Jul 3 1994
From The Space Library
Itar-Tass news agency reported that a Russian spaceship manned by a Russian and a Kazakh cosmonaut had docked with Mir. (H Post, Jul 4/94)
The nature of experiments scheduled to be performed by astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in its forthcoming flight was described. In the field of life sciences, the experiments were intended to reveal the role gravity played in the reproduction and early development of plants and animals. In the second area, materials science, in the absence of gravity, engineers hoped to show a potential for forging strong, new metal alloys, high-speed semiconductors, and other components for use in aerospace and electronic products. (H Chron, Jul 3/94)
An article about U.S. astronauts Norman Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar and their training in Russia stressed their intensive Russian language lessons and their sense of Russia's space program accomplishments in the face of the country's serious economic problems. They believe both countries would benefit from space cooperation: the United States would gain from the experience and data Russia had collected from long stays in space and Russia would profit from U.S. technology and the use of the U.S. Shuttle to ferry large cargos to Mir. (C Trib, Jul 3/94)
The condition of the Russian space program was described in view of Russia's new space cooperation with the United States. Russian policy was to activate the control center for Space Station Mir only when the ground was in contact with Mir. Otherwise the center was closed and personnel returned to their primary employment: moonlighting jobs. The primary Russian contractor on the Space Station, NPO Energia, had made progress toward privatization, but upper management remained committed to the traditional Soviet pattern of secrecy and exclusion of outside supervision. (0 Sen Star, Jul 3/94)
In connection with the upcoming 25th anniversary of the first moonwalk, NASA's current role and the ways it had changed from earlier days were assessed. Among the differences noted were the emphasis on science rather than the ability to engineer space travel, global teamwork rather than a race to beat the communists, and the stress on "smaller, cheaper, faster, better" as NASA's new motto. (P Inq, Jul 3/94)
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