May 29 1991
From The Space Library
The media covered the completion of sensor repairs, the beginning of the second countdown for Columbia's medical research mission, continuing preparations for the launch, and final clearance for the launch. (W Post, May 29/91; W Times, May 29/91; USA Today, May 29/91; AP, May 29/91; UPI, May 30/91; AP, May 30/91; USA Today, May 31/91; W Times, May 31/91; AP, May 31/91; UPI, May 31/91)
At a press conference associated with the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Ted Stecher, Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) principal investigator, announced that UIT team members had identified hundreds of newly found young stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Several of these hot stars might eventually become supernovas. (NASA Release 91-84)
NASA announced that at its Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, at Edwards, California, simulator research showed that multiengine aircraft with specially programmed flight control systems could touch down safely using only the engines to turn and land. (NASA Release 91-85)
According to AP, a communications satellite needed to transmit long-distance telephone calls made in Alaska was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (AP, May 29/91; W Post, May 30/91)
AP reported that The Save Our Wetlands environmental group had filed suit against NASA to stop the testing of an advanced solid fuel rocket motor for Space Shuttles on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The group also asked that the Environmental Protection Agency make NASA comply with clean air and water laws. NASA officials maintained that NASA received the needed State and Federal permits to test the boosters. (AP, May 29/91)
Nationally syndicated economics columnist Warren Brookes questioned the administration's efforts to rescue NASA's Space Station and the new space program represented by the National Aerospace Plane. Brookes stated that possibly national security concerns justified both these programs but their economic justification was dubious. (W Times, May 29/91)
According to the Fairfax Journal Weekly, C. McClain Haddow, a Herndon, Virginia lobbyist, asserted that if NASA were to leave Reston for Houston, probably other Federal offices would move from Northern Virginia as well. (Fairfax Journal Weekly, May 29-30/91)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
