Aug 17 1993
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, had awarded the Space Shuttle Orbiter Avionics Software contract to IBM Corporation, Houston. The contract was for the development and maintenance of the primary avionics support software, tool development and maintenance, and certification of primary flight software. (NASA Release C93-s)
The Delta Clipper-Experimental (DC-X) rocket's first flight was scheduled for August 18 at White Sands Missile Range in Southern New Mexico. The 42-foot-tall, bullet-shaped DC-X is a one-third scale prototype of single-stage, reusable rocket that would be light enough to reach orbit and return without needing expensive lower stages or boosters that get thrown away on every flight. It would fire its engines to land vertically. The DC-X was developed by McDonnell Douglas with funding by the Federal Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. (AP, Aug 17/93)
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced that the Johnson Space Center, Houston, had been selected as the host center for the new Space Station program, replacing the center at Reston, Virginia. About 220 NASA workers in Reston would be reassigned or offered incentives to retire, the Space Agency said. Local Virginia lawmakers said that they would continue to fight NASA's decision to move the headquarters to Houston. The Boeing Defense and Space Group, based in the Seattle area, was selected as the prime contractor. (NASA Release 93-148; H Post, Aug 17/93; W Times, Aug 18/93; NY Times, Aug 18/93, Aug 19/93; LA Times, Aug 18/93, Aug 19/93; WSJ, Aug 18/93; USA Today, Aug 18/93; W Post, Aug 18/93; RTW, Aug 17/93; AP, Aug 17/93; UPI, Aug 18/93; H Post, Aug 19/93; Space News, Sept 13-19/93)
The New York Times reported that a radio telescope spread across 5,000 miles had been finished. The new telescope, called the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), has 10 antennas scattered across United States territory from the central Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean. All 10 antennas are very well synchronized as a single telescope of gigantic size, an arrangement that gives the VLBA far sharper vision than that of any other telescope. The telescope's revolving power is such that an observer in New York City would be able to read a newspaper in San Francisco. The VLBA was to be used to probe the depths of time and space. (NY Times, Aug 17/93)
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