Mar 1 1993
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Texas Monthly reported that Forrest M. Mims III, an amateur scientist who daily measures ozone readings with a pair of hand-held instruments put together for less than $500, had convinced NASA that its multimillion-dollar spectrometer was off by about 1.7 percent. NASA's 14-year-old spectrometer, the Nimbus-7, apparently had drifted slightly in its orbit. It was scheduled to be replaced in 1994; until it was replaced, NASA scientists would have to compensate for the error. (Texas Monthly, Mar 1/93)
Government Computer News reported that NASA had designated Laurie A. Broedling, an Associate Administrator for Continual Improvement, to take charge of the Agency's Total Quality Management (TQM) program. In addition, NASA established a quality steering team of senior officials and a continual improvement council. (Government Computer News, Mar 1/93)
The Clinton administration announced that it was moving the management team for a Space Shuttle contract from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The decision affected 90 engineering and management employees. According to the Wall Street Journal, the move was meant to discipline Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, who, after lobbying the administration to continue funding the Space Station, had publicly criticized the President's economic program for failing to cut more from Federal spending. (WSJ, Mar 1/93; Newsweek, Mar 8/93)
Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, James Oberg, a professional space engineer and a specialist on Russian aerospace, hailed the success of Russia's manned Space Station, Mir. He noted that the Mir, launched in 1986, had been continuously occupied since mid-1989 by successive teams of cosmonauts.
According to Oberg, American space engineers who visit Russia's space center have been impressed with the program's "sound, intelligent space hardware." Yet, Oberg noted, the Western press pays very little attention to Russian accomplishments in space. He suggested that awareness of what the Mir had accomplished could be useful in the upcoming round of political debate on whether the U.S. is "too poor to run a manned Space Station." (CSM, Mar 1/93)
Several life science researchers questioned whether a redesigned Space Station would accomplish enough life science objectives to he worth the investment. Researchers at a meeting of the National Research Council's Space Studies Board said that they expected a redesign to either shrink or reduce the centrifuge, a set of spinning modules designed for precise gravity experiments on animals aboard the station. Harold Guy, a professor at the University of California's School of Medicine in LaJolla, California, said that without a large centrifuge, much of the station's experimental value for life scientists would be lost. "The life science community may bail out," said Fred Turek, a neurobiologist and chairman of the space biology and medicine committee on the National Research Council's Space Studies Board. (Space News, Mar 1/93)
An article in Space News on Daniel S. Goldin's decision to remove Leonard Fisk as manager of the Agency's space science program discussed Fisk's managerial style. Last October Goldin changed Fisk's title to chief scientist, a position without management authority. According to the article, many scientists viewed Fisk as synonymous with advocating and delivering quality space science missions; others said that his record for delivering missions on budget and on time was mixed and that NASA could no longer afford to sacrifice cost and schedule to deliver the biggest science possible to space. (Space News, Mar 1-7/93)
Edward Frieman, who served as chairman of the White-House-led Earth Observing System Engineering Review Committee, said that NASA needed to institute an outside review process for its science missions. NASA's internal review process tended to bloat rather than streamline science missions, he said. "They're really not review teams, they're the advocates," said Frieman, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, California. (Space News, Mar 1-7/93)
Space News reported that European space officials were monitoring news about the fate of the United States Space Station under the Clinton administration. The 13-nation European Space Agency (ESA) had agreed to spend about $2.8 billion on its Columbus Space Station program. The European program included a habitable laboratory that was to he attached to the Station and related ground equipment. (Space News, Mar 1-7/93)
Operators of Biosphere 2, the world under glass experiment, named John B. Corliss, a NASA consultant, to head research for the $150 million private venture. (AP, Mar 1/93)
Federal Computer Week reported that a small woman-owned Florida firm had protested Marshall Space Flight Center's decision to let companies with up to 1,500 employees bid on a small, disadvantaged business (SDB) set-aside program there. Challenger Engineering Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida, maintained that NASA's procurement policy was unfair to smaller minority-owned firms that could not compete with larger companies. (Federal Computer Week, Mar 1/93)
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