Jan 27 1994
From The Space Library
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center opened its Clean Room-the world's largest at 100 feet by 125 feet and nine stories high-for journalists to inspect the 15,000 pounds of parts removed from the Hubble Space Telescope and returned for examination, particularly the Wide Field/Planetary Camera. Hubble flight systems chief Frank Cepollina and NASA expert John Wood discussed both the signs of wear from three years in space and problems of controlling contamination here. (B Sun, Jan 27/94; AP, Jan 27/94)
British astronomers reported in the journal Nature on finding new physical evidence of "ripples" in space, hot and cold spots confirming 1992 findings by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Satellite, that shed light on the origin of the universe. Rod Davies of the University of Manchester discussed studies done by radio telescope in the Canary Islands that revealed microwaves from when the universe was only 300,000 years old. Astrophysicist Joseph Silk of the University of California at Berkeley commented that the findings could offer the most intriguing possibility that the universe is open, i.e., would expand indefinitely. (W Post, Jan 27/94; USA Today, Jan 27/94; AP, Jan 27/94)
The DC-X unmanned Delta Clipper-Experimental launch vehicle project was dropped by McDonnell Douglas because of exhaustion of its initial $58 million funding by the Department of Defense (DoD). Bill Gaubatz, head of the project for McDonnell at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, stated that DoD had informed him of cancellation of the contract.
The 42-foot-tall, 21-ton cone-shaped test model is one third the size of envisioned vehicle, which would be able to lift up to 25,000 pounds of cargo into orbit. The rocket was part of DoD's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) program to lift missile defense shields and weapons to orbit, but a final $5 million was shifted to DoD's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA, in turn, was reported to have been instructed by Defense Undersecretary John M. Deutch not to release the funds. (LA Times, Jan 27/94; NY Times, Jan 31/94)
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