Sep 12 1997
From The Space Library
For the first time, NASA turned over control of a satellite project to a group of non-NASA scientists, placing the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) under the control of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University. Harvard scientists had designed and built the satellite, but in previous NASA-university collaborations, NASA had always maintained control over implementation projects that it had funded. NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said that NASA hoped the move would embolden non-NASA scientists: "What we wanted to do is get the scientists closer to their spacecraft and close to their sources of data." NASA intended the AXAF, which had cost US$1.4 billion to develop, to study black holes and collisions between stars and galaxies.
NASA announced that, in one week, engineers had completed repairs to the damaged insulation of the Huygens Probe, a part of the Cassini Mission to Saturn. Some scientists had feared that the tears to the insulation would set back the ambitious mission indefinitely. NASA engineers, however, had worked rapidly to disassemble the probe, completely inspect the damage, and make the appropriate repairs. Additionally, during the repair period, the project had received a welcome voice of support from the National Space Society, an independent space advocacy organization. The Society had issued a statement expressing its full confidence in NASA and in the mission, offsetting the protests against the mission's use of nuclear fuel. The National Space Society declared, "saying ‘no' to Cassini would be saying `no' to knowledge," defending the use of nuclear power as the only safe and viable option for such a lengthy mission: "Cassini's Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) ... have proven their safety and capability in 23 prior missions, including human missions. RTGs are the only realistic option for sending probes great distances from the Sun and will certainly play a part in future human missions."
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