Mar 28 1994
From The Space Library
GOES-8, a sophisticated weather satellite, was the first of five advanced GOES-NEXT satellites scheduled to be deployed by 2003. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration managed the GOES program but engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center oversaw development of the spacecraft. These engineers redesigned weather instruments used by polar-orbiting weather satellites that flew 500 miles high to operate instead at 22,300 miles high. The system had vast potential benefit for firefighters, farmers, marine and aviation navigators, and others through improving the accuracy of weather forecasting. (W Post, Mar 28/94)
In connection with its April mission, Space Shuttle Endeavour was to carry a radar imaging experiment that would collect data on surface texture in several areas of the globe, including California's Mojave Desert and Death Valley. The movement of sand was determined by a complex interrelationship among wind velocity, wind intensity, and the surface texture of the ground. Diane Evans, a geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, explained that if the experiment works well it might become a permanent part of NASA's comprehensive study of global change. The experiment also was to study vegetation around the world; in order to see as much of the Earth as possible, the Endeavour was to be launched on a trajectory that would cover most of the globe, with the orbit ranging from 57 degrees north of the equator to 57 degrees south. (LA Times, Mar 28/94)
Russia inherited the Soviet Union's ambitions in space but lacked its main launch pads. Russian President Boris Yeltsin in a visit to his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, hoped to sign a 30-year lease on the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The outcome was a 20-year lease with an option to renew for 10 more years, and an annual payment of about $115 million. However, should this effort prove unsuccessful, Russia was developing other sites. Russian space scientists considered the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the far north unsuitable for manned flights, but Colonel General Vladimir Ivanov told the Itar-Tass news agency that Russia planned to build a major new space center in the far east at Svobodny, north of Blagoveshchensk. (LA Times, Mar 28/94; Reuters, Mar 28/94; W Post, Mar 29/94)
George Brown, Democrat from California, chairman of the House Science Committee, sent a letter to NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin asking that NASA develop cost estimates for upgrading the infrastructure surrounding Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome. He also requested that NASA explore options for establishing direct relations with Kazakhstan in the areas of science and technology. (Defense Daily, Apr 1/94)
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