November 1987
From The Space Library
Martin Marietta signed an agreement with the British Ministry of Defense to launch a British Skynet 4 satellite aboard its Titan rocket in 1989. The agreement was yet another step in the U.S. effort to shift the launching of communications satellites from NASA to private companies. (W Post, Nov 9/87)
A General Accounting Office report found no evidence that NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher, or other space agency officials, had violated conflict-of-interest regulations in 1973, when they chose Morton Thiokol, Inc. to produce the solid-fuel booster rockets for the Space Shuttle. The investigation, carried out by the General Accounting Office, was requested last December by Senator Albert Gore Jr., Democrat of Tennessee. (NY Times, Nov 5/87; W Post, Nov 5/87)
NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Station, Andrew J. Stofan, selected Grumman Space Systems; Bethpage, New York, and Martin Marietta Astronautics Group; Denver, Colorado, as contractors for definition and preliminary designs studies of the Space Station Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS). The FTS is a space robot that will assist crews in the assembly, maintenance, and serving of the Space Station and visiting spacecraft. (NASA Release 87-176; P Inq, Nov 27/87)
A team of British and American astronomers discovered two quasars much further away from Earth than any previously known. The discovery of the two celestial objects, one that is 12 billion light years away, suggests the outer limits of the observable universe are still unknown. The new findings were largely a result of improved methods for reading photographic plates exposed by the latest telescopes. (LA Times, Dec 7/87; NY Times, Dec 3/87; W Times, Dec 3/87)
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