Feb 1 1993
From The Space Library
Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, presented Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek television series, NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal on January 30. The medal, which was awarded posthumously, was presented to Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Gene Roddenberry died in October 1991.
Roddenberry was credited with popularizing the exploration of space through the original Star Trek television series, six motion pictures, and the later television series Star Trek. (NASA Release 93-019)
Harris B. Hull, 83, a retired Air Force brigadier general and former Special Assistant to the Administrator of NASA, died January 29 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington after a heart attack. General Hull was assigned to NASA in 1963. After retiring from the Air Force in 1964, he remained with NASA until retiring in 1986. (W Post, Feb, 1/93; NY Times, Feb 2/93)
Two Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth on Monday after 189 days in space. The two cosmonauts made four space walks during their stay on the orbiting Space Station Mir and carried out a variety of experiments. (AP, Feb 1/93)
NASA announced that it planned to launch a $550 million-plus mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Observers viewed the mission as very important for NASA's future; failure to repair the telescope would not only be a blow to astronomy but also would fuel the debate in Congress about NASA's ability to build Space Station Freedom later in the decade. The concern over the repair mission led to extensive oversight, numerous internal debates about the mission, and talk of a possible lengthening of the duration of the mission in order to allow for as many as six spacewalks. (Space News, Feb 1-7/93; Science, Feb 12/93; RTw, Mar 11; B Sun Magazine, Mar 14/93; Time, Mar 22/93)
Jack Gibbons, President Bill Clinton's science advisor, said that the Clinton administration was debating various options for space policy management. Central was the question of whether to centralize control of the space program in a single White House office or spread out military, individual, and commercial space policy among several high-level councils. The role of science and technology in the Clinton administration was scheduled to be discussed during a January 30-31 meeting in Maryland. (Space News, Feb 1-7/93)
NASA described Space Station Freedom as a laboratory for industry as well as government and set aside a third of the Station's experiment space for commercial research. NASA planned to begin launching pieces of Space Station Freedom into orbit in 1996. (Space News, Feb 1-7/93)
NASA announced that Guy Gardner, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for space flight-Russian programs, had been put in charge of overseeing two joint missions with the Russian space program.
In November, a cosmonaut was scheduled to spend eight days aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery. In 1995, an American and two cosmonauts were scheduled to take off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket for a three-month stay aboard the Mir Space Station. The following June, the Shuttle Atlantis, carrying two cosmonauts, four Americans, and a Russian-built docking system, were scheduled to link up with Mir for five days of joint medical research. The American astronaut and the two cosmonauts launched in March would return to Earth on Atlantis. (Space News, Feb 1-7)
NASA said that the titanium weld in Columbia's main engine might be weak; engineers were attempting to determine whether the weld was strong enough for the Shuttle's scheduled launch later in the month. NASA spokesman George Diller said that the turbopump would be replaced if the weld did not meet safety standards. (AP, Feb 1/93)
NASA announced that five NASA officials would leave as the Clinton administration took office: Bill Livingstone, Associate Administrator of Public Affairs; Sue Richard, Livingstone's Deputy; Courtney Stadd, acting Associate Administrator for the Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology; Holly Stevens, an administrative assistant; and Robert Simon, writer and editor in Administrator Daniel Goldin's office. (Space News, Feb 1-7/93)
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