Mar 6 1980
From The Space Library
Press reports said NASA faced a $760 million (14%) cut in its FY81 funding as President Carter announced a $20 billion cut in the entire federal budget. The Washington Post said Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, had protested the size of the cut to the Office of Management and Budget.
The White House had originally asked NASA to suggest reductions of $630 million. Defense/Space Business Daily said the cuts would eliminate two new NASA starts in FY81, the gamma-ray observatory and the national oceanic satellite system, as well as the Galileo mission to Jupiter. On March 5 the House subcommittee on space science and applications had unanimously passed NASA's $300 million FY80 supplemental request for Shuttle development funds; subcommittee chairman Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) said NASA should share the FY81 cuts, but 18 % was too high. (D/SBD, Mar 6/80. 25; W Post, Mar 7/80, A-2)
ESA announced it would undertake a new scientific project called Hipparcos, an astrometric satellite to measure positions, proper motions, and parallaxes of celestial bodies and define the position and displacement velocity of about 100,000 stars. The data would help solve fundamental problems in astronomy. The 376-kilogram advanced-design satellite with a 2.5-year lifetime would be launched into a geostationary orbit by Ariane in mid-1986. (ESA Info Bltn 7)
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