Apr 22 1994
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced that some 50 U.S., Canadian, and European scientists had begun the second phase of a detailed ecological study of the forests of Canada and the role these forests played in climate change. The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) was a large-scale, ground-based, and remote-sensing investigation of the way the forests and the atmosphere exchange energy, heat, water, carbon dioxide, and other trace gases. From April 11 to May 2, scientists were to study the forests during the annual snowmelt. The Focused Field Campaign-Thaw, the second of five parts of BOREAS, was to build on spaceborne data resulting from the first flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. BOREAS and SRL formed part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. (NASA Release 94-65)
Astronomer Alexander Wolszczan at Pennsylvania State University in an article published in Science magazine, claimed "irrefutable evidence" of at least two planets orbiting a nearby star-the first confirmed observation of planets outside the Earth's solar system. The planets were in orbit around an unusual neutron star located 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Various NASA staff members commented on the discovery. Robert Millis, director of the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, said NASA had a major effort underway to search for planets around stars but its program focused on ordinary stars like the Sun. (LA Times, Apr 22/94; USA Today, Apr 22/94; P Inq, Apr 22/94; W Post, Apr 22/94; NY Times, Apr 22/94)
NASA's inspector general in a report published in February indicated that an audit showed that astronauts flew two-seater supersonic training jets, T-38 Talons, to Colorado Springs on weekends during ski season as well as to New Orleans and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. NASA required astronauts to log 15 hours of proficiency flying each month. Steve Holly, NASA Deputy Director for Flight Crew Operations, said although flying 10 to 12 hours a day was efficient in a time management sense, improved proficiency was gained through more shorter flights. (NY Times, Apr 24/94; B Sun, Apr 24/94; UP, Apr 25/94)
In discussing the role of the South Pole Infrared Explorer (SPIREX), and two other projects operated by the National Science Foundation's Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA), a comparison was made of the way in which work from the South Pole on the ground resembled work of the Hubble Telescope in space. The astronomers involved, together with those at the Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore were seeking NASA support for a design and cost study of a balloon that would float 40,000 feet above the South Pole and carry a powerful telescope. (AP, Apr 22/94)
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