Apr 24 1991
From The Space Library
NASA announced the rescheduling of the launch of Discovery for April 28. (NASA Release - Launch Advisory; B Sun, Apr 25/91; NY Times, Apr 25/91; USA Today, Apr 25/91; AP, Apr 25/91; UPI, Apr 25/91)
NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced the ceremony that would take place on April 25 on the occasion of the rolling out of the new Space Shuttle Endeavour. The ceremony was scheduled for Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where the orbiter was assembled by Rockwell International Corporation's Space System Division. Truly praised the efforts of all those in NASA and industry who had cooperated on the program. Part of the ceremony would involve the presentation to NASA by Robert Duce, Dean of the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, of Endeavour's first "payload," a sternpost remnant recovered from the orbiter's namesake, the first ship commanded by British explorer Captain James Cook in 1768-71. During the ceremony Truly announced the creation of the NASA Endeavour Teacher Fellowship Program with the gifts donated to NASA by the public for the replacement orbiter. The program would award scholarships to American undergraduates studying to be teachers. (NASA Release 91-62; UPI, Apr 24/91; NASA Release 91-64)
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology approved a $14.27 billion space program for the next fiscal year, an increase of nearly six percent over 1991 but $488 million less than President Bush had requested. Included was $1.9 billion for the Space Station with $128.9 million to he added when the National Academy of Sciences comments on NASA's plans to reduce the size of the station. The committee specified that NASA spend $25 million of the Space Station money on developing a return emergency vehicle for Space Station astronauts. It also called for spending $30 million to develop advanced propulsion systems, including the first new Shuttle engine in more than 20 years. Closer scientific cooperation with the Soviet Union and continuation of the Landsat earth-monitoring program were also specified. (AP, Apr 24/91)
The Magellan spacecraft was into the second mapping of Venus, causing scientists to hope the second set of images might reveal changes in the landscape showing volcanic or other activity. (LA Times, Apr 24/91)
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