Jul 20 1993
From The Space Library
As the Clinton administration urged the Federal research complex into doing more to help American businesses, experts said that it should take a lesson from what had happened with the $600 million Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), which was expected to be put into orbit shortly after the Space Shuttle Discovery got off the ground. Labeling the project a white elephant, critics said that the satellite had generated little or no interest among its main targets-American satellite builders, who said its gadgetry was either irrelevant to their needs or coming along far too late to he of any use.
Analysts said that the government should tread very carefully when it tried to help industry technically and that any programs that did materialize should he structured so that businesses paid a substantial part of the costs, creating an opening for the discipline of market mechanisms. (NY Times, Jul 20/93)
The Washington Post reported that firms that did work relating to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in the past were attempting to turn their SDI-related discoveries to commercial use. For example, Photon Research Associates Inc. in Arlington, Virginia, worked on mapping the Earth's oceans and land masses so that space-based sensors could differentiate between incoming enemy missiles and the Earth in the background. The company switched to developing sensors for NASA that would study the planet's natural resources and to monitor pollution. (W Post, Jul 20/93)
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, aerospace engineer James F. Glass advocated funding the Space Station, arguing that not only does NASA provide jobs and dreams, but it also keeps the country pulling together for America's future. He noted that when NASA, with all its faults, spends a dollar, the taxpayer usually receives a dollar's value. Ultimately, in Glass's view, the country needs to focus on more than survival; it must reach for the stars. (LA Times, Jul 20/93)
At a public hearing on July 20, the National Transportation Safety Board described a scene of confusion in the mission control room during the launch of a Pegasus rocket made by Orbital Sciences Corporation of Fairfax, Virginia. Control room operators at a NASA command center in Wallops Island, Virginia, ordered the launch of the Pegasus from a B-52 bomber, then ordered the launch aborted, only to rescind that order seconds later. Federal safety officials want stricter controls over commercial satellite launches. (AP, Jul 21/93)
NASA announced that it had selected Computer Sciences Corporation, Applied Technology Division, Falls Church, Virginia, to negotiate a contract for scientific computing operations, maintenance, and communication services in support of the Center Scientific Computing Complex (CSCC) at the Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA. (NASA Release C93-1; W Times, Jul 22/93)
NASA managers set July 24 as the new launch date for Space Shuttle Discovery's Mission STS-51. A problem with the Pyro Initiator Controller (PIC) unit on the launch pad caused the Kennedy Space Center Launch Director to abort the launch attempt on July 17. (NASA Launch Advisory)
An official of Japan's Science and Technology Agency announced that it would spend $4.6 billion developing an unmanned Space Shuttle that would repair satellites, act as a space transporter, and serve as a laboratory for micro-gravity experiments. (RTW, Jul 7/93)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
