May 1 1991
From The Space Library
The NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, selected Cortez III Service Corporation, Alamogordo, New Mexico, for a $140 million support service contract for center operations. (NASA Release C91-n)
According to the media, in a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to be submitted to Congress, NASA underestimated the cost of building the redesigned Space Station by $10 billion and the cost of operating it through the year 2027 by about $24 billion. GAO is to submit the report, its first since the Space Station restructuring, to the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation. Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher in the report questioned the cost value because only one of the original eight Space Station uses, that of a research outpost, was being met. (W Post, May 1/91; NY Times, May 1/91)
Discovery astronauts captured amazing aurora observations and continued to try to fix the two faulty recorders. After releasing the retrievable SPAS-2 satellite, using Discovery's 50-foot robot arm, the astronauts had difficulties getting the satellite oriented properly to observe the Shuttle. Discovery was to play the role of an enemy missile, repeatedly firing one of its two orbital maneuvering system rockets as instruments on the SPAS-2 recorded visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet emissions. (W Times, May 1/91; P Inq, May 1/91; AP, May 1/91; UPI, May 1/91; LA Times, May 1/91)
President Bush barred the export to China of parts for a domestic communications satellite, known as Dong Fang Hong 3, citing concerns about possible proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Bush approved export of components for two Western projects, an Australian communications satellite and a Swedish weather satellite, to be launched from China, for which the United States was assured of strict safeguards. (W Post, May 1/91; NY Times, May 1/91)
Galileo, the Jupiter survey spacecraft, was scheduled to fly-by the asteroid Gaspra on October 29. Such an encounter would be a first and was complicated by the failure of Galileo's antenna to deploy completely so that communications were minimized. (CSM, May 1/91)
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