Nov 9 2000
From The Space Library
The Chandra X-ray Observatory team won a Current Achievement award from the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for "its efforts in building, placing in orbit, and operating the most sophisticated astronomical observatory ever built." NASA had first proposed the Chandra in 1976 and had placed the telescope in orbit during a Space Shuttle mission in July 1999. Since its deployment, Chandra had refined scientists' knowledge of the nature of galactic nuclei, confirmed the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies like Andromeda and the Milky Way, captured images of an active starburst galaxy, analyzed the compositions of supernovas, and examined x-ray stars in the Orion Nebula. The museum also honored engineer and aviator A. Scott Crossfield with a Lifetime Achievement award. Crossfield had begun his career in the 1950s as a research pilot for NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and had become the first pilot to exceed Mach 2, accomplishing this feat while flying the rocket-powered Douglas D-558-2. Crossfield had joined North American Aviation in 1955 and had worked on all aspects of the X-15 program. In addition to his work on the X-15, Crossfield had developed the ground-control test methodology that became standard in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. He had served as a division vice president at Eastern Airlines between 1967 and 1975 and, after that, as a technical advisor to the U.S. House Science Subcommittee for Transportation, Aviation, and Weather until his retirement in 1993.
NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had captured an image of a lone neutron star traveling close to Earth, one of several hundred million neutron stars that scientists believed to exist in the Milky Way. Hubble scientists believed that, at 200 light-years away, this neutron star was the nearest to Earth. No companion star affected its appearance, allowing astronomers to more easily test and confirm stellar theories against its physical properties, such as size, brightness, and true age. Frederick M. Walter of State University of New York at Stony Brook remarked that, as the closest and brightest of the few known isolated neutron stars, this star would be "the easiest to study and is an excellent test bed for nuclear astrophysical theories."
United Space Alliance finalized its investigation into the loose pin that had delayed the October launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, reporting that the pin had come from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Technicians had incorrectly installed the pin, intended to secure a platform above part of the Shuttle's fuel tank. During the Shuttle's transport to the launchpad on 8 September, the 4-inch (10-centimeter) metal pin had fallen 73 feet (22 meters), landing on a fuel line near one of the tank's connections to the Shuttle. After inspectors had found the pin on 10 October, NASA officials had delayed Discovery's launch 24 hours, so that technicians could remove the pin, preventing damage during liftoff.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
