Apr 16 1991
From The Space Library
NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, an independent group of industry and academic experts, was pressuring NASA to consider automated landings that would minimize the need for humans and increase the safety factor. (NY Times, Apr 16/91)
Orbital Sciences Corporation of Fairfax, Virginia, launched its first Firebird suborbital vehicle from a NASA flight center in Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch was conducted under contract to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in support of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. The Firebird deployed ballistic missile reentry targets that were used in tracking experiments conducted on the ground. (W Times, Apr 16/91)
NASA requested proposals to establish six Regional Technology Transfer Centers (RTTC), each funded at about $1 million annually. These would replace 10 Industrial Applications Centers, whose contracts expire in 1991. The restructuring was intended to broaden geographical coverage to include all contiguous states by establishing a regional structure similar to the six Federal Laboratory Consortiums for Technology Transfer. The intent also was to establish close ties with NASA's Centers for the Commercial Development of Space in various regions and to encourage partnerships with universities and state organizations as well as promote local businesses. (NASA Release 91-55)
Sherwood Rowland, a scientist from the University of California-Irvine, told Congress that winter ozone depletion over the northern United States and Canada was about one-third greater than the already alarming declines detailed in new NASA studies. Rowland in 1974 was one of the first to warn of the dangers of ozone-depleting industrial compounds like chlorofluorocarbons. (UPI, Apr 16/91)
Atlantis began its piggyback jet ride to Florida atop its Boeing 747. (AP, Apr 16/91)
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