Jan 7 1986
From The Space Library
The scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia was again scrubbed-this time because of inclement weather at landing sights in. Spain and the Sahara Desert. The weather situations in these distant areas were of concern to engineers at the Kennedy Space Center because the sites provided emergency landing in the event of an engine failure during the first few minutes of flight. This fifth delay, four in three weeks, raised questions concerning the NASA's ability to launch 15 scheduled Shuttle flights during 1986. (W Post, Jan 8/86; NY Times, Jan 8/86; USA Today, Jan 8/86; P Inq, Jan 8/86)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates the Nation's weather satellites, announced that its polar orbiting satellite, NOAA-8, was apparently lost. NOAA was informed by the Air Force that its tracking instruments detected "what appeared to be pieces of the satellite" in the vicinity of NOAA-8 orbit. (NY Times, Jan 7/86)
Dr. William R. Graham, who was appointed Acting Administrator of NASA on January 3, 1986, stated in his first interview that he was the "acting administrator in every sense of the word" and that he felt very comfortable in his new position. He apparently made that statement to put to rest suggestions that the Agency would really be run by NASA Associate Administrator Philip E. Culbertson while Graham learned the ropes. Graham was promoted to his new position, from the post of Deputy Administrator of NASA, when NASA Administrator James M. Beggs took a leave of absence to prepare his defense for a trial. Beggs had been charged with defrauding the Federal Government when he served as a top executive of General Dynamics Corporation.
NASA's acting administrator received his master's and doctoral degrees in engineering from Stanford University. He began his professional career at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico and then moved to the Rand Corporation in California. In 1971, he founded R&D Associates-a think tank in Marina Del Rey, California. He was a consultant to the Secretary of Defense and had served on an advisory committee on undersea warfare and human assisted strategic Air Force systems and on nuclear weapons panels. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Administrator of NASA in November 1985, Graham headed, for three years, President Reagan's advisory commit-tee on arms control and disarmament.
The then 48-year-old native Texan expressed great optimism in his assessment of the future of NASA and of space exploration in general. He said that "the Agency in the coming decade would broaden mankind's understanding of Earth's environment, expand the reach of manned exploration, and extend scientific vision to the far edges of the universe." Stating that space exploration was limited only by "imagination," Graham promised to vigorously pursue President Reagan's mandate to make space more accessible to the ordinary citizen and free enterprise. (W Times, Jan 6/86; 7/86)
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