Mar 16 1988
From The Space Library
Congress ordered a temporary halt to NASA's efforts to lease a commercial crew-tended space laboratory, citing several irregularities in NASA's handling of the procurement process and questioning the space agency's abrupt reversal of its prior opposition to the facility. The chairmen of the House appropriations subcommittee for NASA, Representative Edward Boland, and the Chairman of the House authorization subcommittee for NASA, Representative Bill Nelson, agreed to freeze funding for the facility until these issues could be addressed. Several ranking members of the House and Senate had written NASA to complain that the Agency was moving ahead with a contract without congressional authorization. (H Post, Mar 24/88; Av Wk, Mar 28/88)
Morton Thiokol, Inc. was fined by Utah state officials for six safety violations in connection with a December 29, 1987, fire that killed five workers and destroyed a missile casting building at Thiokol's Wasatch facility near Salt Lake City. The Utah Occupational and Safety Health Division sought fines of $31,700 against Thiokol, citing violations of safety rules related to protection of workers, deviations from approved procedures, and failure to take precautions against static electricity buildup in a rocket-casting facility. An At Force investigation into the immediate cause of the fire, which occurred during the casting of solid rocket propellant into the metal casing of an MX missile segment, was pending. (UPI, Mar 16/88; W Post, Mar 17/88; NY Times, Mar 17/88; WSJ, Mar 17/88; W Times, Mar 17/88)
NASA began flight tests of a new design of low-noise, energy efficient aircraft propellers. The tests, undertaken jointly by NASA and Lockheed Corporation as part of the Propfan Test Assessment (PTA) program, were to determine whether large, unducted propellers with a radically swept design are a feasible alternative to higher-cost turbofan (conventional jet) propulsion systems.
Researchers estimated that a thoroughly reworked version of the old propeller aircraft would save airlines 15 to 30 percent a year in fuel costs, compared with the most advanced turbofan-powered aircraft flying in the 1990s, and still fly as fast as conventional airliners. (NASA Release 88-40)
The Soviet Space Research Institute and the Soviet government agreed to place aboard a spacecraft, destined for the Martian moon Phobos, a plaque commemorating discovery of the Moon and its sister moon Deimos in 1877 by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. The Soviet Phobos mission, due for launch in July 1988, involved two Soviet spacecraft. They would reach the vicinity of Mars in early 1989 and be placed in elliptical orbits around the planet. Both would approach Phobos in sequence and release landing probes. (NASA Release 88-41)
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