates the gas is either clumpy or is varying under the pressure of the stellar wind and radiation. If so, this would tend to complement IRAS and ground-telescope observations that a substantial dust cloud of protoplanetary material exists around Beta Pictoris." Kondo cautioned that the lack of observed extinction could also be due to viewing the star just a little off-plane, so that the telescope's line-of-sight was not aligned directly through the disk of orbiting dusty matter. However, Bruhweiler added, "that would be unlikely. All evidence seems to point to a belt too thick around Beta Pictoris for the line-of-sight to be missing the dust belt." (NASA Release 85-52)
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