Sep 13 2006
From The Space Library
Atlantis crew members Daniel C. Burbank and Steven G. MacLean performed the second spacewalk for Mission STS-115. During the spacewalk, which lasted nearly 7 hours, the two astronauts further prepared the P3/P4 truss for installation, releasing locks on an automobile- sized component of the truss that would enable the ISS’s solar arrays to track the Sun. The purpose of the locks was to secure the truss during launch.
NASA, “STS-115.”
GAO released a report examining federal government agencies’ progress toward implementing a government panel’s recommendations to obviate anticipated problems in the U.S. aerospace industry. In 2002 the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry had stated that the nation’s aerospace industry could face various economic and security problems unless federal agencies performed several innovations. These included the creation of new aerospace technologies and the development of a space policy incorporating public-private partnerships. GAO stated that federal agencies had made preliminary efforts to implement some of the Commission’s recommendations but had taken little action on others, such as the creation of a government-wide management structure for aerospace activities. The report noted that NASA had created a directorate to implement the Vision for Space Exploration. However, some aerospace experts believed that NASA’s efforts to implement the Vision might have a negative effect on existing space exploration programs with demonstrated benefits.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “U.S. Aerospace Industry: Progress in Implementing Aerospace Commission Recommendations, and Remaining Challenges” (report no. GAO-06-920, Washington, DC, 13 September 2006), 1–5, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06920.pdf (accessed 17 March 2010).
The IAU announced the official name of the second celestial body identified as a dwarf planet, calling it (136199) Eris and naming its moon Dysnomia. A team of astronomers led by Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology had announced their discovery of Eris on 29 July 2005, based on data they had acquired in 2003. Initially, the astronomers had given the object the temporary name 2003 UB313 and the informal name Xena. The discovery team had subsequently proposed the formal name Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord and strife, to symbolize scientists’ disagreements about the IAU’s classification of celestial bodies in Earth’s solar system. In August 2006, IAU members had voted to strip Pluto of its planetary status, officially designating it a dwarf planet.
International Astronomical Union, “IAU Names Dwarf Planet Eris,” news release iau0606, 14 September 2006, http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau0605/ (accessed 17 March 2010).
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