Aug 6 1993
From The Space Library
NASA announced that scientists from the University of Hawaii and NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, had determined that the planet Pluto is covered with surface ices that are 98 percent nitrogen. The scientists concluded that with such abundant nitrogen surface ice, Pluto's thin atmosphere must be primarily gaseous nitrogen. (NASA Release 93-142)
A $67 million weather satellite to track storms, floods, and environmental damage went into orbit aboard an Atlas-E rocket. It also was scheduled to he used to pinpoint the sites of plane crashes and shipwrecks. The NOAA-13 satellite reached its 541-mile-high orbit on schedule. The new satellite, which eventually was scheduled to replace the aging NOAA-11 satellite, was to circle Earth every 103 minutes and view the entire planet twice daily. (NY Times, Aug 10/93; RTW, Aug 10/93)
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