Apr 7 1986
From The Space Library
NASA and the Pentagon announced the award of $500 million in con-tracts to seven different defense contractors for research into the development of the aerospace plane, seen by many as a successor to the Shuttle. The craft was envisioned as one that could take off and land like an airplane, but have the added capability of achieving orbit where it could then travel at 25 times the speed of sound. (WSJ, Apr 8/86; USA Today, Apr 8/86; W Post, Apr 8/86)
The Soviet Union invited foreign correspondents into its mission control center for a conference concerning orbiting cosmonauts and a live television interview with them. The Soviet Union set still another precedent when it allowed coverage of its space program by a large group of foreign press. The invitation followed a pattern of a more open Russian space agency, the televising of the recent liftoff of the cosmonauts on March 13, and the opening of the Soviet Space Research Institute to foreign visitors when the Vega space-craft approached Halley’s Comet were also first time events. (W Post, Apr 8/86; W Times, Apr 8/86)
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