Jan 14 1993
From The Space Library
The Space Shuttle Endeavor lifted off on the year's first Shuttle flight. During the six-day mission, crew members would conduct a variety of tasks and experiments in Earth orbit. Six hours after the Shuttle's launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, the crew successfully deployed the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), a network that provides communications, tracking, telemetry, data acquisition, and command services for the Space Shuttle. Crew members were also scheduled to take astronomy observations using the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer (DXS); perform the first in a series of test spacewalks designed to refine training methods for future space-walks, for example, the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission scheduled for later in the month; conduct a series of scientific experiments covering a wide range of disciplines; and test a new Shuttle toilet, which has unlimited capacity and is intended to accommodate crews on future lengthy space missions. The crew was also scheduled to use toys to demonstrate physics principles in a TV broadcast to four elementary schools in crew members' hometowns and to take part in the national bell-ringing ceremony marking President-elect Bill Clinton's inauguration. (NASA Release 93-004; P Inq, Jan 11/93; B Sun, Jan 10/93, Jan 11/93, Jan 14/93, Jan 18/93; USA Today, Jan 11/93, Jan 13/93, Jan 14/93, Jan 18/93, Jan 19/93; W Times, Jan 11/93, Jan 14/93; AP, Jan 11/93, Jan 12/93, Jan 13/93, Jan 14/93, Jan 19/93; W Post, Jan 14/93; UPI, Jan 11/93, Jan 13/93; LA Times, Jan 14/93, Jan 17/93, Jan 18/93; NY Times, Jan 12/93, Jan 14/93, Jan 17/93, Jan 18/93; WSJ, Jan 14/93; P Inq, Jan 14/93; W Times, Jan 18/93; USA Today, Jan 18/93; UPI, Jan 19/93; Av Wk, Jan 25/93)
Courtney Stadd, acting Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology at NASA, was given the job of designing an effective commercialization office at the Agency. His office was commissioned to work on space commercialization, engineering analysis, technology development, and tech transfer. (Washington Technology, Jan 14/93)
In his final report on U.S. space policy, Vice President Dan Quayle warned that the planned Space Station Freedom would not survive unless NASA stuck to its current budget and schedule. In his report, he also urged replacement of the Shuttle fleet by different launch systems. The report called for a more cost-effect and efficient method of sending humans into space to be developed by 2005; urged that no more than five years elapse between approval and launch of future science programs; and supported international partnerships in space with the caveat that such transactions should not endanger our economic and security interests. (AP, Jan 14/93; W Post, Jan 15/93; USA Today, Jan 29/93)
A NASA in-house study reported that the agency's technology transfer reputation had been overblown. According to the assessment, "Technology transfer processes are non-integrated, undocumented, and too slow." The report was requested last May by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. (Washington Technology, Jan 14/93)
A panel of government scientists announced that volcanic eruptions had made the last half-year the fifth coldest on record in the United States. The year would have been the coldest since 1958 worldwide had not a surprisingly strong El Nino brought warming effects. The eruptions may also have increased the ozone hole over the Antarctic, the scientists reported. (W Post, Jan 14/93; NY Times, Mar 9/93)
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