Dec 14 1994
From The Space Library
Students and teachers at Alvin High School in Texas, with the assistance of a neighboring community college and members of the Consortium for Aerospace Technology Education (CATE), were building their own space center similar to that at the Control Center Complex of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). Frank Hughes, chief of the Flight Training Division at JSC, initiated the CATE program, which integrated cooperation from industry (Rockwell) with that of community colleges and universities. (H Chron, Dec 14/94)
NASA and Russian Space Shuttle mission managers met at Johnson Space Center and announced that they were targeting a launch date between June 8 and June 10 for Shuttle Atlantis and its five-astronaut, two-cosmonaut crew. This represented a postponement of the original blast-off date of May 24 and resulted from a delay from February to May 1995 in the launch of a Russian Spektr science module. The launch of Atlantis was scheduled to be followed three days later by a docking with Russian Space Station Mir. (Fla Today, Dec 15/94; H Chron, Dec 17/94)
NASA announced the establishment of a joint government research program that might result in developing plants that could withstand drought, unseasonable temperatures, soil salinity, and other adverse growth conditions. The program, called the Research Network on Plant Sensory Systems, was supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The program also was selected as NASA's ninth Specialized Center of Research and Training. (NASA Release 94-213)
Representative Robert Walker, Republican from Pennsylvania, who was scheduled to chair the House Science Committee in the new Congress, said he felt that Space Station appropriations by Congress were safe. He indicated he wanted to explore ways of linking NASA facilities with universities and international partnerships as well as tax incentives for space business development, all of which he saw as ways of saving space funds. (AP, Dec 14/94; Gannett News Service, Dec 14/94; H Chron, Dec 15/94; Congressional Quarterly's Congressional Monitor, Dec 15/94; Fla Today, Dec 15/94)
The deed to NASA's Computer Complex in Slidell, Louisiana was transferred to the city of Slidell at a ceremony attended by NASA Acting Deputy Administrator General John R. Dailey among others. For more than 30 years, the Slidell complex had provided support for the Space Shuttle external tank program as well as other Office of Space Flight administrative and program activities. However, these functions recently were moved to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Various plans were underway for ways in which the Slidell facilities could be used. (Sentry News, Dec 15/94)
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