May 18 1991
From The Space Library
The media reported that a British woman, Helen Sharman, went into space in a Soyuz TM-12 rocket with two Soviet astronauts, destined for Space Station Mir. The astronauts were to remain on Mir to do repairs while Sharman was to return with the two Soviet astronauts now on Mir. (AP, May 18/91; UPI, May 18/91; B Sun, May 19/91; P Inq, May 19/91; NY Times, May 19/91; LA Times, May 19/91)
The media carried extensive coverage of the preparatory stages for the mission of Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. The four medical specialists were to conduct tests on human body functions while the three astronauts flew the Shuttle and were subject to some of the tests. Scientists hoped to learn why astronauts return to Earth with weakened immune systems, reduced bone mass, a decrease in body fluid or blood, fewer red blood cells, and less muscle protein, as well as space motion sickness. The 30 white rats and 2,478 tiny jellyfish being carried were to be analyzed after the flight. (AP, May 18/91; UPI, May 18/91; B Sun, May 19/91; P Inq, May 19/91; LA Times, May 19/91; W Post, May 20/91; AP, May 20/91; UPI, May 20/91; CSM, May 20/91; NY Times, May 21/91; USA Today, May 21/91; UPI, May 21/91)
According to the press, Al Boggess, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, at a news briefing at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore announced that the Hubble Space Telescope had observed that a gas disk that ringed the star Beta Pectoris appeared to include large clumps of matter spiraling in toward it at speeds of up to 120 miles a second. This was a "new phenomenon, not seen around any other star." (NY Times, May 18/91; C Trin, May 19/91; CSM, May 22/91)
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