Aug 5 1986
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(New page: Preliminary data from NASA's Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), a three-satellite project that began in October 1984, indicated that clouds reflect more heat than they retain and ap...)
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Preliminary data from NASA's Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), a three-satellite project that began in October 1984, indicated that clouds reflect more heat than they retain and appear to cool Earth's climate, possibly offsetting the "greenhouse effect". Incomplete coverage and sporadic observations have limited decades of study on global heat flows done with sounding rockets, balloons, and satellites. In a broader attempt, the ERBE instruments measured the average monthly heat budget on regional, zonal, and global scales; tracked the seasonal movement of heat from the tropics to the poles; and determined the average daily variation in heat on a 620-mile regional monthly scale. An ERBE package contained two radiometer instruments. One, a scanner, was used for narrow field-of-view scanning with short-wave measurements of reflected solar energy and long-wave measurements of Earth-emitted energy. The other, a non-scanner, was used for wide field-of view of the entire disc of the Earth, a 10-degree region of Earth, and the total output of the sun's radiant energy. (NASA Release 86-105)
NASA announced that James R. Thompson would be appointed Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in late September. He had been Deputy Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory since 1983 and previous to that had spent 23 years at Marshall, where he man-aged development of the Space Shuttle's main engines, worked in the Skylab Program, and was Associate Director of Engineering for the Center. He was also NASA's manager for the Challenger investigation (NASA Release 86-106; NY Times, Aug 6/86)
Dr. James C. Fletcher appeared before a Senate subcommittee and testified that the $7.7 billion budget for NASA was "barely adequate" and could further delay Shuttle flights while possibly stripping the private sector of some 25,000 jobs. He also said that the currently designed Space Station was intended to be built using four Shuttles. With only three Shuttles, the Station would need to go back to the drawing board. The Senate appeared to be looking at a civilian sponsored space program for commercial launches as a way to reduce costs. (W Post, Aug 6/86; B Sun, Aug 6/86)
Documents released by the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger accident revealed that the Space Shuttle Columbia had narrowly avoided a severe mishap on January 6 when it came within 31 seconds of launch after 18,000 pounds of liquid oxygen had been inadvertently drained from its external tank. The mistake would have left the ship without enough fuel to obtain orbit; the error was blamed on fatigue among the ground crew, who were pursuing a rigid schedule. (NY Times, Aug 6/86; W Post, Aug 6/86; W Times, Aug 6/86; B Sun, Aug 6/86)
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