Aug 16 1991
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced that investigations of the sun's fiery outer atmosphere would intensify when the Ulysses spacecraft passed behind the sun on August 21. Edward J. Smith, Project Scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, said that at conjunction (when the spacecraft and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun), radio waves transmitted from the spacecraft would travel through and become distorted by the innermost region of the corona. (NASA Release 91-131)
NASA announced the granting of three study contracts to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California; McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Huntington Beach, California; and TRW, Redondo Beach, California. The contracts were intended to support the definition of the new National Launch System, a modular family of launch vehicles to support NASA and Department of Defense missions into the 21st century. (NASA Release C91-gg; UPI, Aug 16/91; Business Wire, Aug 19/91)
An editorial commended NASA for considering a plan to decrease the risk of space experiments by using a larger number of small satellites, with smaller numbers of instruments. This would increase flexibility in the space program, making it more efficient and possibly cheaper. (SF Chron, Aug 16/91)
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