Aug 11 1994
From The Space Library
NASA announced the appointment of Earle K. Huckins III as Cassini Program Director in the Office of Space Science. An international program, Cassini was designed to explore the planet Saturn, its rings and moons, and the surrounding environment. Scheduled for launch on a Titan IV Centaur in October 1997, the Cassini spacecraft]] was to swing by Venus, the Earth, and Jupiter before being inserted into orbit around Saturn in June 2004. Cassini was projected to orbit Saturn for four years. (NASA Media Advisory Aug 11/94)
An article criticized of the ways in which NASA spent more than half the funds allocated to it on unproductive matters that had not advanced the design of the Space Station. The article alleged that at least 24 months of delays resulting from congressional budget-trimming and frequent redesigns cost $1.6 billion, a "hefty extra layer of management" cost $1.1 billion; a discarded propulsion and guidance unit cost $900 million, a failed data management system cost $500 million, and other redesigns and deletions cost $600 million. Since the appointment of Daniel S. Goldin as Administrator, many of the problems had been fixed, but if technical glitches and congressional meddling recurred, the program could again be in trouble. (Bus Wk, Aug 15/94)
Scientist John Bradley of MVA Inc. in Norcross, Georgia, said in a report in the journal Science that ancient space dust particles, composed of a black glassy substance embedded with metal, that zipped into Earth's atmosphere might be older than the solar system. Some of these tiny dust grains appeared to be similar to one of the major raw materials of the universe, interstellar dust grains, known as GEMS (glass with embedded metal and sulfides). Scientists collected GEMS, which they believed were left from a passing comet's wake, from a NASA U-2 airplane several miles above Earth. The GEMS were rare-only one or two were collected per hour of U-2 flight time-but showed signs of exposure to irradiation when studied under a transmission electron microscope. (UP, Aug 11/94)
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