Aug 17 1992
From The Space Library
The launch of Consort 5, a commercial suborbital rocket carrying nine microgravity experiments, was scheduled for September 10 by the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Consortium for Materials Development in Space. A two-stage Starfire solid fuel rocket would carry the payload to an altitude of 200 miles and provide the experiments with seven to eight minutes of microgravity exposure or weightlessness. The rocket and launch services were funded by a grant from NASA's Office of Commercial Programs. (NASA Release 92-133)
NASA announced that it had selected 31 experiments from the public and private sectors for inclusion in the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Program. Scheduled for launch in early 1993, this national communications facility was to operate as an orbiting testbed for the next generation of commercial communications satellites. A two-year experiment, the ACTS program was designed to offer a unique opportunity for commercial, governmental, and academic organizations to experiment with and to validate new communications satellite technologies. (NASA Release 92-134)
Some leading American astronomers complained about the failure of the Federal government to provide dependable financial support for astronomical research in the United States. The absence of dependable funding put American astronomy at a serious disadvantage in the competition with its counterparts in Europe and Japan, the astronomers charged. Federal financing had flagged, they said, just as a steam of new telescopes and telescope-enhancing devices were ready to be exploited. There were also management problems. Dr. Riccardo Giacconi, chief scientist for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, charged that poor management of America's space and astronomy programs had hobbled efforts to compete with European science. (NY Times, Aug 18/92)
The Air Force and NASA announced that they were developing a new family of rockets to meet the unmanned launch needs of the next century. As currently conceived, the National Launch System would include three new vehicles designed to lift cargoes ranging from 20,000 to 130,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. The new rockets were expected to become operational in 2002 and would carry supplies to Space Station Freedom at less cost than present U.S. delivery systems. (W Times, Aug 18/92; Birmingham News, Aug 19/92)
The United States and France recently announced plans to increase civil space program cooperation. The two countries said they were also prepared to invite Russia to join with them in new cooperative endeavors. The focus of this new cooperation was the monitoring of the global environment and bringing France and Russia in with the United States as major partners on the Mission to Planet Earth program. The August 10 launch of the U.S./French Topex-Poseidon ocean survey satellite laid the foundation for the U.S./French initiative. (AV Wk, Aug 17/92)
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