Jan 19 1995
From The Space Library
An experimental X-31 aircraft crashed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Its German military pilot ejected safely. The craft, one of two X-31's operated at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, was returning from a one-hour test flight when it crashed. First flown in 1990, the aircraft had proven its ability to outmaneuver other fighters, particularly at low speeds. The cause of the crash was under investigation. (Antelope Valley Press, Jan 20/95; H Chron, Jan 20/95; Daily News, Jan 20/95; APn, Jan 19/95; UPn, Jan 19/95; USA Today, Jan 20/95; W Post, Jan 20/95; C Trib, Jan 20/95; LA Daily News, Jan 20/95; LA Times, Jan 20/95; Bakersfield Californian, Jan 20/95;)
A Russian space enthusiast, Sergei Leskov, lamented the declining state of the Russian space program in the January 19 issue of "Izvestia." Production of rockets and other hardware has declined in the last few years, Leskov said, and even the hardware in orbit was on its last legs. The Mir Space Station, too, had grown old and increasingly gave mission controllers nasty surprises. He noted that during the past five years, funding of the space sector had been cut five-to-ten-fold in certain areas. The contract with the United States for construction of the Alpha space station had been the salvation of the Russian space sector, but only a small range of enterprises were involved in it, and the project did not promote development of new technologies. Without an infusion of more money, Leskov wrote, the Russian space sector could find itself as much a part of history as the Pyramid of Cheops. (BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Jan 23/95).
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said NASA intended to cut at least 2,500 civil servants from its payroll before the end of the century, scaling back its work force to levels not seen since the early 1960s. Supervisory positions at NASA Headquarters and its Field Centers were to he targeted as the Agency tried to stay in step with Clinton administration plans to shrink the government. (H Chron, Jan 20/95; APn, Jan 20/95; W Times, Jan 24/95; Av Wk, Jan 23/95; Fla Today, Jan 22/95)
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