Jan 29 2003
From The Space Library
Alain Bensoussan, president of the French space agency, announced that he was resigning from his post because he no longer had the support he needed to continue his job. Bensoussan had been the “target of increasingly bitter attacks” lodged by frustrated employees who no longer perceived a clear direction in the agency's mission. Bensoussan had also faced the failure of a new Ariane 5 rocket and an agency budget that had decreased steadily since 1997, despite the addition of new programs. Moreover, the French government had commissioned a report evaluating the space agency's current status and future direction, and the report had been “lukewarm in its assessment” of Bensoussan. Following the publication of the report, France's space minister Claudie Haignere had stated that the agency had not yet made a decision about its future management. The commission's findings and the space minister's statement had not provided a strong message of support for Bensoussan's leadership. (Peter B. de Selding, “French Space Agency Chief To Resign,” Space News, 29 January 2003.
A Delta 2 rocket launched, carrying a GPS-2R8 satellite and an Experimental Spacecraft System (XSS-10) microsatellite into orbit. The U.S. Air Force was launching the GPS-2R8 to replace the 22nd GPS satellite, which had launched 10 years earlier, joining a constellation of 26 operational GPS spacecraft. Although the military GPS created in the 1970s had generated a commercial industry with sales in excess of US$6 billion, the system had continued to exist primarily to serve the U.S. military. The U.S. Air Force was launching the 62-pound (28-kilogram) XSS-10 spacecraft to test new guidance and navigation software and to demonstrate new technologies, such as a miniature communications system, a lightweight propulsion system, and advanced lithium polymer batteries. (Jim Banke, “Delta 2 Rolls, Launches GPS and Experimental Satellites,” Space.com, 29 January 2003, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/delta2_launch_030129.html (accessed 23 July 2008).
NASA announced its collaboration with Japan's NASDA and the Japanese Meteorological Research Institute to study snowfall over Wakasa Bay, Japan. The study would use NASA's EOS Aqua satellite in conjunction with research aircraft, which would gather data for the study using the coastal radar systems. NASA had begun the Wakasa Bay Field Campaign on 3 January 2003, scheduling the study to run through 14 February 2003. Although, historically, scientists had found it difficult to quantify contributions to the global hydrologic cycle from the northern Pacific Ocean, they expected that the new satellite instruments, which could detect precipitation over water, would provide data needed to interpret the effect of Pacific Ocean hydrology on the world. (NASA, “NASA Joins Snow Study over the Sea of Japan,” news release 03-025, 29 January 2003, ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2003/03-025.txt (accessed 29 July 2008).
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