Dec 13 1991
From The Space Library
The media covered the refusal of a Federal judge on December 12 to order the public release of the audio tape of the last moments of the seven astronauts who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, saying it would violate the privacy of the victims' families. (NY Times, Dec 13/91; W Post, Dec 13/91; USA Today, Dec 13/91; W Times, Dec 13/91; AP, Dec 13/91)
William B. Lenoir, Associate Administrator for Space Flight, said NASA hoped to cut the operating cost of its Space Shuttle program by 15 percent over a five-year period. It planned to do this by eliminating a layer of management and merging the offices of the Program Directorate in Washington, Level I, with the Program Office located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Level II. The reorganization plan as yet lacked final approval. (W Times, Dec 13/91; Fla Today, Dec 13/91)
NASA announced the development by its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, of a new, more accurate, airborne radar system for topographic map-ping of the Earth's surface. The instrument, called TOPSAR for topographic synthetic aperture radar, would be about three times more accurate than existing topographic mappers and had many commercial and scientific uses, according to Howard Zebker of the Pasadena laboratory. (NASA Release 91-205)
NASA announced that researchers at its Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, had developed a laser-based system for measuring winds above launch sites. The system called CLAWS, for Coherent Launch Site Atmospheric Wind Sounder, was created by the Spacecraft Controls Branch, Flight Systems Directorate, and Lockheed. CLAWS was used in the September 12 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery and might eventually replace weather balloons as a means of gathering data aloft. (NASA Release 91-206)
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