April 1990
From The Space Library
NASA began acting on some of the recommendations from its principal independent safety review organization, which had predicted that the approximately 100 flights planned by the agency would probably entail another Shuttle loss. Among the panel's main engineering concerns were the Shuttle main engine, the redesigned solid rocket motor, orbiter structural loads, long-term orbiter maintenance, and human factors. NASA Associate Administrator William Lenoir explained that the safety panel acts as a "devil's advocate" and noted that conclusions drawn by them were intentionally exaggerated. (Av Wk, Apr 23/90; CSM, May 8/90)
NASA tested two of its experimental aircraft at the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California. One of the aircraft, an F-16XL, used an experimental wing surface for improving airflow at supersonic speeds. The second aircraft, an X-29, demonstrated an increase for high-angle-of-attack, the angle of an aircraft relative to its actual flight path. (NASA Release 90-52; 90-59)
Two NASA sounding rockets were scheduled for launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to observe Comet Austin. The two-stage, suborbital Black Brant IX rockets were set to carry a faint object telescope and a spectrograph (for observation in the far ultraviolet spectral range) for Johns Hopkins University and a far ultraviolet spectrometer for the University of Colorado. (NASA Release 90-57)
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