Feb 22 1985
From The Space Library
Members of the U.S. House Science and Technology space science and applications subcommittee questioned Jesse Moore, NASA associate administrator, office of space flight, on the agency's decision not to request funding for a 5th orbiter in its FY 86 budget, Aerospace Daily reported. Moore restated the agency's position that a four-orbiter fleet was adequate to meet traffic demand for the next five years or so, pointing out a recent decline in commercial and military traffic.
NASA had requested $2.1 billion for 14 FY 86 Space Shuttle flights; Moore said NASA planned 17 missions in FY 87, 19 in FY 88, and projected 24 per year after that.
Subcommittee chairman Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who had indicated strong support for a fifth orbiter, questioned Moore on the likelihood of increased launch traffic demand, potential schedule impacts of an accident, and the possibility of stretching out orbiter fabrication over a seven-to-eight-year period.
Moore responded that NASA's program included adequate funding for structural spares procurement and maintenance of a viable base for initiating orbiter production over the next several years, pointing out that any funds for orbiter construction over a seven-to-eight-year period would be an add-on to NASA's runout budget and could be in competition with other items. He had also remarked on increasingly pessimistic market projections, even considering upcoming yearly launches of 18 to 20 communications satellites.
Earlier, NASA Administrator James Beggs, in response to questions on NASA's exploring possibilities of private-sector purchase of a 5th orbiter, had said that no Space Shuttle privatization proposals submitted to NASA would result in a cost savings to the government. (A/D, Feb 22/85, 1)
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) announced that on February 4 technical/scientific teams from Australia, India, Finland, and the U.S. had begun a six-week meeting at Wallops Flight Facility, Va., to compare radiosonde instruments used worldwide. Measuring only a few inches square and weighing less than 2 lb., the radiosonde was a low-cost, mass-produced instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind while ascending on a small balloon up to about 25 km (15 miles), or more frequently 30 km (18 miles), above earth. Worldwide weather services used radiosonde data for forecasts to aid aviation and for research.
There were currently 17 radiosonde manufacturers in a number of countries, resulting in occasional differences in instrument measurements and the need to make periodic comparisons. A working group on the quality of meteorological data meeting in 1982 at the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) headquarters, Geneva, Switz. had agreed that two phases of tests were required.
The United Kingdom's Meteorological Office had hosted the 1st phase in 1984, when researchers released 106 balloons. Phase-2 participants at Wallops launched four balloons a day, five days a week, weather permitting, for an anticipated total of about 100 flights, each balloon carrying four or more instruments. Researchers would then correlate Phase-2 data with Phase-1 results. (GSFC Release 85-8)
In testimony February 21 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. James Abramhamson said the High Frontier organization's proposal for a system of non-nuclear space interceptors based on kinetic-kill vehicles was an attractive weapons concept that could be deployed earlier than others, but questioned whether it was the best system, the Washington Post reported.
Retired Gen. Daniel Graham, High Frontier's director and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, had proposed the satellite-launched system of kinetic-kill vehicles three years previously as a possibly near-term, space-based missile defense. Abramhamson said the High Frontier system was simpler than other systems being considered and might be useful against the current generation of missiles, but said he feared such a system would only drive the Soviets to deployment of more missiles and development of countermeasures. He pointed out a truly effective space-based, missile-defense system had to be tied in with warhead tracking and command and control systems, which he said would be ready in a decade or less.
Abramhamson went on to say it would be the early 1990s before the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)-research effort would be far enough along for a decision on which technologies to develop for a deployed system; an effective system would require a whole family of technologies. The Washington Post article quoted Abramhamson concluding that he "wouldn't give a figged nickel" for calculations by groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists that space defense is impossible. (W Post, Feb 22/85, 8A)
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