May 3 1994
From The Space Library
Robot spacecraft Clementine successfully completed a two-month mission to map the Moon's surface in unprecedented detail. Radar data indicate what scientists term an "astonishing" depth of 7.5 miles in one of the Moon's ancient basins. Other data may reveal ice in a permanently shadowed spot at the lunar south pole. At 6:20 p.m. EDT, controllers were to command the spacecraft to fire its rockets for four minutes to remove it from lunar orbit, loop around Earth, and head for the small asteroid 1620 Geographos for a late August rendezvous. NASA provided funding to refocus the mission effort, substituting the Moon and asteroids for man-made "Star Wars" objects. (W Post, May 3/94; NY Times, May 4/94)
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced Agency plans to proceed with the use of the nearly completed facilities at Yellow Creek in Iuka, Mississippi, originally designed for use with the proposed Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM), for use with the manufacture of nozzles for the current Space Shuttle Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) program. NASA and the Thiokol Corporation worked out plan implementation, which was scheduled to take approximately two and a half years. Thiokol plans to move all of its nozzle operations to the Yellow Creek facility. In view of the Federal government's investment of taxpayer money in the construction of the Yellow Creek facility, NASA was committed to obtaining maximum return while seeking to mitigate the economic impact on the region resulting from the ASRM termination. (NASA Release 94-68)
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, awarded the Computer Sciences Corporation, Arlington, Virginia, an eight-year contract to provide Program Information Systems Mission Services (PrISMS). (NASA Release C94-1; W Post, May 4/94)
The Air Force launched a Titan 4 rocket with a Defense Department secret payload from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Reuters, May 3/94; H Chron, May 4/94; H Post, May 4/94)
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