Jul 1 1991
From The Space Library
NASA announced that, on June 29, its 114th Scout launch vehicle placed an Air Force Radiation Experiment (REX) into a 450 nautical mile polar orbit. The launch occurred from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and was delayed for one day by bad weather. (NASA Release 91-102)
A number of NASA scientists participated in the International Conference on Near-Earth Asteroids held in San Juan Capistrano, California, jointly sponsored by NASA and The Planetary Society. At congressional request, a NASA committee headed by David Morrison, space science chief at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, was to recommend how to improve the search for asteroids. Another committee was to advise how best to divert threatening asteroids. At the end of the conference on July 3, a statement advocated construction of several sophisticated new telescopes to find all significant asteroids and team if any were on a collision course with Earth. (AP, Jul 1/91; AP, Jul 4/91; LA Times, Jul 4/91; P Inq, Jul 6/91; Oakland Tribune, Jul 8/91)
Time published an interview with NASA Administrator Richard Truly in which various questions were asked about the Space Station. Truly justified pro-posed expenditures by stressing the payoff in such areas as environmental control, life-support research, power generation, and health care technologies as well as the discoveries themselves. He also stated that Mission to Planet Earth was poorly understood but promised "unbelievable benefits." (Time, Jul 1/91)
In an article in the Science section, Time discussed the theory that a giant comet that struck the earth was responsible for killing off dinosaurs. In this connection, the findings of a team of scientists led by Charles Duller at NASA's Ames Research Center were mentioned. From satellite photos of the Yucatan, the team discovered the semicircle that might indicate a huge buried crater of an asteroid. (Time, Jul 1/91)
The Huntsville Times quoted the General Accounting Office as saying that contrary to earlier concerns, a survey revealed that potential retirements of skilled NASA scientists and engineers would not be a problem. (Htsvl Tms, Jul 1/91)
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