Apr 29 1991
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off in what Mission Director Ronald D. Dittemore said was "probably the most complex flight flown to date." More than 60 Shuttle maneuvers were planned and 17 instruments were to be used to study the Shuttle's exhaust plumes, chemical releases, and the Earth's atmosphere. A problem with a tape recorder delayed the launch half an hour; after the launch further problems were experienced with two tape recorders. (NY Times, Apr 29/91; USA Today, Apr 29/91; W Post, Apr 29/91); B Sun, Apr 29/91; CSM, Apr 29/91; P Inq, Apr 29/91; LA Times, Apr 29/91; AP, Apr 29/91; C Trib, Apr 29/91; UPI, Apr 29/91)
The rocket-launching site at Poker Flat, Alaska, is near the North Pole, has a high success rate for suborbital, scientific launches, and lacks military red tape, being university owned. These factors caused commercial ventures to inquire about possible commercial satellite launches into polar orbits from Poker Flat. Glenn Olds, commissioner of the State Department of Commerce and Economic Development, believed a launch might occur in 1993. (AP, Apr 29/91)
An editorial in a space journal commented on the work of cosmonauts in the Soviet Mir Space Station who are conducting advanced materials and fluids experiments in at least five processing systems. In addition, Soviet engineers were preparing several evolutionary unmanned materials spacecraft that would provide Soviet scientists more processing time in unmanned spacecraft than their U.S. counterparts. Whereas these Soviet facilities presented opportunities for use by American researchers for experimental purposes, which they were doing increasingly, a challenge was also presented to the United States. NASA bureaucracy and deficiencies in the U.S. microgravity program, for example, resulted in it taking some researchers two years to book commercial processing flights on the Shuttle. Although NASA planned microgravity budget increases from $125 million in FY 1992 to $225 million in FY 1995, this would require White House and congressional support. (Av Wk, Apr 29-May 5/91)
Representative Barbara Boxer, Democrat from California, chair of the House Government Operations subcommittee on government activities and transportation, announced a hearing about the Space Station. Boxer said the General Accounting Office report and the analysis of her staff revealed "astronomical" differences between NASA cost estimates for the Space Station and "more objective, independent analyses." (Av Wk, Apr 29-May 5/91)
A policy paper by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, said defense and national security should be top priority for the U.S. space program. Exploration of the Moon and Mars should occur as a result of "market incentives" or interest of research organizations. Environmental research should be the province of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Department of Energy. if NASA's functions could he performed by other agencies, it should be closed. (Av Wk, Apr 29-May 5/91)
Daniel DeVito, manager of the Central Data Handling Facility (CDHF) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, commented on the way the use of CDHF in the forthcoming NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite mission might lead to similar systems on larger NASA projects. CDHF was a new concept that both the International Solar Terrestrial Physics project and the Earth Observing System mission were looking at to handle data more efficiently and distribute data to scientists through a multiple network. (Federal Computer Week, Apr 29/91)
Tom McGlynn, a Computer Sciences Corporation software scientist for the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) Science Support Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, described four data analysis systems developed for GRO. The GRO launched by Atlantis carried four instruments designed to study overlapping portions of gamma rays, the highest energy radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. (Federal Computer Week, Apr 29/91)
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