Feb 14 1991
From The Space Library
NASA General Counsel Edward Frankle announced that Johnson Space Center's Leo Monford was NASA's Inventor of the Year. The award, to be presented March 28, was for a docking alignment system called Targeting and Reflective Alignment Concept, or TRAC. Used in combination with another of Monford's inventions, a Magnetic End Effector, it could change the shape of future robot arms, satellites, and Space Stations.
University of Colorado astronomer Jack Brandt talked of the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, in spite of its fuzzy focusing. Discoveries included proof that Pluto has a moon and dramatic photographs of a star spewing hot gases during its birth in the Orion constellation. (W Times, Feb 14/91)
John Guest, a geologist from University College, London, was working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on data from the Magellan spacecraft's mission to Venus. Evidence of volcanic action exists although Magellan's mapping mission, begun September 15, 1990, thus far reveal no volcano erupting. (AP, Feb 14/91)
NASA officials announced that its X-29 experimental aircraft flew five times on January 25, setting a new record for daily flights from the Ames-Dryden test center. The second of two X-29s built by NASA, it was conducting high angle of attack test studies and military utility in a joint project with the Air Force. (Antelope Valley Press, Feb 14/91)
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