Jul 25 1991
From The Space Library
Vice President Dan Quayle, speaking as chairman of the National Space Council, said the U.S. would not buy or build more Space Shuttle orbiters. It is to continue to use the four existing orbiters into the next century but planned to develop a new family of rockets to replace the current fleet of unmanned vehicles. NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly said he helped devise the policy's wording and was "totally in support" of it.(P Inq, Jul 25/91; W Post, Jul 25/91; B Sun, Jul 25/91; W Times, Jul 25/91; USA Today, Jul 25/91; WSJ, Jul 25/91; NY Times, Jul 25/91; Washington Technology, Jul 25/91; Htsvl Tms, Jul 26/91; Peninsula Times Tribune, Jul 30/91 quoting San Diego Tribune; B Sun, Jul 31/91)
The media reported on hearings of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology regarding the U.S. weather satellite. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found that the program for a new satellite, GOES-NEXT, was more than three years behind schedule and costs more than doubled because of mismanagement by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and poor workmanship by contractors. The GAO report considered the problem originated when NASA neglected to have a critical engineering review of the feasibility of the program's objectives at the beginning of the project. (UPI, Jul 25/91; AP, Jul 25/91; NY Times, Jul 26/91)
According to the Los Angeles Times, an Air Force-funded research center in El Segundo, California, was to begin in the fall to study the effect of rocket launches on the Earth's fragile ozone shield. Aerospace Corporation planned to investigate the role of solid rocket fuel combustion in the destruction of the ozone. These studies would supplement studies of ozone depletion done by NASA and would likely influence the types of fuels to be used in the National Launch System, a new generation of rockets scheduled for use after the year 2000. (LA Times, Jul 25/91)
NASA announced that the Goddard Space Flight Center's Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET), an instrument aboard NASA's Gamma Ray Observatory, had detected "the most distant and by far, the most luminous gamma-ray source ever seen." The EGRET team, led by Carl Fichtel, reported to the International Astronomical Union, Cambridge, Massachusetts, that a source of intense gamma radiation was detected between June 15 and June 28. The source was identified as the variable Quasar 3C279, located in the constellation Virgo. (NASA Release 91-117; W Post, Jul 29/91)
NASA announced that a developmental Space Shuttle main engine sustained extensive internal damage while it was undergoing ground testing July 24 at NASA's Stennis Space Center, near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The engine differed from engines used in Shuttle flights. (NASA Release 91-118)
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