Dec 3 1986
From The Space Library
McDonnell Douglas Astronautics was selected for negotiations leading to the award of a three-year contract, with another three-year option, and a six-year price tag of $327 million, to perform Payload Ground Operations for Kennedy Space Center activities, both in Florida and elsewhere inside and outside the United States. The work was being done by five different contractors, and NASA hoped to obtain a single, long-term contract. Responsibilities included payload/cargo processing and integration, Spacelab operations and integration, support to experimental integration activities, payload/cargo de-integration, NASA/Vandenberg payload operations, payload related facilities, systems and ground equipment operations, maintenance and sustaining engineering, customer accommodation and launch-site support functions, and pay-load related support operations and services. (NASA Release 86-167)
NASA participated in a study of controlled California forest fires in the San Gabriel mountains. The data focused on the global effects of fire on atmospheric quality, an and water pollution, erosion, soil depletion, and species extinction, as well as how a fire could be handled more effectively. Scientists hoped to learn more about the effects of fire on different biogenic gases, such as nitrogen oxide and methane hydrocarbons, and how changes in these gases affect the atmosphere, the climate, and the biosphere. For its aerial study, NASA flew a U-2 aircraft at 60,000 feet. A similar study on the effects of a nuclear winter was scheduled. (NASA Release 86-134; W Post, Dec 4/86)
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