Dec 4 1986
From The Space Library
Remote sensing via satellite, combined with a computer technology that could provide a simulation of the properties and processes in the soil, related Dr. Elissa Levine, would allow short-term prediction of changes that occur in soils over a period of time and the ability of the soil to support different types of plant life. Advancing her theory at an annual meeting in New Orleans, Levine noted, We can obtain critical environmental data which will help us understand how changes brought about by both nature and humankind will affect the total ecosystem over time." (NASA Release 86-170)
The sixth FLTSATCOM communications satellite, F-7, was launched by an Atlas-Centaur rocket fired from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Department of Defense added this satellite to their communications network among naval aircraft, ships, submarines, ground stations, Strategic Air Command elements, and Presidential command networks. With this addition, the network could provide 23 high frequency communication channels and one super high frequency channel with an experimental Extra High Frequency package. The rocket had been grounded since May because of previous NASA rocket failures, beginning in January with the Challenger explosion, and had experienced eight delays before becoming NASA's third successful major flight of the year. (NASA Release 86-165; W Post, Dec 5/86)
A joint venture of Hughes Aircraft and RCA, the Earth Observation Satellite Company said that the Reagan administration was withholding funds for the Landsat program it managed. The $65 million not released was earmarked for new satellites, receiving stations, and support operations. The Landsat satellite was launched in 1972 as a data gathering operation for the government and public, but its monopoly for providing detailed services to companies and private individuals was broken by the French satellite, SPOT. Elimination of the program, warned a representative from the company, "would destroy the first U.S. attempt to commercialize space." (W Post, Dec 5/86)
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