Jan 16 1981
From The Space Library
NASA announced the selection of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), a consortium of 14 universities, for final negotiation of a contract to establish, operate, and maintain a science institute for the 13.1-meters (43-foot) Space Telescope scheduled for launch on the Shuttle early in 1985.
The space telescope science institute, making scientific investigations using the telescope for at least 15 years, would be located on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The estimated contractor cost for an initial 5-year contract would be $24 million. Additional funding would be needed later for a guest-observer and archival-research program. The contract had options for three 5-year extensions. The institute would receive data sent from the telescope via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and NASA's communications network through the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), where the institute would operate a space telescope support center. Investigations would be able to ask GSFC to point the spacecraft at any desired field-of-view. The 2.4-meter (96-inch, mirror in the telescope could image 350 times the volume of space now visible from Earth. (NASA Release 81-12; MSFC Release 81-11; Nature, Jan 29/81, 339)
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