Jan 29 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced Space Shuttle crews for flights in November and December 1985.
Francis Scobee would command orbiter Atlantis flight 51-L in November to deploy the third NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) and relaunch one of the communications satellites retrieved during flight 51-A; Michael Smith would pilot; Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, and Ronald McNair would serve as mission specialists.
Michael Coats would command the orbiter Columbia flight 61-C in December carrying Western Union's Westar 7 and RCA's Satcom KU-2 satellites for launch, 3M Corp.'s Material Sciences Laboratory 3, and the EASE/ACCESS space manufacturing experiment. The pilot would be John Blaha; mission specialists, Anna Fisher, Norman Thagard, and Robert Springer.
NASA also assigned Vance Brand, commander, and S. David Griggs, pilot, for flight 61-D/Spacelab 4 in January 1986, and Jon McBride, commander, and Richard Richards, pilot, for flight 61-E/Astro 1 in March 1986. (NASA Release 85-14)
NASA announced it had selected Grumman Data System Corp. for negotiations leading to the award of a contract for a high-speed (Class VI) computer system for Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The fixed-price contract would require Grumman to provide hardware, software, documentation, and services for installation and maintenance of a scientific- and engineering-computations system in support of MSFC's programs in thermal, electrical, load, and structural-design characteristics that influence flight-vehicle and payload performance.
The five-year contract, to begin no later than August 1985, would cost about $42 million and provide for a total lease period, with renewal in periods of one to 12 months, not to exceed 60 months. (NASA Release 8515)
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Regents of the Smithsonian Institution announced they had cancelled plans to construct a new facility at Washington Dulles International Airport that would have housed NASA's obsolete vehicles, the Washington Times reported. The Smithsonian had also expected to display the prototype of the French Concorde and numerous other non-NASA aircraft. However, the regents had decided the facility was a low priority.
"I don't think the only place to store those aircraft and spacecraft is Dulles," said Smithsonian secretary Robert Adams. "I would be concerned to take on another major construction program at this time." He concluded that emphasis would be on completing projects already begun. (W Times, Jan 29/85, D3)
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