Dec 22 1992
From The Space Library
NASA managers set January 13 as the launch date for the first Shuttle mission of 1993. Designated STS-54, the flight was to have two primary objectives-deployment of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-F) and astronomical observations of invisible x-ray sources within the Milky Way Galaxy with the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer. The crew was to be comprised of John Casper, commander; Don McMonagle, pilot; and three mission specialists, Mario Runco, Greg Harbaugh, and Susan Helms. (NASA Release N92-110; C Trib, Dec 23/92; AP, Dec 22/92; UPI, Dec 22/92)
NASA scientists released pictures and results from spacecraft Galileo's December 8 flight over the Moon's north pole and 189 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean. The flyby allowed Galileo to practice for Jupiter by studying Earth as if it were an alien planet. The craft detected radio signals that changed frequencies in a repeating, artificial way, indicating intelligent life on Earth. It also detected ice clouds in the stratosphere that help create a hole in the protective ozone layer above Antarctica and found evidence that the Moon once was more volcanically active than thought. (AP, Dec 22/92, 23/92; C Trib, Dec 23/92; W Times, Dec 23/92; NY Times, Dec 23/92; UPI, Dec 23/92)
A passenger jet was flown for the first time after undergoing nearly three years of modifications that converted it into a Shuttle landing-gear test air- craft. The modified Convair 990 was in the air for about one hour in the first of three flights planned by NASA in advance of the actual landing gear tests. (Antelope Valley Press, Dec 23/92)
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