Jan 11 1995
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After several attempts in 1994, Russian cosmonauts successfully tested the Mir Space Station's automatic docking equipment, clearing the way for the seven to ten scheduled dockings with American Space Shuttles through 1997. (AP, Jan 11/95; H Chron, Jan 12/95; Dayton Daily News, Jan 12/95; C Trib, Jan 12/95)
INTELSAT, the U.S. satellite operator, signed a record $2 billion insurance contract for 10 satellite launches with the insurance firm International Space Brokers, Inc. The contract covered launches on the Ariane 4 rocket of the European Arianespace Consortium and on China's Long March rocket. (Reuters, Jan 11/95)
Astronomers detected a gigantic mass, equivalent to 40 million Suns, in a distant galaxy that they believe to be a black hole. The discovery, announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Arizona, was made by a team of American and Japanese scientists using a computer-linked system of 10 radio telescope dishes stretching from the Virgin Islands to Hawaii known as the Very Long Baseline Array. Since black holes, by definition, emit no visible light or other radiation, astronomers infer their presence by their strong gravitational pull on surrounding stars. The discovery was made by observing the rotation of a disk of gas and dust surrounding a galactic nucleus. (NY Tmes, Jan 12/95; W Times, Jan 12/95; W Post, Jan 12/95, AP, Jan 12/95; H Chron, Jan 12/95; CSM, Jan 13/95)
Two astronomers at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona, presented an extraordinary photograph of a nearby star in red-hot death throes similar to the cataclysm that astronomers theorize will destroy the solar system in several billion years. The photo, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, showed never-before-seen detail in the glowing red gas cloud ejected by the dying star. The "Cat's Eye Nebula," or NGC 6543, is about 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco, the dragon. (B Sun, Jan 12/95)
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to study quasars began to reassess their theories after studying a series of quasars during the past few months. The astronomers expected the quasars, thought to be super-massive "black holes," to he surrounded by galaxies that "feed" the quasar. Instead, none of the first eight quasars they studied was surrounded by a galaxy, raising questions about of how black holes form and sustain themselves. "I really don't understand this," said project astronomer John Bahcall in a report to the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Arizona. (LA Times, Jan 13/95; W Post, Jan 13/95)
Atmospheric scientists presented some 40 papers or abstracts at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Tucson, Arizona, on the topic of newly-discovered discharges of lightning in Earth's upper atmosphere. The upper-atmospheric lightning materializes above thunderheads and shoots upward, not downward, in bolts and flickers that soar as high as 60 miles above the surface of the Earth. Satellites have detected gamma ray bursts emanating from thunderheads, whereas red flashes have been linked to powerful burst of radio waves. NASA planned to fly a jet loaded with cameras and instruments across the thunderstorm belt of South America in February to begin serious study of upper atmospheric lightning. (NY Times, Jan 17/95; H Chron, Jan 23/95)
NASA invited bids from the Nation's aerospace companies to develop two reusable rocket designs under a novel strategy that called for the industry to pay much of the cost. The goal was to enhance the competitive footing of U.S. companies in the lucrative global commercial launch market while lowering the amount spent annually by the federal government on space transportation.
NASA envisioned that the larger of the two vehicles would be capable of lofting 25,000 pounds of cargo or a human crew to the International Space Station as a replacement for the Space Shuttle. A gradual replacement of the shuttle might begin in 2005. The smaller vehicle would be designed for the small volume, 1,000-to-2,000-pound satellites envisioned in the near future with new advances in electronics. The development of a new Space Transportation System is the first undertaken by NASA since it initiated the Shuttle program in the mid-1970s. (NASA Release 95-1; H Chron, Jan 14/95)
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