Nov 22 2000
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(New page: Gerald A. Soffen, Director of University Programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), died of a heart ailment. Soffen had begun his career at ...)
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Gerald A. Soffen, Director of University Programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), died of a heart ailment. Soffen had begun his career at NASA at JPL, working on biological instrumentation development, moving in the mid-19705 to Langley Research Center (LARC), where he worked on the Viking Mars Project as a project scientist. He became LARC's chief environmental scientist before transferring to GSFC in 1983. At Goddard, Soffen had helped develop to NASA's astrobiology program and to establish NASA's Astrobiology Institute. In 1978 NASA had appointed him Life Sciences Director at NASA Headquarters and, since its establishment in 1990, he had served as Director of the University Programs Office. GSFC Director Alphonse V. Diaz remarked that science and students were Soffen's two loves, and that "the Agency and the nation will continue to benefit enormously from the talented young people he has brought into the scientific community."
The government of the People's Republic of China released a document outlining its policy regarding its future human spaceflight program and satellite-launch industries. The document, which provided the outside world with information about China's top-secret space program, described the Chinese space industry as "an integral part of the state's comprehensive development strategy" and stated, "exploration and utilization of outer space should be for peaceful purposes and benefit the whole of mankind." The paper provided details of China's satellite program, stating that as of October 2000, China had developed and launched 47 satellites with a success rate of over 90 percent. China had four satellite series in operation: the Dongfanghong telecommunications series; the Fengyun meteorological series; the Shijian research and technology series; and the Ziyuan Earth-observation series, which had recently launched its first spacecraft. The paper also outlined China's efforts toward international cooperation, notably China's signing of an agreement with a dozen countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan, and several European countries, allowing for scientific exchange and joint development of spacecraft components, as well as for commercial launch services. To date, China had launched 27 foreign-made satellites using its Long March series of rockets.
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