Dec 1 1994
From The Space Library
Possible evidence of a new planetary system only 52 light-years away arising from observation of a star named Beta Pictoris was published in Nature. Harold E Levinson and colleagues at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio showed how a system of planets and comets could account for the phenomena seen near the star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope enabled some of these new discoveries. Planet hunter Charles M. Telesco at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama said of Levinson's work, "Whenever you can put a body of evidence into a coherent picture like that, everybody feels much better." (CSM, Dec 1/94; H Post, Dec 1/94)
NASA named John C. Lynn to head the new office of Chief Information Officer within the Office of the Administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC (NASA Release 94-199)
Western Europe's 70th Ariane rocket sent a U.S. PanAmSat communications satellite worth more than $150 million plunging into the Atlantic Ocean off French Guyana after its third stage malfunctioned. This was the second Ariane rocket failure in 1994 and the seventh since Western Europe began launching the Ariane series in 1979. (Reuters, Dec 1/94)
The group of scientists from Phillips Rocket Laboratory investigating the disappearance of the Mars Observer more than one year ago concluded the probable cause of the accident. Phillips aeronautical engineer and project manager said the likely cause was failure of a small pyro valve that allowed propellants to mix. This in turn could cause the rupture of a tube and result in the Observer tumbling out of control. (Antelope Valley Press, Dec 1/94)
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