May 21 1993
From The Space Library
NASA announced that June 3, 1993 had been set as the target date for the STS-57 mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission would be highlighted by the retrieval of the European observation satellite EURECA and the first flight of SPACEHAB, a commercial Spacelab facility. (NASA Editors Note N93-28)
In his keynote address at the inaugural University of Southern California Engineering Day, Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, emphasized that space exploration involved risks but that they were worth taking. He also said that NASA's specific challenge was to "win back our credibility through performance." (LA Times, May 21/93)
The media reported that Representative George E. Brown, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, told a news conference that NASA's effort to save Space Station Freedom was doomed unless the project continued with a scaled-down version of the current design. Although the streamlined model of Freedom was the most expensive of the three options being analyzed, Brown noted that it was also the one with years of experience and $8 billion in development costs behind it. (WP, May 21/93; H Chron, May 21/93; LA Times, May 21/93; W Times, May 21/93; NY Times, May 21/93; W Post, May 21/93; AV Wk, May 24/93)
Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daniel S. Greenberg noted that "times are bad" for the so-called mega projects of our era: Star Wars, the Space Station, and the super atom smasher in Texas. He warned, however, that big-science mobilization should not automatically be suspect, suggesting, for example, that the country would benefit from an all-out effort on a project such as the electric car. (P Inq, May 21/93)
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