Aug 1 1997
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (6MB PDF)
Frank L. Culbertson Jr., NASA's Manager for the Space Shuttle Mir research program, announced that in the future NASA would likely require astronauts to have training in spacewalking. The announcement coincided with reports in the New York Times and other U.S. newspapers that David A. Wolf had replaced astronaut [[Wendy B. Lawrence] as the next NASA representative aboard Mir. NASA had replaced Lawrence because of her small stature. At 5 feet, 3 inches (1.6 meters) tall, she was too small to fit into the bulky Russian Orlan spacesuits worn on Mir. In addition, she had received no training in spacewalking. Previously, NASA had planned for Wolf to replace Lawrence aboard Mir following her research stint. NASA and the Russian Space Agency addressed the sensitive issue of replacing Lawrence because of her size, explaining the need for flexibility aboard Mir during significant repairs to the station. Lawrence reacted professionally, despite the disappointment of her replacement less than two months before her planned once-in-a-career mission.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin addressed the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in convention, outlining NASA's vision to "revitalize general aviation." Goldin boldly predicted that the U.S. aviation industry would be able to deliver 10,000 aircraft annually within 10 years, and 20,000 annually within 20 years. The fly-in convention, featuring flyovers by NASA's SR-71, had the theme, "Boomers Turn 50," celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force and that of the first breaking of the sound barrier. The Association announced the winner of the National General Aviation Design Competition, sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a competition encouraging university engineering students to focus on the aviation industry. The conference also featured the unveiling of the new FAA flight-training curricula, as well as a national aviation safety initiative.
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